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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Carol Anne Gotbaum Death; Manhunt Under Way for Gunman Who Killed Two Guards in Philadelphia

Aired October 04, 2007 - 23:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The woman you see in the videotape we're about to show you a surveillance tape died just a few minutes later in a holding cell at the Phoenix Airport. But how she died, how Carol Anne Gotbaum died while handcuffed and shackled remains a mystery. Now tonight you can judge for yourself whether the police acted properly. We're going to examine it with an expert and dig deeper into the other facts of the case.
Also ahead tonight, another surveillance camera catches yet more brutality on the violence streets of Philadelphia. The gunman who killed two guards still at large. A big manhunt underway right now. More than 300 murders this year alone in Philadelphia. What is responsible? Who is accountable? We're "Keeping Them Honest."

And Senator Larry Craig makes it definite. He is definitely not resigning even though he said he would if a judge upheld his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting. Somewhere a Democrat is smiling.

All those stories ahead. We begin with a video of Carol Anne Gotbaum's final moments alive. Today authorities released this surveillance tape showing her at the Phoenix Airport. That's her where you see the circle. She's already screaming before police arrive, on her way to an alcohol treatment facility, she was. There's no sound to the tape but witnesses told us and police also say she was screaming I'm not a terrorist.

The latest development comes as Gotbaum's body is being brought back home here to New York, complete autopsy results are not in yet. But the family's attorney says she was manhandled. Today the police turned to the same tape that you just saw to show you she was not.

CNN's Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A few but not all of the last moments of Carol Anne Gotbaum's life preserved in pictures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earlier in the video...

JOHNS: Three camera angles caught the action but there's no audio. Still, it's clear the woman is making a scene. In a moment one camera shows she's on the floor, taken down and handcuffed. Two other cameras show her being taken away, apparently stiff-legged. Police say they found no violations of policy or procedures so far and the investigation is still ongoing. Whatever the video shows, there are things it clearly doesn't, like what happened in a holding cell when she was placed handcuffed and shackled to a bench. She was later discovered and pronounced dead after attempts to revive her failed. Police say she was left there alone for between six to eight minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They heard her yelling and screaming the whole time, so and that was within earshot of the officers that were there. We do not have cameras inside of holding cells. We're prohibited to do that by policy.

JOHNS: The family's lawyer says that's a big problem. He says they should never have left her alone and there should have been a camera in the look-up to be the final record of what happened in confinement.

MICHAEL MANNING, GOTBAUM FAMILY ATTORNEY: Unfortunately, there's no video in that portion of the airport so that we can tell. And more unfortunately Carol's not here to tell us one way or the other.

JOHNS: A police department policy manual says audio and video recording of detainees is not permitted in the lock-up to protect detainees' privacy. Today the husband of Carol Anne Gotbaum's arrived in Phoenix to take her body back to New York City, and there was even controversy over the body itself. While the county medical examiner's office permitted an independent autopsy by a pathologist who was hired by the family, the family's lawyer said certain organs, the brain, the neck, and the heart, were not turned over for independent examination.

MANNING: We don't know why. What we were told is that they were too busy. And that's a hard thing to hear under those circumstances. Because our pathologist had to leave that afternoon and they knew that. So we were on a serious time pressure -- under serious time pressure to get that autopsy done and get it done completely.

JOHNS: The Maricopa County medical examiner could not be reached for comment. One former medical examiner who has handled his share of high profile cases is Dr. Jonathan Arden of Washington, D.C. He said it is not uncommon for certain body parts to be held back for further study. In a case like this, however, there's a danger.

JONATHAN ARDEN, FORMER MEDICAL EXAMINER: You really need to be particularly careful about the release of information, not to look like you're hiding something, not to give anybody the false impression or any impression that they're not getting the full story.

JOHNS: And transparency here is part of the reason police held this news conference and released the video.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Joe, I understand there were some written reports released to the media. Do they shed any more light on what exactly happened in that holding room?

JOHNS: Well it's interesting. It's a stack and it's really pretty extraordinary, as if they're sort of following the Jonathan Arden rule that was just articulated. There are all kinds of stuff. And one of the things they do talk about, they say that she was very agitated inside the holding room that she was screaming at officers, that she was yelling at them, that she had to be forced up against a wall so that the police could remove her personal effects. And even had to be forced down under the bench where she was handcuffed and shackled. So there were some other reports, of course, that she was listless going into the hold-up, apparently not so if these reports are right. Anderson.

COOPER: There was also talk that Ms. Gotbaum's husband, Noah, called police communications a couple of times to find out about his wife. Do we have any more on that?

JOHNS: That's correct. There are transcripts in here of conversations between Noah Gotbaum and people in communications, as well as some people with the airlines. One of the things, interestingly enough, he apparently said to people on the phone twice I count that he said he believed his wife was suicidal. Now, his lawyer says Carol Gotbaum never tried to commit suicide. However, he was very concerned about her welfare. There are also several indications here that the authorities believed Carol Gotbaum had been drinking, nonetheless, no one said they smelled alcohol on her breath, Anderson.

COOPER: Just looking at this tape she was clearly yelling out, even before police got there. That's what the eyewitnesses we had talked to also said. Joe, appreciate the reporting. We want to give you a closer look at the security tape and let you decide if the police acted appropriately when they first confronted Carol Anne Gotbaum last Friday. Today when authorities released the tape they provided a play-by-play account of what they claim unfolded last Friday. Watch the tape and listen to what the police were saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF SGT. MIKE POLOMBO, PHOENIX POLICE DEPT.: You can see by -- the video doesn't have any audio. However, based upon witness statements she's screaming at the top of her lungs, I'm not a terrorist, I'm not a terrorist. There are some TSA personnel over here who will make contact with her. As you can see, he's doing that now. And he's trying to calm her down.

Earlier in the video you could see passengers looking back that way to see what the commotion is. She's still yelling and screaming. Two more TSA people come up to make contact with her in an attempt to calm her down. First officer arrives right here, responding to the call from the gate agent. He makes contact with Ms. Gotbaum and begins to talk to her in an attempt to calm her down, find out what the problem is.

Two additional officers follow him. She's continuing to yell at the top of her lungs, and then finally, after they have no alternative, they attempt to affect an arrest. She pulls away from the officers initially, and two officers grab both arms of her, and she just goes to the ground, as you can see they went down to the ground with her to ensure that she wasn't injured on the way down. She's placed on her stomach and they're having a hard time pulling her right arm from underneath her stomach, which was pinned against the ground. They roll her over to the right a little bit which pops her arm out and both handcuffs are placed on her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Joining me to talk about the videotape, CNN security analyst, Mike Brooks. Mike, what do you make of this tape from what you just saw of the initial encounter between police and Ms. Gotbaum?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Anderson, I see absolutely no -- all police procedures followed. They didn't use excessive force in my opinion, after 26 years of law enforcement, after then I got out I was in training of law enforcement. From this tape, Anderson, it looks like they did everything they could to try to calm her down, and then she was still combative, put her on the ground, handcuffed her and it shows even after taking her away in handcuffs she locked her legs up and they had to drag her away. But we didn't see any use of any taser, no pepper spray, in my opinion no excessive force was used here, Anderson.

COOPER: I want to play -- we spoke to two eyewitnesses earlier this week whose accounts vary from a little bit from what police told us today. Let's listen to some of what the eyewitnesses said to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF PAIGE HARMON, WITNESSED GOTBAUM ARREST: One of the officers ran towards her and grabbed her. And then the two other officers came up and they -- one threw her to the ground. And then they -- it was as if they were tackling her. One of them pulled their arm -- her arm behind her with extreme force. I thought that they were going to -- or they had separated her shoulder. It looked very, very forceful. Anyway, and then they in all of this, somebody -- one of the officers leaned down and pressed on her back, and then all of them were on her, almost like they did a football tackle hold, and they got the -- they got the handcuffs on her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Mike, what do you make of that?

BROOKS: Well, whenever a civilian, someone who's not in law enforcement sees an incident like this, it's not a pleasant thing to see. But I can tell you, it all started with her being denied boarding because of her behavior on a flight and that's what got her even more agitated that led to her arrest. But as we see the officers approach here, they go to grab her, she pulls away.

And you're not just going to take somebody and tussle with them there. They're going to go ahead and put her on the ground. I don't see any slamming on the ground that that person described. We see the person go to the ground; they go to the ground with her. And then usually -- they are trained to tell her to put her hands behind her back. We heard the spokesperson say that they had to pull her hand back.

COOPER: Which is clearly resisting...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: And even when they're walking, should she have been left alone in a cell?

BROOKS: Well Anderson, when she went back, they didn't know her personal issues. And to them, she didn't seem like she was a harm to herself. There have been many times, Anderson that I myself have had prisoners put them in a holding cell and they'll holler and scream and usually they'll calm down. They put her -- they had her handcuffed behind her back. There is also -- apparently about a 24-inch shackle with a handcuff device on either end of that. They put that onto her handcuffs where she was handcuffed behind her back.

COOPER: And how was it possible for someone though to -- I mean strangle themselves, if that is what happened, or that's what allegedly happened. I mean if they're handcuffed behind their back how do you end up dying of suffocation?

BROOKS: Well many times I've seen people -- actually when I get people to the station that have been in the back of my patrol car I've seen them step through their cuffs just with regular handcuffs on with just a little separation, but they're attached to that -- attached to a desk with an eye-bolt was a 24-inch shackle and she worked her way apparently, got the cuffs in front of her and somehow this shackle chain worked her way across her throat and apparently that's how she strangled.

COOPER: Still autopsy results, awaiting that. Mike Brooks, appreciate your expertise. Thanks Mike.

BROOKS: Thank you, Anderson.

COOPER: We're going to continue following this case. We to want hear from you. What do you think after seeing this videotape, do you think police at the Phoenix Airport used excessive force in that initial confrontation because frankly that's all we know right now? What do you think happened?

Send us an e-mail by going to CNN.com/360, clicking on the link to our blog. We'll read some of your responses later in this hour.

First though, 360 takes you to the city of brotherly love, at least that's what it says on the T-shirts but these days you might want to be wearing some Kevlar underneath those T-shirts. An armored car heist today ended up with two guards getting gunned down and a massive manhunt is now underway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: From armored car massacres to random shootings, a city drowning in blood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Philadelphia getting it done is about as easy as ordering a pizza.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are guns flooding the streets here in Philadelphia?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they are.

COOPER: And that's not all. We're investigating what's turning Philadelphia into murder USA, investigating and "Keeping Them Honest".

Later, busted in the men's room but staying in the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Larry Craig is a real nightmare for the Republicans right now and all this Craig thing does is exasperate the base of the party.

COOPER: And now he's a lingering nightmare, but he is also right?

All the angles, 360 coming up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Surveillance pictures capturing a gunman trying to rob and ultimately gunning down a pair of armored car guards who were servicing an ATM in Philadelphia. The manhunt is underway for the killer and the one person who lives near the crime scene told a local reporter in this neighborhood anything can happen, saddling Philadelphia these days that applies to almost anywhere in town. The city has seen a spike in violent crime, 308 murders so far this year. We're going to look at some of the reasons why shortly.

First, CNN's Jim Acosta on today's deadly heist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Draped in white sheets the bodies of the two slain security guards lay just feet from their bullet riddled armored carrier. The motive was money no matter what.

COMM. SYLVESTER JOHNSON, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPT.: Obviously whatever he did today, he intended on assassinating people and he did.

ACOSTA: These are the victims; both retired Philadelphia police officers, each with more than 20 years on the force. And this is the killer, opening fire on his victims before calmly looking for his bounty. The ambush was brazen and it happened in broad daylight. At about 8:00 a.m. the armored car rolled up to the Wachovia Bank next to a mall right in the middle of morning rush hour. While one guard remained inside the van, his two colleagues left to collect the cash out of this ATM. That's when the gunman struck. A security camera captures the moment he pulled the trigger.

JOHNSON: Unidentified black male comes up around the side of him on the left-hand side, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) shooting the male and fatally wounding him, fatally killing him. He then goes around the pole, shoots the other guard. He is also fatally wounded.

ACOSTA: The gunman wasn't finished. He shot at the armored car, shattering the glass and wounding the third guard. He left with an unknown amount of cash and a black Acura with tinted windows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a black male wearing a yellow baseball cap, black -- a logo on it, black short sleeve shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, black gloves, armed with a black handgun.

ACOSTA: Authorities are asking for help in finding the suspect, hoping someone will recognize him in the surveillance pictures and bring to justice a man who executed two people who were just doing their jobs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Jim, the police commissioner has come under a lot of criticism for the way he's handling the high crime rate in the city. How did he respond to today's incident?

ACOSTA: Well, this commissioner has offered the extraordinary and very controversial proposal to put 10,000 volunteers on the street to patrol the city's most violent neighborhoods but he said today even 20,000 volunteers probably would not have made a difference this morning. But the commissioner also took the nation's presidential candidates to task today, saying they need to pay more attention to the issue of gun control -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jim Acosta. Appreciate it. Hold-ups involving armored vehicle are actually very rare in America. Here is the raw data. The FBI reports 37 armored vehicle incidents in 2006, 30 involve the use of a firearm; overall more than $4 million were taken. The one person killed though in the armored car incident in 2006 was actually a suspect.

Here is some other raw data. Pennsylvania lawmakers have voted year after year to loosen state gun laws. Most of the legislators did not represent big cities, but one of them does. What's more, he led the charge to make it impossible for those same cities, in this case Philadelphia, to enact their own tougher regulations.

CNN's Randi Kaye now looking at all the angles in a debate with deadly stakes, "Keeping Them Honest".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SOUNDS)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Philadelphia, getting it done is about as easy as ordering a pizza.

(on camera): Are guns flooding the streets here in Philadelphia?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they are. KAYE (voice-over): Each week, Ray Jones, along with other community volunteers, work to convince those most at risk of being shot or shooting someone to make smarter choices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about survival. People are dying in the streets and we need to help.

KAYE: That help, Jones says, isn't coming from the states. More than 85 percent of the hundreds of murders in Philadelphia this year have been committed with a firearm. Jones blames state lawmakers for failing to pass tougher gun laws and preventing cities like Philadelphia from setting their own gun laws, even though they desperately want to.

RAY JONES, JR., MEN UNITED FOR A BETTER PHILA.: It really would be appropriate for the city to determine its own sort of destiny. Now our hands are sort of handcuffed.

KAYE: Back in 1994 a power struggle started when the Legislature overturned an assault weapons ban making AK-47s as easy to get as hunting rifles. The next year rules were eased on concealed weapons. And Vincent Fumo, state senator and gun owner, pushed through the Uniform Firearms Act making all gun laws uniformed for the state of Pennsylvania.

(on camera): A lot of people say that that's what -- it's this act that took away the power from the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they're misinformed. They're misinformed on that.

KAYE: In 1995 there were fewer than 800 applications for concealed weapons here. "Keeping Them Honest", we checked, and today there are 29,000 permits to carry. And it's against the law for police to ask anyone why they want one. One law enforcement source told me, permits to carry are being passed out like candy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like the wild west.

KAYE: Constitutional law professor David Kairys believes if Philadelphia had home rules a lot would change, guns would have to be registered and licensed and there would be a limit on gun purchases. The way the law stands now...

DAVID KAIRYS, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: You could buy 50, 100, whatever your credit card will take. Then you can resell them.

KAYE: Kairys thinks there would be stiffer penalties for so- called straw purchasers too who legally buy guns only to sell them to those who can't.

(on camera): There's no way of telling just how many legal or illegal guns are on the street. Police have no way of knowing since state law doesn't require gun owners register their weapons. Each year Philadelphia police recover about 7,000 guns. So many guns they're running out of room. (voice-over): And so many shootings police have a backlog of weapons to examine.

(SHOTS)

KAYE: Test fire...

(SHOTS)

KAYE: ... and trace back to the trigger man.

VINCENT FUMO (D), PENNSYLVANIA STATE SENATE: People want to think that this is the Wild West, we don't have any laws. What we don't have is enforcement of those laws.

KAYE: Senator Fumo argues tougher gun laws alone won't stop shootings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last time I checked we had a law against murder. It doesn't prevent people from killing people.

KAYE: The governor, the mayor...

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: ... the D.A., they all want stricter gun laws here.

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: They say that's the only way...

FUMO: It's a great way to get away from enforcement. It's a great way of avoiding the issue of hiring more police.

KAYE: So the tug of war over lawmaking continues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a shooting gallery.

KAYE: And so does the killing.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: We're following several other stories tonight, Gary Tuchman joins us with 360 Bulletin -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, good evening to you. There is a chance no Americans will face trial on murder charges in the biggest case involving civilian deaths in Iraq. The Pentagon says an investigating officer has recommended murder charges be dropped against Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich for lesser charges of negligent homicide. The case involves allegations that Marines killed up to two dozen Iraqis in the town of Haditha in November of 2005. At a South African gold mine, the last of 3,200 workers trapped underground for nearly two days have been rescued. The men got stuck after a pipe fell down a shaft, knocking out power which caused the elevators in the mine to stop working. Power was restored and they exited the mine in groups of 75 to be greeted very happily by family and friends.

And a bombshell in the Olympic world, "The Washington Post" is reporting tonight that track star Marion Jones has admitted to using steroids. The paper says she took a steroid known as "the clear" as she prepared for the 2000 Olympic Games. "The Post" also reports that Jones will plead guilty tomorrow to two counts of lying to federal agents about her alleged drug use. CNN has been unsuccessful in getting in reaching Marion Jones, though her husband did not dispute this report when contacted by "The Washington Post".

COOPER: Wow.

TUCHMAN: It really is sad, Anderson. She really was a hero to many...

COOPER: Yeah, so many people. Wow, very tough.

TUCHMAN: Well now it's time to move to our segment "What Were They Thinking?" and you will say what were they thinking after you see this. We take you to China where a 10-year-old girl attempted to swim the Shiung River (ph). She looks like she is having a tough time and with good reason. Her father tied her hands and feet. He said the three-hour swim...

COOPER: What?

TUCHMAN: Yep. The three-hour swim he said in the chilly water would help his daughter achieve her dream of swimming the English Channel one day.

(CROSSTALK)

TUCHMAN: And this reminds me, Anderson -- this reminds me of something I learned a long time ago. You need a license to drive, sometimes you need a license to fish, but you never need a license to be a parent.

COOPER: Unbelievable. Gary, appreciate it. Thanks.

Up next on 360, the senator arrested in a bathroom sex sting loses a round in court. A judge says Senator Craig cannot withdraw his guilty plea. And Craig says he is staying in the Senate. Is this the fight or is it a fight that the senator can win? We're going to check that out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: I don't -- ah, I am not gay. I don't do these kinds of things and...

SGT. KARSNIA: It doesn't matter. I don't care about sexual preference or anything like that. Here's your stuff back, sir. Um, I don't care about sexual preference.

CRAIG: I know you don't. You're out to enforce the law.

SGT. KARSNIA: Right.

CRAIG: But you shouldn't be out to entrap people either.

KARSNIA: This isn't entrapment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Senator Larry Craig called it entrapment. The police and the court disagreed. For Craig what a difference a few weeks makes. Shortly after news of the airport sex sting made headlines the Idaho Republican said he was calling it quits. Remember that? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG: It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate effective September 30th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Intent the key word, today a change of heart. In a statement Craig said, I will continue to serve Idaho in the United States Senate and there are several reasons for that. As I continue to work for Idaho over the past three weeks here in the Senate I've seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively. He is optimistic.

There was more bad news, however, for him however today. A judge rejected his bid to withdrawal the guilty plea for disorderly conduct saying Craig knew what he was saying, reading and signing. Jeffrey Toobin isn't exactly surprised by this decision. I spoke to the CNN senior legal analyst earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Jeff, first Craig said that he intended to resign, then he said he would resign if he couldn't get his guilty plea dropped. Now he says he's not going to resign at all despite the judge's ruling. Does any of this surprise you anymore?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well it sure does surprise me. I mean the result in this ruling was pretty ordained. That's not surprising at all. It's, as we've discussed, virtually impossible to get a guilty plea withdrawn. But this is precisely the circumstance in which he said he would resign and he's not resigning. So you know I guess, you know, it's a mistake to believe politicians when they say something, but I mean this is exactly what he said he was going to do. COOPER: In terms of legal options, are there any left for him to fight the...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: ... guilty plea?

TOOBIN: He can appeal this ruling, but that is even more hopeless than this case was, so you know that can extend this process a little while longer, but I can't imagine it's going to lead to any other result.

COOPER: I just want to replay some of the excerpt from the recording between Senator Craig and the undercover policeman. Let's listen.

KARSNIA: OK and when you went in the stalls, then what?

CRAIG: Sat down.

KARSNIA: OK. Did you do anything with your feet?

CRAIG: Positioned them, I don't know. I don't know at the time. I'm a fairly wide guy.

KARSNIA: I understand.

CRAIG: I had to spread my legs.

KARSNIA: OK.

CRAIG: When I lower my pants so they won't slide.

KARSNIA: OK.

CRAIG: Did I slide them too close to yours? Did I, I looked down once. Your foot was close to mine.

KARSNIA: Yes.

CRAIG: Did we bump? Ah, you said so. I don't recall that, but apparently we were close.

KARSNIA: Yeah. Well your foot did touch mine on my side of the stall.

COOPER: So today's lawyers reiterated that there's insufficient evidence to find Craig guilty originally and that they might have a strong argument if Craig didn't plead guilty.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I think they're right. They're probably right but it doesn't obviously matter at this point.

TOOBIN: It doesn't matter. I mean you know the evidence, I think, would have been ambiguous if Craig had gone to trial. And he might well have gotten acquitted. We don't know all the government's evidence in this case. We only know what Karsnia, the detective with this poor misbegotten job of waiting in the men's room said in his exchange with Craig, but it is certainly -- this certainly did look like a defensible case. But as the judge ruled in this very thorough 27-page opinion, you know he had the opportunity repeatedly to raise all these arguments and he was warned repeatedly that if he pled guilty that was the end of the case.

COOPER: And he was arrested on the 11th and it was basically two months later that he pled guilty.

TOOBIN: That's what has really driven home in the court's opinion that what you see in the judge's summary of the facts how many times during those nearly two months Craig was in touch with the police, with the prosecute's office, negotiating, talking, what are my options? What should I do? What happens if I plead guilty? So this was hardly a rash, immediate decision on the part of Craig. This was a considered decision by a United States senator about what to do.

And the judge said, hey, you've got to live with it.

COOPER: Which is strange that he thinks -- he thought he could have done that anyway. Jeff Toobin, appreciate the perspective. Thanks, Jeff.

TOOBIN: OK, Anderson.

COOPER: Jeff isn't just our senator legal analyst. He's a best selling author. His latest book "The Nine, Inside the Secret of the Supreme Court" hits number two on the "New York Times" list. It is an eye opener. It's a very good book. I've already read it. Check it out.

Life tenure, interrupting the constitution, the black robes, being a Supreme Court justice is pretty sweet. But for the White House hopefuls, the power begins and ends with the president. Maybe that's why so many candidates are gunning for the job. Today they were on the campaign trail, so were we. CNN's Tom Foreman has tonight's Raw Politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Welcome to South Carolina, where many Republicans are unhappy with their choices for president, unsettled over the war, and they are giving the party a raw read of their own.

(voice-over): South Carolina barbecue is well done but Republicans are steamed. A new nationwide poll shows GOP voters who used to eat up the president's plans now want new policies from their candidates. Without that, voters like Tiffany Eubanks fear Democrats will run away with the race.

(on camera): What do you most fear on the Democratic side of this race? TIFFANY EUBANKS, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: They'll make it more of a popularity contest instead of the real issues at hand.

FOREMAN: GOP hopefuls on the trail. Mitt Romney talking up a plan for zero tax rate for middle class savings.

MITT ROMNEY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: On your interest, dividends and capital gains.

FOREMAN: Rudy Giuliani taking it farther, saying that if Democrats move into the White House, your taxes could rise more than 3,000 dollars. GOP numbers for the last quarter of fund-raising, Fred Thompson jumps up big with almost 13 million; Giuliani gets with 11 million; McCain takes six; Romney scores ten, but adds 8.5 million from his own savings. It must be nice.

The punch-up continues for the Dems. South Carolina appears to be moving its primary up, along with other states, and Florida Democrats are filing a lawsuit against the national party for threatening Gator Lands plans for an early vote. If this keeps up, the whole Democratic party could get a black eye.

And black Democrats, not sure whom they like. Latest poll shows them evenly split between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That's all the more reason for all eyes to be on this state's early primary, because about half of the Democrats here are African-American. That's raw politics on the road in South Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: We're gearing up right now for our second Youtube debate. This time the Republican presidential candidates are going to answer your questions. It's on Wednesday, November 28th. I know, it seems far off. You did you it once, do it again. Go to CNN.com/YoutubeDebates and input your question.

Now, here's John Roberts with what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Anderson. Tomorrow we bring you the most news in the morning, including a debate raging over a teacher's right to protect herself, and a school's rules to protect children. She has filed a restraining order against her ex-husband and fears him. She has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. But the school district won't allow her to bring it to class. Is there room for a compromise? We'll find out.

"AMERICAN MORNING" begins at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Anderson?

COOPER: All right, you've been e-mailing us tonight on how police handled the arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum, who died in their custody. You watched the surveillance tape. You're weighing in. We'll read some of your e-mails just ahead.

Also, the battle on the border and more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice-over): Cracking down on illegal immigrants. New evidence, it's working.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hidalgo may be 500 miles south of the U.S. border but immigration pressure up north causes dramatic changes here.

COOPER: Changes that could mean the tide of illegal immigration is finally receding.

Plus, he ran like superman, leapt like Spider-Man. So would he land like a cat and escape like a rat? You'll find out, but only if you stick around and watch like a hawk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: October's Hispanic heritage month and all this week on CNN, as part of our Uncovering America series, we're looking at what it means to be Hispanic today in a country that's really intensely divided over immigration reform. We've asked viewers to share their experiences on our website and we've sent our reporters into the field. Across the country, federal agents are ramping up raids and pressuring businesses that hire undocumented workers, a crackdown on illegal immigrants that is now being felt on both sides of the border.

Here's CNN's Soledad O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A three-hour drive north from Mexico City brings you to rural Hidalgo State. The main business, farming. A Mexican worker here makes the equivalent of about 7.50 dollars a day, when there's work. Hidalgo may be 500 miles south of the U.S. border, but immigration pressure up north is causing dramatic changes here. This is what it looked like seven months ago, a virtual ghost town, all the men working in the U.S.

It's not that way today. Many men have been pressured to return.

It is a beautiful country, but you don't mess with the law, he says.

Construction continues on a 700-mile fence between the U.S. and Mexico, but we found pressure, fear, and lack of jobs are already getting the job done, driving illegal immigrants back home.

Down the road we met a man who, like many from his village, went to Clearwater, Florida, his first illegal trip more than 20 years ago. Restaurant and construction jobs then were plentiful. But Florida has closed loop holes that had allowed illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. So when his expired --

(on camera): expires January 20th, 2007.

(voice-over): He had no way to drive to work. No job, no reason to stay in Clearwater. This man, Julian Fuerta (ph), also left Clearwater.

I don't have any I.D., he says. When he stopped working in the United States, the money he sent home also stopped.

(on camera): Back when there was money flowing into this town, homes were built to look like this. This home belongs to Julian's son. But over here is Julian's home and it's barely started, and nowhere near finished, and probably never will be finished. You can see it's just full of dust and debris right now.

Julian was unable to renew his I.D. Without an I.D., he couldn't cash his checks. The work started to dry up and so he left Florida and came back to Mexico. His family, those who are still in Clearwater, Florida, say the immigration crackdown has them very afraid.

(voice-over): One is his daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so scared. Something I don't want to go out. I want to stay all day long here. I stay with my babies.

O'BRIEN: Clearwater, Florida's been a kind of sister city to Hidalgo, Mexico. By one estimate, 20,000 immigrants from Hidalgo, both legal and illegal, live and work here. Like many we spoke to here, Julian's daughter says she's terrified. She fears a raid could mean she would be separated from her children and deported back to Mexico. That fear and reverse migration has undocumented immigrants in Clearwater staying away from Mexican businesses, like this money wire service.

VIRGINIO PALOMA, BUSINESS OWNER: I've been doing this for seven years. Lately it's been slow for -- probably 30 percent of what we used to do.

O'BRIEN: The immigration crackdown is having an impact on Hidalgo. It's a trade-off. In the U.S. there's a high risk. Here there are few jobs and virtually no opportunity. Which makes it difficult to feed a family, or build a house.

I'm worried, he says, for good reason, because if a goal of U.S. immigration policy is to kick out illegal immigrants like himself, there are signs that it's working.

Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Hidalgo, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next, a dramatic example of what one scientist says is global warming, an island no one knew was there. Meet the man who discovered it and find out how it affects our planet in peril, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: In our voyage around the world, visiting four continents, 13 countries for this month's Planet in Peril documentary, we saw many of the affects of climate change. One of the most striking is the island you're about to see off the eastern coast of Greenland. At first glance, there's nothing really remarkable about it. It's shores are baron and rocky. It's snow-capped peeks are pretty desolate. But the fact that you can glance at it is remarkable enough.

Simply put, without global warming, scientists say this island would not exist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Constable Point, Greenland, to say this place is remote is an understatement. We're here with explorer Dennis Schmitt, traveling up the east coast to his latest discovery. After a few fly-byes, we touch down. This is one of the world's newest and least explored islands.

DENNIS SCHMITT, EXPLORER: No one has ever been here before. We're the first to be here.

COOPER: No one's ever been here?

SCHMITT: We're the first to ever walk here.

COOPER: Schmitt didn't expect to make this discovery. He literally sailed right into it.

(on camera): When did you realize, wait a minute, this is not -- this is an island?

SCHMITT: I realized something was wrong. Either I was in a different place or the place where I was had completely changed. And I pointed to the area of open water -- I said, that's the world's newest island.

COOPER (voice-over): Here In the Arctic's bitter cold an island revealed because of Greenland's retreating ice shelf.

SCHMITT: It's the first example of an island actually breaking away from the continental mass.

COOPER: He named it Warming Island, a permanent reminder of a warming Earth.

(on camera): It was a moment you dreamed of your entire life.

SCHMITT: Yes, yes, when you're a kid, you think of that, you think -- you fantasize you'll do that. Of course you don't really do it.

COOPER (voice-over): But as a kid, Schmitt was well on his way to a life off the beaten path. Schmitt says he was tapped as a prodigy in his northern California, placed in a special school as a child, and by 11, he says, he was composing symphonies. Then at 19 he was restless in the modern world, so he went to live with the Eskimos in Alaska. After that he took it a step further. Literally, he walked across the Bearing Strait.

SCHMITT: There was nobody to stop me. There was no soldiers, no rifles shots, nothing. I just kept walking and I ended up on a Soviet Island. I probably would take the ice ax.

COOPER: He's been traveling the Arctic ever since.

SCHMITT: I've had this since I was 16.

COOPER: Part explorer, part poet and philosopher.

SCHMITT: With rainbows raining in the rain --

COOPER: Musician and composer.

SCHMITT: I am trying to invent a new kind of opera. The music I write and the poetry I write is who I am. All my life as an explorer I would carry notebooks around with me and write music and poetry all the while I was in the Arctic. I never stopped doing that.

COOPER: Schmitt's island's has become a visible symbol of climate change.

SCHMITT: I think historically Warming Island is going to be, by far, the most important thing I've discovered.

COOPER: Now 61, Dennis still makes several trips to the Arctic each year, hoping for more discoveries, discoveries he believes can send a message to the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Don't miss the four-hour "Planet in Peril" documentary. It premiers less than three weeks from today, October 23rd and 24th. You can also watch a preview of it on our podcast. Just head to CNN.com/360 or download it from iTunes.

Still ahead on the program, do you think police used excessive force in the arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum? That is the videotape, the surveillance tape. We'll read your e-mails and take a close look.

Plus, a photographer captures a daring escape attempt and then captures the bad guy. The incredible story is our Shot of the Day, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Just ahead in news, a photographer gets the shot and then tackles the suspect. Just an ordinary day on the crime beat, not exactly ordinary. The shot's next. But first Gary Tuchman joins us with a "360" bulletin.

(NEWS BREAK) COOPER: Time for the shot; for news photographers, it's all about getting the shot. Yesterday, in Lewiston, Maine, Russ Dilingham (ph), a photographer for the "Sun Journal" got the shot all right. Take a look at this dramatic picture of a fugitive jumping from a third floor balcony. The guy had allegedly stolen a car.

The police were closing in on him. The suspect landed on the ground. A police officer screamed for Russ, who was closest to the fugitive, to tackle him and he did. He held him down until the police got there and then he picked up his camera and took that picture of the suspect getting cuffed.

Pretty amazing stuff there. I don't know what I would do. I guess you would do what you would instinctively do, which his grab the guy.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think when Russ got home, his family probably said, what did you do today? He said just a normal, average, every day thing.

COOPER: Probably so.

Up next, more on the airport death. Tonight, we have new video of Carol Anne Gotbaum's death. Did the police go too far? That's what's on the radar after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Now let's check out your e-mail. The videotape of the arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum at the Phoenix airport last Friday. Earlier in the program we asked you, do you think police used excessive force. just minutes after this tape was made, she died in custody. Police Say she strangled herself while maneuvering in her handcuffs. The Gotbaum family's attorney says she was man-handled.

Here are some of your comments on radar. Mary Lou in Glendale, New York, "Absolutely I believe that the force used was excessive. Hand cuffing a hysterical woman and then leave her alone? Not so much. They should have stayed with her and tried to talk her down."

Victor in Covington, Georgia says, "How on Earth can an irate, unarmed female, a legitimate airport user, die under police custody and Phoenix authorities say it's justifiable?"

Lilibeth in Edmonds, Washington disagrees, slightly. She says, "I don't think the police used excessive force. Having said that, I think the focus should be on what happened in the holding room, because this is where she died. They said it is their policy to have no cameras in that room. Are they just saying that as a convenient excuse to not show evidence?" Possibly, good point.

Well, Josie in Port St. Lucia, Florida says "She was one small woman and there were three very large men who tackled her and took her down. I'm sure that had to hurt. My heart goes out to the woman's family." Josie, our condolences to the family as well.

Autopsy results are still to come in. Police are still investigating.

To weigh in, log on to CNN.com/360; hit the link to the blog or send us a v-mail through our website. For our international viewers, "CNN TODAY" is coming up next. Here in America, "LARRY KING" is coming up and I'll see you tomorrow night. Thanks for watching.

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