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Jodi Arias Gets Another Mistrial; Landing in New York's LaGuardia Airport Went Scarily Off Course; Travelers Stuck in Slow Motion Disaster in Kentucky; Attorney General Eric Holder Spoke of Brown's Killing
Aired March 05, 2015 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: I mean, does that say anything? What was it about this case? It wasn't just this one jury that had to decide her fate, this was the second jury.
NANCY GRACE, HLN ANCHOR: One juror, one female juror held up a unanimous verdict in this case.
You know what I think it was? Especially in this case. These jurors indicated that coming into it, this juror had already made up her mind. And I think that, frankly, in the voir dire process, jury selection, I don't think she was honest with the court or herself. I don't think that that juror believes in the death penalty under any circumstance.
CABRERA: One of Alexander's sisters released a statement saying quote "the real justice will be in the afterlife when Jodi burns in hell." What is your reaction to that? I mean, what do you say to this family?
GRACE: You know what? I tell them the truth. That I have been there and been through a murder trial where someone I loved very, very deeply was murdered. Time goes on and the pain never goes away, but you learn how to deal with it day-by-day. And as years passed, Travis will be alive in their mind and Jodi will be a distant memory to them. You know, the way that nature intends -- the way that god intends it, they will heal. But, for right now, this jury is basically prolonged their suffering by not coming up with a verdict way or the life or death.
CABRERA: And now, it's up to the judge to decide whether she will spend the rest of her life in prison or perhaps be eligible for parole in some 25 years.
GRACE: Potentially walk in 25 years. She will still be a young woman.
CABRERA: All right, Nancy Grace, thanks so much for joining me.
Don't forget you can watch Nancy week nights on HLN. That's at 8:00 p.m. eastern.
GRACE: Thank you. CABRERA: Right now, let's go back to our breaking news. A landing in
New York's LaGuardia airport went scarily off course today for Delta flight 1086. This plane skidded off the runway bursting through a fence before stopping, as you can see, just feet from those icy waters. Twenty-four people were hurt. But officials say no injuries were life-threatening. They describe the injuries as mostly minor.
Now, a total of 312 passengers and crew members on board at the time. Some of those passengers said they knew immediately when that plane touched down that something was seriously was wrong saying the jet's wheels had little or no traction.
In the meantime, in Kentucky, different story. Travelers stuck in a slow motion disaster. This snowstorm has turned highways, including interstate 65 into parking lot.
Our next guest has been stuck more than 12 hours and even had to walk two miles for food and water. Joining us now, the Reverend Jeanette Wilson, a senior adviser to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. And I know you've been trapped with his family. His wife is with you as well on the highway. First, how are you holding up?
REVEREND JEANETTE WILSON, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE REVEREND JESSE JACKSON (via phone): Well, we are doing fine. We are prayerful and we know that God is with us in spite of the weather, in spite of the inability of the state official to move the snow and to move the road blocks. We believe that things will get better. We have been on this parking lot on I-65 south since 2:00 a.m. this morning and we have just started moving for the first time.
We have not seen any emergency vehicles deployed by the state. We saw one National Guardsman but not even close to any of the cars or vehicles near us. We have not seen anyone making an assessment of the conditions of the passengers that have been just sitting at a standstill for the last some 12 hours, some 14 hours, some as long as 20 hours.
CABRERA: You must be starving. You must be exhausted.
WILSON: Well, we are a little tired but mentally, I feel those who may have small children, many of them have walked to try to get food and water. Many people are now running out of gas. With we noticed some cars have been abandoned because they have run out of gas.
CABRERA: What have you been doing to try to cope with all of this?
WILSON: Well, you know, we just -- literally, we have been prayerful and keep each other up. At least there is a group of us. We have one young lady, we pushed one young lady out who was near us on our way back from the (INAUDIBLE) gas station to pick up some supplies.
So I feel, you know, we are concerned about the people who are traveling alone on this highway and don't have any support and that is a concern. And we have not heard from any governmental officials since we have been stranded, indicating when we would be moved, what was causing the delay. So apparently this road was shut down early last evening without communicating to motorists to say, don't go any further on I-65 south. We are going to close it because of inclement weather. That was not shared with any motorists. We have hundreds of trucks and cars just ling I-65 south near Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
CABRERA: And we understand that that line goes back possibly up to 50 miles. And so that explains why it is slow going. I want to tell you, though, Reverend Wilson, that we have gotten word that traffic is starting to move there. I'm glad to hear you're starting to move slowly but surely. Hopefully, the end is in sight. We also spoke with the governor of Kentucky who told us that they have sent the National Guard your way and they are making their way there to help rescue some of the folks who are still stranded who may have now run out of gas. So good luck to you, Reverend Janet Wilson. Thank you for joining us.
WILSON: Well, it's -- you can talk to the governor. He needs to send emergency preparedness individuals to motorists to check their status and help them if they have run out of gas and be transported where they can get gas or bring them some gas. Cars are now --
CABRERA: All right. Reverend Jeanette Wilson, I think we lost you there. We will pass along the message. Thank you so much.
Up next a survivor of the Boston marathon bombing took the stand, looked right at the accused bomber and told her story. Then she wrote a heart wrenching lettering saying, I'm not afraid any more. Her emotional words next.
Plus, the chants filled Ferguson, Missouri, then the nation. Hands up, don't shoot. But the justice department just revealed it could not determine whether Michael Brown's hands actually were up when he was shot and killed by a police officer. So what do the founders of the hands up united say about that? I'll talk to one of them coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Hello again. I'm Ana Cabrera.
Just in to CNN, former archbishop of New York Cardinal Edward Egan has died of cardiac arrest in a Manhattan hospital. He was appointed by John Paul, II in may 2000. He retired at 2009. Cardinal Egan was 82 years old.
In Boston, the marathon bombing trial has been rife with extremely emotional, dramatic testimonies. Several witnesses is describing the horror of watching victims that come to the violent attack.
A Boston police officer described trying to save one of the deceived, Boston University grad student, Lindsey Liu. Now, the officer told the jury how she stuck her fingers down Liu's throat to clear her airway but her eyes kept rolling that and out.
Another survivor who took the witness stand talks about losing her leg. She wasn't the only one. She testified that she saw quote "a foot with a little sock on it and realized it belonged to somebody else."
Prosecutors have publicly released gruesome new video of the bombing scene that they shared with the jurors showing the chaos unfolding amid a sea of carnage and wounded victims. We warn you these images are disturbingly graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bomb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Somebody is mangled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out! Get out!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her log is gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all right. You're doing great. I got you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My leg! The back of my leg hurts so bad!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The back of my leg!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll be OK. You're going to be OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her leg, his leg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignore what has happened, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who has got it? Bring it up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This leg here? Look there. Her leg is very bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're OK with that.
Hers is very --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other piece. Leg burned? OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Explosion. Sorry about that, OK? That was really bad. She is bleeding really bad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is she bleeding from anywhere?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blood underneath. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tie it off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay with Gina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have Peter's phone in his wallet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I have it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're be all right, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I can move. I'm with her. Here you go. Here you go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get behind her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Noah! Noah!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got it. All right? Hear me? You're OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: One victim who took the stand yesterday was compelled to go home and to write a very courageous cathartic letter to the suspect.
Rebekah Gregory lost her leg in the bombing and on the stand yesterday she described how she looked down and couldn't see her limbs because her bones were lying next to her on the sidewalk. She had cried out for her young son who had been standing next to her right before the explosion. He also survived. And listen to what she writes. I want to read it for you.
It says, dear Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. My name is Rebekah Gregory. We don't know each other and never will. But over the last two years I have seen your face, not only in pictures but in almost every one of my nightmares. Moments before the first blast, your stupid backpack even brushed up moments before the blast up against my arm. But I doubt you remember because I am no one to you and a stranger to you. And although, I was nearly just a blip on your radar, someone that happened to be standing three feet from your designated good spot for a bomb? You have been so much more to me because I have undoubtedly been my source of fear. You have been my source of fear since April 15th, 2013. After all, you are one of the men responsible for nearly taking my child in to the permanent image embedded in my brain of watching someone die. Up until now, I have been truly scared of you and because of this, fearful of everything else people might be capable of.
But, today, all that changed. Because this afternoon, I got to walk into a courtroom and take my place at the witness stand just a few feet away from where you were sitting. I was walking. Did you get that? And today, I explained all of the horrific details of how you changed my life. To the people that literally hold yours in their hands.
That's little scary, right? And this afternoon, before going in, not going to lie. My palms were sweaty and sitting up there, talking to the prosecution did make me cry. But, today, do you know what else happened? Today, I looked at you right in the face and I realized I wasn't afraid any more.
And, today, I realize that sitting across from you was somehow the crazy kind of step forward I needed all along. And I think that is the ironic thing that happens when someone intends something for evil, because, somehow, some way, it always end up good.
But you are a coward. A little boy who wouldn't even look me in the eyes to see that because you can't handle the fact what you tried to destroy, you only made stronger. And if your eyes would have met mine for just one second, and you would have also seen that what you blew up really did blow up because now you have given me and the other survivors a tremendous platform to help others and essentially do our parts in changing the world for the better.
So, yes, you did take a part of me. Congratulations. You now have a leg up literally. But in so many ways, you saved my life and now I am so much more appreciative of every new day I'm given. And now I get to hug my son even tighter than before and he is thriving, despite everything that has happened.
So now while you are sitting in solitary confinement awaiting the verdict our life, I will actually be enjoying everything this beautiful world has to offer. Guess what else? I will do so without fear of you. Because now, to me, you're a nobody and it is official that you have lost. So, man, that really sucks for you, bro. I truly hope it was worth it. Sincerely, someone you shouldn't of messed with. #Boston strong.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Today, General Eric Holder spoke of Brown's killing as he talked about a separate report how Ferguson police and its courts discriminate against African-American.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Clearly these findings and others included in the report demonstrate that although some community perception of Michael Brown's tragic death may not have been accurate, the widespread conditions that these perceptions were based upon and the climate that gave rise to them were all too real. Some of those protesters were right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: I'm going to turn now to Tory Russell, the co-founder of the group, Hands Up United. Tory, whether Michael Brown's hands were up when he was shot has been
a point of contention for quite some time. It has been sort of the rallying cry of this movement, of protesters in Ferguson and all around the country. But now the justice department is saying officially it's not clear if Brown's hands were up. Does that make you rethink your group's perspective, perhaps even the group's name?
TORY RUSSELL, CO-FOUNDER, HANDS UP UNITED: Of course not. His hands were up. If you ask what the community would say the credible witnesses, there is some static in my ear, his hands were up, even from the initial day of the rest of creative hands up, his hands were up, the witnesses say that and there's enough evidence at least for probable cause to go to a grand jury and beyond that to a real trial.
CABRERA: You say that you still believe his hands were up but when you look at the documents, if you read the report, Tory, it goes through many witness accounts. A lot of those witnesses, some of them recounted their stories, saying they actually weren't at the scene of the crime. They weren't a witness at all. Other witnesses, they told different stories to different people. And they told the media one thing but they told justice department investigators another thing about the circumstances surrounding the event.
And ultimately, all the witnesses combined, even the credible witnesses, could not prove that the hands were up. Some of the witness accounts went against the physical evidence, the ballistics reports and the autopsy reports. So how can you believe maybe one report, the report that is scathing against the Ferguson police department, but not believe the report that cleared Darren Wilson?
RUSSELL: I think -- I even think the report is -- first of all, it's 200 days too late. All the report came from people on the ground. All the Kianas (ph) and the people he spoke about during days and weeks in jail, that's who he's talking about. And the report is actually finding there was no civil rights charges for Darren Wilson but you know, some -- a little bit of ambiguous accountability for Ferguson.
Ferguson is just a microcosm of what's going on in American society which is police is racially biased, stopping people, and it always leads to black and brown people being killed in this country.
CABRERA: I think you bring up -- you bring up a good point. Because Ferguson was a flashpoint in a much bigger issue, like you said. I think a lot of people in the community are now relieved, they feel maybe vindicated by the findings of this second report which also found that police were targeting blacks, generating unfair arrests and tickets all to raise revenue for the city. But do you think the truth would have come out if Michael Brown hadn't been shot to death?
RUSSELL: I don't think so. I think this country has a race problem. The reports show that again, poor black and brown people in this country are not given accountability measures against the system or the police.
CABRERA: What does accountability mean to you? RUSSELL: It means that we are not a case study in Ferguson. That you
don't sweep this under the rug. Chief Jackson, mayor Knowles in Ferguson alone, they need to be fired. If they are using their police officers as a collection agency, then they are violating the constitution said by attorney general Holder, then either that's a racket and they need to be hit with the Rico act or the department along with elected officials need to be fired immediately.
CABRERA: Tory Russell, thank you for coming on. We appreciate it.
This Sunday, don't miss a new episode of the CNN series "Finding Jesus."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: An unprecedented CNN event. He didn't vanish without leaving a trace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time in history, we're able to place these relics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And grasp something that's changed the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This really is the moment of truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: This is the story of Jesus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rock upon which the church is built.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An icon of scientific obsession.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This extraordinary define an archeological piece.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we really have here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did Judas betray Jesus?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody chose to write this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The science does matter. Is this the paranoid (ph) shroud of Jesus?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: What are the clues he left behind? Faith. Fact. Forgery. "Finding Jesus" premiere Sunday night at 9:00 on CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Thanks so much for joining me. That's going to do it. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
