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Zimmerman Will Be out on Bond; Plane Crash in Pakistan; 1979 Missing Child Heats Up; ; Angry Egyptians Mass in Cairo; Rethinking Stand Your Ground; Angela Corey No Stranger to Controversy; Former G.M. V.P. Pushes for Electric Cars

Aired April 20, 2012 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Top the hour. I'm Michael Holmes in for Suzanne Malveaux. Let's get you up to speed on what's happening in your world.

George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin, will be freed from jail. A judge granting Zimmerman a $150,000 bond moments after he took the stand, and apologized to Martin's parents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I did not know if he was armed or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Zimmerman is going to have to wear a monitoring device, also check in with authorities every three days. We're going to go live to Sanford, Florida, just a minute or so from now.

To Pakistan, too, authorities saying at least 50 bodies have now been recovered from the scene of that terrible plane crash. One hundred and thirty-one people, including nine crew members, were on board that flight which was going from Karachi to the capital, Islamabad. The plane crashing just five miles from its destination. Bad weather may have been a factor.

Republicans rally around Mitt Romney at their meeting in Arizona today, and the latest polls show Romney running neck and neck with President Obama. The CNN Poll of Polls is an average of six national surveys, and it shows President Obama with a slight edge, you see it there, 47 percent to Romney's 44 percent. The difference, it's statistically insignificant. It's less than the sampling errors of these surveys, and you can call it a dead heat really

Police in New York tearing up a basement in lower Manhattan right now, looking for clues to the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz. Patz was of the first missing child to be featured on milk cartons across the country. Sources say, a cadaver dog picked up a scent in that building. The property was searched back when Patz first disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAYMOND KELLY, POLICE COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK: I think what's significant now is there's new technologies involved, there's new chemicals, just new techniques that could be used. So ,I think law enforcement, certainly FBI and YPD, are hopefully we can give some comfort to the -- to the parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, let's focus back here now on the Trayvon Martin case. The man who says he killed the unarmed teen in self- defense is going to be let out of jail while he awaits trial. A judge setting a $150,000 bond for George Zimmerman. Now, in a surprise move, Zimmerman actually took the stand. This doesn't happen in these sorts of hearings. He apologized to Martin's parents. The prosecutor not so happy about that. Let's see how it played out in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZIMMERMAN: I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I did not know if he was armed or not. Nothing further, your honor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, I'm sorry, sir, you are not really addressing that to the court. You're doing it here to the victim's family, is that correct?

ZIMMERMAN: They are here in the court, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand, but I thought you were going to address your honor, Judge Lester, not -- so that's really addressed to the family and where the media happens to be, correct, Mr. Zimmerman?

ZIMMERMAN: No, to the mother and the father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And tell me, after you committed this crime and you spoke to the police, did you ever make that statement to the police, sir? That you were sorry for what you had done or their loss?

ZIMMERMAN: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never stated that, did you?

ZIMMERMAN: I don't remember what I said. I believe I did say that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You told that to the police?

ZIMMERMAN: In one of the statements I said that I felt sorry for the family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, that would be recorded because all those conversations were recorded, right?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And our Martin Savidge joins us now from Sanford, Florida, outside the very complex where those proceedings were held. Martin Zimmerman's apology unexpected, to say the least. What was the reaction outside the courthouse?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, Michael, going into this day, we felt that it was going to be certainly interesting as far as this hearing and potentially dramatic. It was every bit of both. And afterwards, the family of Trayvon Martin, his mother and father who were in the courtroom there, came out and they immediately left. They came straight out of the front of the building and normally they do talk to reporters, but this time it was clear they were very upset about how the proceedings went, and they immediately left without saying a word. Now, their attorney did come out and speak, that's Benjamin Crump. He said the family is devastated. Here is more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEJHAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY: All throughout the hearing Tracy Martin had tears in his eyes as he watched the killer of his son. And it was devastating that he got to give a self-serving apology to help him get a bond. They were very outraged at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Now, you may remember that George Zimmerman, apparently through his attorney, had tried to reach out to Trayvon Martin's family several days ago to have some sort of private meeting. Now, we know what that meeting apparently was about which was this chance for George Zimmerman to express an apology. His attorney says they normally would not want him to have done it in such a public way on the stand in a trial or in a courtroom, but the family had turned down the private meeting, so this was the only choice George Zimmerman thought he had to speak to them directly. They were in the courtroom.

HOLMES: Yes, dramatic scenes there. Martin, thanks. Martin Savidge in Sanford. Thanks, Martin.

We are actually going to hear more about this case in a moment, but first want to bring you a rundown of some of the stories we are going to be covering for you over the next hour.

First, the search for a child who disappeared more than 30 years ago while walking to school. New clues in a Manhattan basement.

And I'm going to be talking with the co-sponsor of Florida's stand your ground law as his state starts a task force in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing. And then a CNN investigation into soldiers who say they were diagnosed with personality disorder after reporting that they were sexual assaulted. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. A cold case heating up after 33 years. At this hour, police are searching a Manhattan building for clues to the disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz. Patz's case grabbed the nation's attention when his photo was featured on milk cartons across the country. The first time that had ever been done. He disappeared in 1979 while walking to his bus stop alone for the first time. No suspect was ever charged. His parents never even moved from the neighborhood. They kept the same phone number, so Etan would be able to reach them. He had memorized that number. The case made parents everywhere fear for their children's safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERNIE ALLEN, NATIOAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: But I think it ended an era of innocence in this country. Parents around the nation saw how it happened and thought, there but for the grace of god go I or my child. It really awakened America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And now there are new leads in the case, and as CNN's Susan Candiotti is following the investigation, we're going to go to her and ask what the police are actually looking for in that building and how are they doing it?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an incredible piece of work that they're doing right now. Let me help you get your bearings a little bit. Where I am standing is about a half a block away from where Etan Patz and his parents used to live. His parents still live just a half a block away from the building where all of this excavation work is still going on.

And at this hour, Michael, FBI agents have formed an assembly line, and they're bringing out chunk after chunk of concrete that they have been using jackhammers with to get that out of the basement. As they have been digging down and stripping the walls and digging into that concrete basement. They have set up a grid operation there. Now, here is what we can tell you about what they're doing. They're trying to go, they said, at least four to six feet below the level of that concrete to see whether there's any indication that any earth has been moved. They're bringing out all the debris and they're going to send much of it to the FBI --

HOLMES: Yes, we lost Susan's signal there from New York. Sorry about that. Let's talk more now about the Trayvon Martin case. George Zimmerman, the man who killed the unarmed teenager, is going to be released from jail. He's on bond. We're going to talk about that after the break. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: All right, the Trayvon Martin case, George Zimmerman, the man who killed the unarmed teenager, will be freed from jail, as we have reported, granted that $150,000 bond. I want to bring in CNN Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin now. He only has to come up with the 100 and -- the $15,000 bond which is 10 percent of the 150, which is normal. Does the decision to grant him bond surprise you at all?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It didn't surprise me at all, because the standard is so very high, the burden so very high for the prosecution. So, I suspect that the government knew going into this that that was a real possibility. They did ask for a million dollar bond plus other conditions. So, I am a bit surprised at the $150,000, although we now know after the hearing and hearing all of that evidence that this is a family, at least George Zimmerman's family, of meager means.

HOLMES: Oh, yes

HOSTIN: And so, I suspect the judge took that into consideration when fashioning the $150,000 bail amount.

HOLMES: Yes. It's within the ballpark of what normally happens in these sorts of cases.

HOSTIN: I think that's right.

HOLMES: Yes.

HOSTIN: I think that's right. Although, you know, we have to remember, this is a second-degree murder case. This is a non-bondable offense. He's looking at a maximum penalty of life in prison. And so, in my view, that's why the prosecutor asked for a million dollars and I do think that $150,000, while maybe the norm, was a bit low.

HOLMES: Yes, we actually talked to Mark O'Mara earlier, Zimmerman's attorney, and he said it could be a stretch for them to come up with the 15.

HOSTIN: That's right. That's right.

HOLMES: So, you know, did the prosecution, in your view, come across as unprepared in any way during the proceeding? They seemed to be caught off guard a couple of times.

HOSTIN: Well, I think they certainly may have been caught off guard when George Zimmerman took the stand --

HOLMES: Yes.

HOSTIN: Because that just doesn't happen. But, no, I think what we saw in the courtroom today was two very, very skilled, seasoned attorneys. That's how it should be done. We saw a very gutsy judge, a decisive judge. So I think we saw really, really skillful lawyering today.

HOLMES: Any major points that came out from the hearing to you from a legal standpoint? HOSTIN: For me it was George Zimmerman taking the witness stand --

HOLMES: Right.

HOSTIN: And saying three things. He said, I'm sorry for the loss of your son. OK. But he also said, I thought he was a little younger than me. George Zimmerman is 28 years old. He said on those 911 tapes that he thought that it was a teenager, a kid. So that's an inconsistency that may come back to hurt him. He also said, I did not know if he was armed or not. Well, he said on the 911 -- he said to the police that he shot Trayvon Martin in part because Trayvon Martin was reaching for his gun. And so I think, yet again, another inconsistency. Attorneys always tell clients, do not get on the witness stand. Anything that you say can and will be held against you. I think he may have hurt himself more than helped himself.

HOLMES: Really? Yes, and he says, of course, he made those comments because he'd heard that the parents wanted to hear him say sorry. So, you know, he was --

HOSTIN: That's right.

HOLMES: Yes.

HOSTIN: And the family, I'm told, is devastated that he got out on bond. Devastated. And Tracy Martin was weeping in the courtroom. And so I think they feel that it was a bit disingenuous and time to be considered in terms of getting out on bond.

HOLMES: But in fairness though, when you look across legal precedent or what normally happens in these sorts of cases, he's not been convicted. Would anyone else in a less high-profile case have gotten out on bail? Would that be normal?

HOSTIN: I think so. And, again, I had the -- I suspected from the very beginning that he would be given a bond package because the burden is so very high. In a bond hearing for the prosecution, they have to prove their case almost beyond, beyond a reasonable doubt. So I think there was every indication that he was going to get some sort of bond.

HOLMES: All right, all right, great to see you, Sunny.

Yes, Sunny Hostin there, CNN legal analyst.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

HOLMES: Appreciate it. Running all the way from "Headline News."

HOSTIN: I made it.

HOLMES: You did make it. Good to see you.

All right, an enormous crowd. All Egyptians. All angry. Packing central Cairo today. Have a look at this. Look familiar? Yes, it's Tahrir Square, reminiscent of a year ago, more than a year, when the Egyptian people demanded the ouster of long time President Hosni Mubarak. Well, today, thousands of people turning out from across the political spectrum. You had ultra conservatives, liberals, Islamists, and all of them not happy with the military leaders that took Mubarak's place. And they're worried about the process to choose the next president. That's what this is all about.

Let's go to Cairo now. Ian Lee is there. It is evening now.

Ian, the anger on the streets, it's about candidates, who can run, can't run. A lot of anger and sort of a unity in that anger.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Michael. There were 10 candidates out of the 23 who were barred from running. And in the square today we saw a lot of the supporters of these candidates come out very angry. Some going far as to say, well, we're not going to accept the ruling by the supreme presidential elections commission. We're still going to push for our candidates.

These -- there were other candidates who -- or other people who were supporting their candidates who said, you know, this is just the way things are going and we'll just support the next person. But a lot of anger because a lot of the -- three of the major -- three candidates out of the 10 were major candidates and they -- who could have been the next president of Egypt. So their supporters are definitely disappointed, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, and what's interesting here, too, is that you had this unity, as I said, on this one subject, about candidates, popular ones, being banned from running, but this is a very disparate group and they don't agree on everything. In fact, they don't agree on all that much other than this sort of thing.

LEE: Well, that's right. You know, in this square it's really interesting when you walk into the square because the square is actually very segregated. Like you said earlier, there was -- they were strange bedfellows because this is the first time you had Islamists and liberals going to the square to voice their anger against the supreme council armed forces. But in the square it was very segregated. One group staying to one side, one group staying to the other side. And you really had kind of two different messages from both groups. The liberals, who are pushing more towards the constitution. They want a more -- a constitution that focuses more on individual liberties. Or you had the Islamists, who are mainly angry about their candidates who were unable to run in this upcoming election.

HOLMES: Yes, and the military's reaction to all of this, briefly, Ian?

LEE: Well, the military has kind of kept a low key during all of this. With the ruling that barred those 10 people from running, it was the supreme presidential elections commission that ultimately had made the decision about those people. The army backs that ruling. And also the army recently said that they hope that the constitution, Egypt's new constitution, is able to come to fruition before the presidential election, which is in May. So it's kind of cutting it short. It doesn't look likely right now, but that's what the supreme council armed forces is hoping happens, Michael. HOLMES: Yes, still a very difficult situation in Egypt at times. Ian, thanks so much. Ian Lee there in Cairo.

Well, Florida's Stand Your Ground law has, of course, come under fire after the Trayvon Martin killing. Now the state is looking to make some changes. I'm going to talk to the co-sponsor of that law when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on for you.

Next, a task force in Florida reviews the Stand Your Ground law in the light of the Trayvon Martin killing. We're going to be talking to a state senator who co-sponsored that law.

Then a former chief of General Motors talks to me about the need for electric cars.

And later, a CNN investigation. Female soldiers who say the military gave them a psychological diagnosis instead of taking their claims of sexual assault seriously.

Well, he's not out of jail yet, but the man who killed Trayvon Martin will be getting out in the next day or so. A judge today granting George Zimmerman a $150,000 bond. He's going to have to wear a monitoring device and will also have to check in with authorities every three days right up until his trial. He is, of course, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of the unarmed teenager. He unexpectedly took the stand and apologized to Martin's parents during the hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, DEFENDANT: I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I did not know if he was armed or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The lawyer for Trayvon Martin's parents quick to express outrage over Zimmerman's apology. Benjamin Crump calling it self- serving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR TRAYVON MARTIN'S FAMILY: Zimmerman makes this self-serving apology in court 50 days later. The Real George Zimmerman website, and you all have reviewed it, never once said I'm sorry. Why today? When he made all those statements to the police, why not show remorse there if he was sincerely apologetic for killing this unarmed child?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And Zimmerman, of course, said that he did make an apology in the interviews with police, just to clarify that.

Now, the Trayvon Martin case, of course, has triggered this ongoing national debate over Florida's Stand Your Ground law, and similar legislation in other states as well. Joining us now from Gainesville, Florida, Dennis Baxley. He is a Florida state representative who actually co-authored Stand Your Ground and now sits on a task force created to review the law.

And welcome to you, sir. Does -- did you -- when you co-authored this, did you ever think that this law would apply in this sort of situation?

DENNIS BAXLEY, FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, I definitely knew there would always be some close calls and decisions to make, but I have maintained from the early days of this situation occurring that there's nothing in our statute that provides for pursuit, confront, or provoke. And I have maintained that from the very first. And I think the fact that Mr. Zimmerman was charged was actually redemption of my understanding of that statute in explaining it that way. So he could be charged (ph). There may be other self defense that he can make.

HOLMES: So what -- why did you think it was needed in the first place?

BAXLEY: Well, the reason we need it is because there needs to be a presumption on the side of victims of violence. This statute was about protecting law-abiding citizens who are doing nothing wrong, who come under a violent attack. And they shouldn't have to go through an episode of wondering if they're going to be charged for a crime or have to defend themselves before a court when they're simply defending themselves from a violent attack. That was nestled in the fact that right after the five hurricanes, we had looting going on and we had a specific incident in Pensacola where an intruder did come in on someone in an RV who was simply trying to protect their property. And there was months before he knew whether or not he would be charged with a crime for simply defending his property.

HOLMES: Yes, well you -- I mean educate me on that. I mean, in Florida, under state law, do you not have the ability to defend yourself if you feel you're at risk? Is it not self-defense?

BAXLEY: Well, you could make those arguments, but it was always up to the prosecutor to decide how they wanted to proceed. And there was no presumption in the law. In fact, the whole castle doctrine idea, that your home is your castle and that if someone comes in you have a right to defend, was really from common law and there was no canonization of that into a statute.

And so by doing that, we moved that presumption in the direction of the victim of violence. And since that time, since 2005, we've seen 120,000 less violent crimes committed in Florida. I don't claim all the credit for that, but I think it was part of a mosaic of good policy. What we proved is, if you empower people to stop violent acts from occurring, they can and they will.

HOMES: A lot of the critics, of course, say that the law is vague. It creates a dangerous environment where people might feel that they can commit an act of violence and then say I felt threatened and that's that. What do you say to that criticism?

BAXLEY: Well, I think one thing that could come out of this tragedy, if anything good can come out of it, and I pray it does, is that there will be a clearer articulation of when to use this defense. Obviously there will be people try to use it that it doesn't apply to. But the statue's really very clear that it's for a law abiding citizen who's in their home or their vehicle or somewhere they have a right to be and they suffer a violent attack. I think it's very important that we stand with the 20 million citizens of Florida and say, look, if you're under attack, we're going to stand by you and you're not going to have to defend yourself for stopping that violence. They have seconds to decide are they going to be a victim or are they not, and --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Part of the discussion is going to be --

(CROSSTALK)

BAXLEY: -- so we put the presumption in the condition.

HOLMES: I guess part of the discussion is whether there are already existing laws that give you the right to defend yourself. If somebody is carjacking you or pointing a gun at your head, one imagines you do have the right to defend yourself.

You are on the task force for the governor. What do you hope to accomplish with that task force?

BAXLEY: Well, the purpose of the task force is really broader, and that is to review public safety and protection for our people. That will, of course, involve a discussion about Stand Your Ground and how it's been interpreted and utilized out there where it meets the road in the judicial community.

But I think we're going to find that it has been a success and that it has protected people from harm, and it could even protect people like Trayvon Martin and others, who are simply doing nothing but minding their own business and come under attack, if that's the narrative that plays out.

I think, of course, there's always going to be some close calls on how those facts come together and that's why there's always an investigation.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dennis Baxley, Florida state representative, thanks so much. Appreciate your time.

BAXLEY: Thank you. Appreciate you.

HOLMES: Well, the prosecutor bringing charges against George Zimmerman, no stranger to controversy. Angela Corey charged a 12- year-old as an adult in a murder case. We're digging deeper on that decision and why call it a travesty.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: A major development today as we've been reporting in the Trayvon Martin case. That Florida judge setting a $150,000 bond for George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed the unarmed Florida teen. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder. Some legal analysts believe the prosecutor may have made a misstep by not charging Zimmerman with a lesser crime, like manslaughter. The second-degree murder is going to be hard to prove, they say.

Well, it's not the first time Angela Corey has been accused of overcharging a defendant.

Here is CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 12-year-old, in the oversized inmate uniform, is not a boy in the eyes of State Attorney Angela Corey. She declared Christian Fernandez should be tried as an adult in a first-degree murder charge, which carries the mandatory penalty upon conviction with life in prison without parole.

He sits with adult inmates in court. He's addressed as an adult by the judge.

UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: Mr. Fernandez, you have discussed with your attorney your right to a speedy trial?

CHRISTIAN FERNANDEZ, HELD AS AN ADULT: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: OK.

TUCHMAN: And for the first few weeks of his imprisonment, he sat in this adult jail in solitary confinement, the youngest person in Florida to be charged as an adult for murder.

A judge did ultimately rule he could be held in a juvenile facility while still being tried as an adult.

This is what Angela Corey said last year when he was arrested.

ANGELA COREY, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: And it will be a very dramatic, to say the least, sight to see a 12-year-old who looks like a 12-year-old appear in adult court, but we want the public to understand at this point we have no choice.

TUCHMAN: No choice? Many people vehemently disagree, such as the man who had the state attorney job before her and decided not to run for re-election. Harry Shorstein was Angela Corey's boss.

HARRY SHORSTEIN, FORMER FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY: No, I clearly think the decision was a travesty.

TUCHMAN: And then this man, the former president of the American Bar Association, the former president of Florida State University, and a current professor in the university's law school. SANDY D'ALEMBERTE, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION & FORMER PRESIDENT, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: This is off the charts in terms of overcharging in my judgment.

TUCHMAN: Christian Fernandez is accused of killing his 2-year- old brother, David, by pushing him twice into a bookshelf. He also broke his leg one time before. But all acknowledge that Christian had been abused for much of his life, particularly by his stepfather, who committed suicide when he found out he was going to be arrested for that abuse.

(on camera): Then there's the story of Christian's mother. She gave birth to Christian when she, too, was 12 years old. She was away when he assaulted his brother. When she came home and saw her 2-year- old was seriously hurt, she waited eight hours before getting medical attention. For doing that, she, too, is implicated in this case. She pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter. But her 12-year-old son got the far more serious charge.

(voice-over): Listen to what Angela Corey said last year about why she charged the 12-year-old, who had no previous arrest record, as an adult.

COREY: At what point do you step in and just come down hard so that you prevent a future murder? And that's how we felt in this case. If we don't intervene now and do the right thing and do the tough thing, whether people think, you know, it's the just thing to do because of his age. We have to protect the public from this young man.

TUCHMAN: Preventing a future murder.

Angela Corey would not talk to us on camera.

But a prosecutor who will try the case in court would. So I asked him about that comment.

(on camera): Was that an unfortunate choice of word?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: I don't necessarily believe it was an unfortunate choice of words. I believe --

(CROSSTALK)

TUCHMAN: Does she have a crystal ball? How would you know you're preventing a future murder?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Unfortunately, some of the background and information in this case we cannot discuss.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): What about Angela Corey saying she is doing the tough thing?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Our role as constitutional officers is not to be tough. It's to do what's right. TUCHMAN: But she said here, "We need to intervene now and do the right thing and the tough thing, whether people think it's the just thing to do because of his age, we have to protect the public." She's saying the opposite.

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: No.

(CROSSTALK)

TUCHMAN: -- interpreting it?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: I think you're misinterpreting it. The tough thing she's saying right there is the difficult decision that she had to make.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Angela Corey says she'd like to reach a plea bargain so Christian Fernandez doesn't spend his entire life in prison. But if there is no plea bargain, that could happen.

SHORSTEIN: I think she wants to be our equivalent to the sheriff in phoenix who keeps the people in tents in 110 degrees.

D'ALEMBERTE: I don't know of a single 12-year-old that's capable of forming the kind of intent that would be necessary to sustain a first-degree murder conviction.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Christian Fernandez's defense attorneys are working for free and, not wanting to anger the prosecution team, have decided not to comment for the story.

(on camera): When you sleep at night, are you comfortable with this decision?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Absolutely. I can go home, I can look my family, my 12-year-old in the face, and feel comfortable that what we are doing in the prosecution of Christian Fernandez is the right thing.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Plenty you could talk about there.

Americans need to get green. That is the message from a former V.P. of General Motors. We're going to talk to him about his push for electric cars and his new book on green energy. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. Organizers say a billion people will participate in the 42nd Annual Earth Day this weekend and a big push in the green energy movement has been towards electric cars.

Bob Lutz spent 47 years as a leader in the auto industry. His book is "Car Guys Versus Bean Counters." Bob, you worked with many of the gas-powered car makers. You said in the past you're not a believer of global warming. So why your interest in electric vehicles?

BOB LUTZ, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF GENERAL MOTORS & AUTHOR: It doesn't matter what I believe about the origins of climate change, but for sure we want to keep the planet green. We want to keep it healthy. We want to conserve natural resources, and a big motivator for me is to protect domestic energy resources and make the U.S. energy independent and get us exploiting all the domestic energy we can and moving a lot of the mobile sector to electricification.

HOLMES: Why do you think that people have been slow in many ways to embrace electric cars? Is it the cost? Is it the performance? What is it?

LUTZ: Well, up to now electric cars are more expensive, especially cars like the Chevrolet Volt because they have a gasoline engine to power the car once the battery is down. And the price of batteries is still high. But as you go into full-sized pickup trucks, like VIA Motors, who demonstrated their trucks in Times Square this morning, the combination of the price of the truck plus the price of fuel will be lower than a conventional fuel. I think now there will be market demand driving it rather than a desire to participate in the green movement.

HOLMES: Electric cars have been around since the turn of the 20th century. There's always been a conspiracy theory that people were holding them down because they wanted to keep the combustion engine going. You worked in the industry for 47 years. What did you think of that old conspiracy theory?

LUTZ: Well, all of the conspiracy theories are just that, they're conspiracy theories. Automobile companies don't produce fuel. Automobile companies are fuel neutral. They'll make the cars run on toothpaste if somebody passes a law and says they have to run on toothpaste. So car companies don't care. And car companies are no fonder of big oil than the general public is.

HOLMES: So why is it then? They have been around for years. We should all be driving them.

LUTZ: The problem with electric vehicles traditionally is, one, range, because up until recently, you couldn't store enough energy in batteries to get a reasonable range. And then there's the other issue, is the cost of the batteries. Cost of the batteries are coming down -- is coming down and the energy density of batteries is going up. So we're starting to see the first electric vehicles now, and again the VIA full-sized pickup truck is the first of many to come, where the actual all-in cost of ownership is lower than it is for conventional vehicles. When that happens, it's going to tip over very fast.

HOLMES: Great to talk to you, Bob. I wish we could talk more.

Bob Lutz. The book is "Car Guys Versus Bean Counters." Thanks so much.

LUTZ: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. U.S. military says it has a no-tolerance policy for sex assault, but a CNN investigation has found female soldiers who say they were sexual assaulted and turned away, even given a psychological diagnosis. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The military has long come under fire for ignoring sexual assaults. Well, this week the Pentagon's top man, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, announced a new crackdown. The main change, accusations will be investigated by senior officers, not just unit commanders. The Pentagon estimates last year alone there were about 19,000 sex assaults, most were unreported, and, of course, unpunished.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with several former servicewomen who all shared a sadly similar story -- once they reported an assault, they were drummed out of the military.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doing the right thing was in 21-year-old Stephanie Schroeder's blood.

STEPHANIE SCHROEDER, RAPPED IN MILITARY: I joined shortly after 9/11. I thought it was the right thing to do.

GUPTA: Six months after enlisting in the Marines, she found herself training at a base 23 in Virginia. One Saturday, she decided to blow off steam with some fellow Marines.

SCHROEDER: We went out to dinner. I got up to go to the restroom, and my attacker followed me and forced his way into the bathroom. I went to pull the door shut, and he grabbed it and flung it back as hard as he could and charged into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

GUPTA: Back on base, Schroeder reported what happened to the officer in charge.

SCHROEDER: I told her I need to report an assault and she just looked at me, and then she started laughing and said, don't come bitching to me because you had sex and changed your mind.

GUPTA: Schroeder said she took a lie detector test about her attack and passed. But charges were never filed. She was forced to work with him side by side for over a year. Meanwhile, her rank was reduced and her pay was docked. She says all because of the incident.

SCHROEDER: If you want to keep your career, you don't say anything. You just bear it. You just deal with it.

GUPTA: But dealing was a struggle. In early 2003, five months pregnant with her now husband in Iraq, Schroeder felt suicidal. She went to see an on base psychologist.

SCHROEDER: The first time, he was very nice. The second time, we got into the assault. Shortly after that, the chain of command said we're starting an administrative discharge on you.

GUPTA: She received her discharge papers. The reason given, personality disorder. A disorder that the textbook for psychiatrists defines as a long-standing pattern of maladaptive behavior beginning in adolescence or early adulthood.

ANU BHAGWATI, SERVICE WOMEN'S ACTION NETWORK: It makes no sense for people medically to be diagnosed, all of a sudden, after being sexual assaulted as an adult in the military, to say, no, you've had this all along.

GUPTA: Anu Bhagwati is a former Marine and also executive director of Servicewomen's Action Network. It's a veterans advocacy group.

BHAGWATI: It's also extremely convenient to slap a false diagnosis on a young woman or man and then just get rid of them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (on camera): That's really at the heart of this. Are these false diagnoses being used as an excuse essentially to discharge these soldiers. We had a chance to talk to the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about this specifically. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Obviously our goal here is to try to put in place here what we need in order to deal with these cases moving forward. There are procedures within the Department of Defense that allow these individuals to raise these concerns and determine whether or not they have not been treated fairly. And I hope they'll follow those procedures to determine whether or not that has been the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: And the Pentagon also said, Michael, that they can file a -- they can file an appeal, which Stephanie Schroeder is doing, to see, in fact, if there is a case there.

HOLMES: On the face of it, it would seem very frightening that this would happen. Does that happen a lot? And does it impact their benefits?

GUPTA: I think so. You know, I mean, the numbers -- I learned some of these new numbers just over the past several days. Between the years 2001-2010, for example, 31,000 people were discharged from the military based on a diagnosis of personality disorder, men and women alike. Not obviously involved with sexual assault as the case was in these five women, but what is interesting is that personality disorder itself is usually a chronic diagnosis, something that comes along in adolescence, early adulthood, not in response to a traumatic event as was the case here. For example, the G.I. Bill, they may not be eligible for that. And if you have a pre-exist conditioning it can be hard to get health benefits from the V.A. or other health organizations.

HOLMES: If they can diagnosis when they want to get out of the military, why didn't they catch it when they enlisted?

GUPTA: That's a big question. Obviously, the amount of screening that's done psychologically to these soldiers before we put them in the field, I mean, this is something you've covered a great deal. Most would say even in the highest levels it's been inadequate certainly up until now. In 2000, there was hearings on this very subject. They said at least a psychiatrist had to make the diagnosis. But before that, that wasn't even necessarily mandatory. That a doctor trained in this area would, in fact, confirm the diagnosis.

HOLMES: I think that's scandalous.

Good to see you, my friend.

GUPTA: You, too.

HOLMES: Good to see you doing reporting. You're never around. I never see you.

GUPTA: I love to see you.

HOLMES: Yes. All right. We'll catch up.

Sanjay is going to have more on this story tomorrow, also Sunday, 7:30 a.m. eastern, "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." I watched it last week. It was jolly good, too.

There's blood being shed in the streets in Syria. The U.N. trying to figure out how to make a cease-fire stick. It isn't even a cease-fire anymore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All sides to the conflict in Syria agree to a ceasefire. But at least 43 people killed just today in street fighting and bombings across the country and at least one public demonstration was shot down by armed Syria troops. It's something this agreement was mean to allow, peaceful demonstrations. All of this while the United Nations is deciding how to get tougher on the Syria government and force it to stand by the cease fire.

Also, today, an advance team of U.N. monitors in Syria. Ivan Watson is in Istanbul, watching development from across the border.

These aren't many monitors and obviously the fighting is not stopping. We've talked about this before. Is it even a cease fire anymore? We have the same numbers we had before the supposed cease fire. IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's incredible, when you think there's only about six or seven of these monitors in the country, and last night they announced they're not doing any patrols today. Why? Because Friday is the traditional day of protest in Syria for more than a year now. It's when peoples, towns and villages, from the north to the south of the country, come out and they say we do not want this government. Routinely, the government security forces shoot at them. The monitors said we're not going to go out because it could get too crazy and we don't want it to be used for propaganda purposes, which is a big omission. Instead, what we saw were, at one of the protests, a couple of guys that looked like U.N. monitors. They had blue berets, blue vests. Their uniform said U.N. on them, but they weren't observers. We called those guys and they told us they dressed up in mock costumes to look like U.N. observers with cotton sticking out of their ears to show that the whole world has turned a deaf ear to the dying and the bleeding that continues to go on in Syria -- Michael?

HOLMES: The sort of way this is continuing on, despite the cease fire. The death toll is just the same as they were before.

Ivan, good to see you, as always.

Ivan Watson there in Istanbul.

And CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Brooke Baldwin.