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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Man Wakes Up From Coma After 10 Years; Two Teenagers Rescued at Sea
Aired May 05, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. Imagine, if you can, what it would be like to be gone for a decade. Not gone away, a different kind of gone. Unable to see or remember, unable to speak, essentially a coma. And then one day, for reasons unknown, you are awake again just like that. For a decade, your world stopped, the rest of the world kept going. Imagine that, and you're living Don Herbert's story. Here's our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nine years ago, this fire robbed Donald Herbert of nearly everything but his life. He couldn't speak. He couldn't see. Usually, he couldn't walk. Then on Saturday for a little while, Herbert got it all back, summoning words and memories, talking with family in ways he hadn't for nearly a decade.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For us to speak to and to be recognized by my husband, their father, after 9 1/2 years, was completely overwhelming.
GUPTA; No one knows why Herbert suddenly seemed to recover. No one knows why he hasn't been in such good condition since Saturday. Doctors say it's impossible to know his prospects for recovery. But his family and the firefighters so loyal to Herbert know his character.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always wanted to be at the front where the fire was. He knew what it took to put it out, and he wanted to be part of putting it out.
GUPTA: Ten years ago, 34-year-old firefighter Donald Herbert was at the front, always the first in, always the last out is what his friends say. Herbert was accustomed to plunging in and saving lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would go beyond the call of duty. He would go the extra mile.
GUPTA: But what happened during this particular fire on a cold December morning in 1995 would give the chills to any firefighter. The roof caved in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made a big whoosh sound, and it just -- it was on the ground in probably seconds. GUPTA: A seemingly routine fire had turned tragic. Fellow firefighter Joe Victor was there that night stunned that his friend Donald Herbert and two other firefighters lay trapped under a thick pile of rubble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire was burning still, so we were trying to put some water on the fire to keep it from burning, and find him at the same time. And we got him out. They say the time was six minutes from the time it collapsed to the time we got him out.
I was doing mouth to mouth on Donny, and Michael McCarthy, lieutenant 33 at the time, started doing compressions. And we tried to get him down in the ambulance as fast as we could because, you know, we know that you got to get -- you know, we're going to have to get him down there and get him started if there was going to be a chance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was going through your mind when you...
GUPTA: Herbert wasn't breathing yet. They rushed him to an ambulance and got him breathing on the way to the hospital, but he would not awaken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard because you don't stop thinking about it and thinking maybe we could have done something different. But I don't know how much faster we could have gotten to Donny.
GUPTA: Fellow firefighters sat in vigil at Eerie County Medical Center waiting for their brother to awaken from a deep coma. Doctors at Eerie could provide no answers to family or friends about how long he might remain that way. Then, three months later, he emerged from his slumber blind and virtually speechless.
For the next nine years, his condition would fluctuate. At times, he might be despondent. At others, he would walk gingerly with the help of his family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Initially, when I first saw him -- he has a significant brain injury and he was dependent on the nursing home for care. And no responses, really. I mean, he was not speaking. He hadn't been speaking with family or the nurses at that time at all. He was following some commands, very limited.
GUPTA: The fire had stolen Herbert's ability to care for himself, so his family members would have to step in. But as too often is the case in these emotional situations, they didn't always agree on who should make the decisions.
After legal proceedings, Linda, his wife, would prevail. And ultimately all of them would agree that, if his heart or lungs failed, doctors would not be asked to step in and be heroic.
But his heart and lungs were strong. And Donald continued to live his quiet life at the Father Baker Manor Nursing Home. His family visiting him frequently. And friends would shuttle him around in the fire truck. They'd sit in the sun and talk to him about old times.
Then, after 9 1/2 years of deafening silence, Herbert would emerge from his stupor with a start, asking a nurse simply to call his wife.
LINDA HERBERT, DONALD HERBERT'S WIFE: My son Nicholas, who had just turned 4 at the time of the accident, is just thrilled to have his father call him by name, hug him and speak with him.
GUPTA: And his buddies from the firehouse are equally astonished.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that he was holding a conversation with his family, that he was talking to his kids. It was just -- it was amazing. It was nothing short of a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; I think he was just asleep for a long time, and he finally wants to come back to work is what it is. The vacation is over.
GUPTA: Herbert's family is being cautious in their optimism.
DR. EILEEN REILLY, DONALD HERBERT'S PHYSICIAN: They're just so excited and realistic, you know. I think over the ten years they've been with him through all of this, they have a great understanding of a brain injury, and they know that maybe this is not forever and maybe this was a gift that we were given for a short period of time.
But they're very -- extremely hopeful. And they want to move forward with therapy and whatever the right -- the next step would be, they want to move in that direction for him.
GUPTA: His buddies, on the other hand, believe the strength that drove Herbert when he fought fires will also drive his recovery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a fighter, oh, yes. If anybody can do it, Donny can come back, absolutely. That's the kind of guy he is.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On Saturday, the same day that Don Herbert began talking, another remarkable event was unfolding hundreds of miles away in North Carolina. It began as so many stories do, an ordinary day, two teenage boys set out to fish. But ordinary quickly turned into horrifying. Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The two boys were drifting in the Atlantic -- 3:00 in the morning, pitch black. They'd been praying for a boat, a boat big enough and close enough to rescue them.
JOSH LONG, SURVIVED AT SEA: All of a sudden, I heard a loud roar.
LAWRENCE: Instead, an enormous freighter almost killed them.
LONG: I went into shock. As soon as I saw the boat, I just froze up. I couldn't move.
TROY DRISCOLL, SURVIVED AT SEA: When you look up, the boat's like real high.
LONG: And all of a sudden, his wake just lifted us up, laid the boat on the side, and then pushed us out of the way, and we just drifted off.
DRISCOLL: Water came in, and we started freezing.
LONG: Water flooded the boat. It was scary.
LAWRENCE: The big container ship didn't even slow down, probably because its crew never knew the little boat was there. When Troy Driscoll climbed back in, he was just about ready to give up.
DRISCOLL: Actually the first time I actually got mad at God in my life. I never thought that would happen, but I just -- I was really confused, and I was asking him, why me? Like, what did I do to deserve this?
LAWRENCE: Troy is 15 years old. Josh long, 17. On April 24 they went out for a morning of fishing, just off the beach near Charleston, South Carolina.
LONG: And we just put the boat in right here, and the sand bar back there, we were just going to paddle straight across to the sand bar.
LAWRENCE: A rip tide caught their boat and started dragging them out to sea. They thought about swimming back to shore. But Josh remembered what his grandfather taught him, stay with the boat.
LONG: Just because I didn't have flares and I didn't have this and that doesn't mean that he didn't teach me what I need to know.
LAWRENCE: Their boat had one sail and no paddle. The Atlantic currents knocked them around for six days, the sun beating down. They went swimming to cool off, careful not to swim too long.
LONG: You'd be in the water for 10, 20 minutes and you have to get out because the sharks would be coming around.
LAWRENCE: A few times a day, they'd gargle handfuls of salt water.
LONG: It was bad. So, I just tried not to drink it. Sometimes you couldn't help it. You needed something down there. LAWRENCE: And when the sun went down, they hugged each other to stay warm.
LONG: At night the waves were so bad coming over the side of the boat. You couldn't sleep, because we were sleeping in water and it was freezing cold.
LAWRENCE: Josh and Troy talked openly about dying, but feel they survived because of their faith.
LONG: We would pray to God and say, if it's not your will for us to live, then just let us come home. I said, we can at least watch our families from up in heaven.
LAWRENCE: They drifted for six long days before a fishing boat rescued them off the coast of Cape Fear, more than 100 miles from where they put to sea.
(on camera): What was your first thought when you actually got a look at that boat that they rode out there for six days?
PETTY OFFICER DANA WARD, U.S. COAST GUARD: It was amazing. It was utterly amazing.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Petty officer Dana Ward says the Coast Guard studied the ocean for three days. But with no sign of the boys, they had to call off the search.
WARD: They didn't have any safety or survival gear. So, for them to be alive, it's extremely lucky.
LAWRENCE: Since then, it's been one celebration after another. In the emergency room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you too, darling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, buddy!
LAWRENCE: Coming home from the hospital.
(CHEERS)
LAWRENCE: And going back to school.
(CHEERS)
LAWRENCE: Everywhere, they've wanted to talk about how they survived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What God did for us is worth telling everybody.
LAWRENCE: Because what some would call pure luck, these kids call a miracle.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Charleston, South Carolina. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, I wish we were all about happy endings tonight, but we're not.
For four years, she was a child without a name or a family or a history. She was a nameless victim adopted by a community in Kansas City that would not allow her to be forgotten. They called her Precious Doe, as in John Doe, meaning name unknown. She had been murdered, decapitated, and the truth be told, dumped like so much garbage.
But she wasn't garbage. She was a child. And tonight, she is a child with a name, and a child whose killers are at long last known.
Here's CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNETTE JOHNSON: This is right here, it's where her body laid...
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Right there.
JOHNSON: ... where I will take you.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Annette Johnson has walked this path dozens of time and wondered just who the little girl was. Her headless nude body dumped on the road. The head found a week later dumped in a bag. No name, no family. No one in this little girl's life who even reported her missing. It was up to strangers to keep at least her case alive.
JOHNSON: I decided to put together a committee, which is called the Precious Doe Committee. That's the name that we gave her, because we didn't know who she was, and to us she was precious. And we named her Precious Doe.
GRIFFIN: Vowing not to let her die anonymously, the Precious Doe Committee held a vigil in this park every week for the past four years.
JOHNSON: Every vigil, she was there with us.
GRIFFIN (on camera): She wanted you to find her.
JOHNSON: She did. And every night, I pray about it. I have children of my own, and we in the community felt like this is our child. And we had to protect her. And we had to come out here and rally for her.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The citizens group pushed police to stay on the case and watched as detectives tracked down hundreds of leads that seemed to go nowhere.
JOHNSON: We thought she was the child in Florida. We thought she was from Jamaica. So I was always very optimistic. GRIFFIN (on camera): And each time you had your hopes up and...
JOHNSON: And they crushed them. They got crushed, but I knew it would come. I knew the day would come.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Thursday, Annette Johnson and everyone in Kansas City who adopted a girl they never knew, heard the news they had waited four years to hear.
CHIEF JIM CORWIN, KANSAS CITY POLICE: The little girl we have known for four years as Precious Doe has a name.
GRIFFIN: Erica Michelle Marie Green would have been 8 years old this month.
JOHNSON: I felt so relieved. I felt so happy. And then I started to feel sad. Because I had to think about all night, and I tossed and turned and said, what happened?
GRIFFIN (on camera): But along with the joy of finding out who this little girl was, Kansas City also learned how precious Erica Green died, and there was nothing precious about it.
(voice-over): Prosecutor Mike Sanders at this prayer vigil Thursday night said the mother and stepfather have confessed. He has charged both with second-degree murder. Sanders said the reason the couple gave for killing the girl is even more horrific than how they disposed of her.
MIKE SANDERS, JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: She didn't want to go to bed, became somewhat fussy and started to cry. At that point, he then struck her, threw her to the ground, and then by her statement, kicked her in the head.
GRIFFIN: Then, police say, the couple used a hedge clipper to decapitate this child, dumping the body down this road and the head in the woods.
Not a happy ending. How could there be one? But at least for those who have waited and prayed for a precious little girl, the ending has a name.
(on camera): Do you wish Erica Green, maybe she does in your mind, know how much she is loved by this community?
JOHNSON: She does. I know she does. Because I feel her presence. Every time when I am here, I still feel her presence. She is happy, she's running around. When we're holding hands, she is running between us, you know, laughing, looking at her teddy bears, touching them, smelling her flowers, and saying, boy, they love me. They love me.
GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, Kansas City, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Still ahead from us tonight, No Child Left Behind. The pressure to perform well on tests is intense. So intense, it's led to widespread cheating, and teachers and principals are part of the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.
BROWN (voice-over): The teachers say their principals told them to help their students cheat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and, like, peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer's wrong or right.
BROWN: The kids say it happens all the time.
Children in foster care. They were sick, and medical experiments offered them hope. But also deadly risk. Who was there to protect them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had it not been for a certain drug study, that little boy would have died.
BROWN: Did the experiment exploit the children?
The explanation everyone was waiting for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please may I assure you that my running away had nothing to do with cold feet.
BROWN: The words are the runaway bride's. If not cold feet, then what made her run?
We're not running anywhere tonight. We're in New York, and this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, teachers who say they're under pressure to help students cheat on tests.
A quarter past the hour, if your clock is running three minutes slow, Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta with the headlines -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron. Good to see you tonight.
We begin with the first high-level demotion of a military officer due to the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. President Bush today demoted Brigadier General Janis Karpinski to the rank of colonel. The Army cited her for dereliction of duty, but determined no action on her part contributed to the abuse of prisoners.
Voters reelected Tony Blair to a historic third term as Britain's prime minister on Thursday, but they sharply reduced his Labour Party's majority in parliament in an apparent show of anger at Britain's role in Iraq. Analysts say this means Blair could be replaced at some point by another Labour Party leader.
A grand jury in Atlanta has indicted suspected courthouse killer Brian Nichols on 54 counts, including four felony murder charges. Back in March, Nichols allegedly shot a judge and three other people to death. The prosecutor has stated that, if Nichols is convicted, he will seek the death penalty.
And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, we'll see you in about half an hour from now, about. Thank you.
President Bush campaigned for the White House and won in part on the Texas miracle -- education reform with a strong dose of standardized testing. It became the basis for the president's No Child Left Behind program, and it is not without controversy. Educators and parents alike worry that teachers will spend more time teaching the test than teaching the subject. But in a report airing this weekend on "CNN PRESENTS," filmmaker Stanley Nelson highlights another more serious concern. Teachers teaching kids to cheat because, if the kids fail, the school fails.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2003, another scandal hit the Houston school district. This time there were allegations of cheating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was approached by the principal and informed that I didn't know how to give tests the Wesley way, and that I was informed on how to give the test the Wesley way and that the expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, boys and girls, we're going to go ahead and begin. Open your test booklets.
I handed out the text test. I said -- I read the instructions out of the administrator's manual. I said, OK, get busy. The kids were looking at me with blank stares, and I said, what are you waiting on? And about a third of my students said, the answers. I know that the teachers are cheating because kids have told me that's how it was done with their particular teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would like walk around the room and you'd see that she would be helping kids and telling them that the answer's wrong. You need to do it over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was to stop behind them until they placed their finger on the right answer, and then I was to continue walking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and, like, peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer's wrong or right. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard her talking to students like next to me saying, well, which one do you think is right? Which one do you think is wrong? And helping them eliminate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's disturbing to me that we're not only taking away their education, but we're instilling in small young children, nine, 10 years old, that whatever works for you is OK. But it's not only the teachers' fault. This isn't coming from a lower level. This is coming from way up in the district.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The principal of Wesley Elementary declined to speak with CNN. Accusations of fraud first surfaced in 2003 when teachers began reporting incidents of cheating to the school board and to the Houston Teachers Union. While an investigation was started by the school district, it quickly stalled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm not sure what happened. I've reviewed the file, and it seems that a year or so back, things kind of stopped as far as -- I can't -- you know, I just don't know why they didn't go any further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't until January of 2005 that current Houston school superintendent Abe Saavedra launched a new investigation, examining allegations of cheating at 23 Houston schools.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that testing and assessment is important. The fact is that, in this school district, as there is in the human race, there are dishonest people, all right, and we don't throw out programs because there are a few people that may abuse the situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is not unique to Houston. Forty- four other schools in Texas are under investigation for suspicious rises in test scores, and within the past year, seven states have launched investigations, suspended staff or thrown out tainted scores.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The internal investigation on cheating by the Houston Independent School District has just been concluded. It found cheating on state tests at four schools. Plans are under way to fire six teachers and demote two principals and an assistant principal.
At seven other schools, students say their teachers helped them on tests, but the investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence of cheating. We also note that the Houston probe found no conclusive proof of cheating at Wesley Elementary School. Again, the larger program on CNN PRESENTS this weekend.
In a moment, young children in foster care with a disease that kills. Doctors have a medicine that could have saved them or made them sicker, but it's experimental. So who decides if the child should be allowed in the test?
And later -- she hasn't said I do, so what is the runaway bride saying about what she did. A break first around the world. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "This Week in History," in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to reach outer space.
In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to ever become prime minister of England.
And in 1994, South Africa elected its first black president as Nelson Mandela came to power. And that is "This Week in History."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: This is a story about seriously ill infants and toddlers and drugs that could save them. We know that now. Doctors did not know that then. All they knew was that the children were sick and in some cases dying, and that the drugs they were studying at the time might save them -- or perhaps might make them sicker, or worse. And that was the dilemma. It is not, however, the controversy or even the outrage today which has to do with who the children were and who was looking out for them or not. Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shirley Schristner does what few of us would do. She takes in sick children, a foster mother.
SHIRLIE SCHRISNTER, FOSTER PARENT: And the CPS worker said to me, I don't know why you're going to take this little boy. He only has about two weeks to live.
KOCH: She might be considered a hero, and maybe she is. Schristner allowed some of those children, children with HIV, to be used in drug trials, and some are alive today because of that decision.
SCHRISTNER: And, had it not been for a certain drug study, that little boy would have died, and I'm here to tell you today that that little boy is a football player, and he is a straight-A student.
KOCH: And in some cities, it was what wasn't done that raises questions. Some foster children never had anyone protecting their interests, never had an advocate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To suggest that my predecessor's or that I would be willing to engage in any Tuskegee like experiments is just not right.
KOCH: An investigation by the Associated Press found many foster children were never given the required advocates to oversee their participation in the potentially risky trials. A preliminary count in New York City found less than a third of the 465 foster children in AIDS drug tests there got such monitors. Though such monitors are required by city law, law designed to ensure that kids are not used as guinea pigs in the interest of science.
JENNIFER JONES AUSTIN, NY ADMIN. FOR CHILDREN'S SERV: We have not found here in New York City, in the reviews that we have done to date, any evidence, any indication that children were inappropriately enrolled in clinical trials or that children once enrolled in clinical trials did not get the medical care that was being sought for them.
KOCH: At least seven states used foster children in AIDS drug tests, but major institutions like Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York say they never named advocates to represent the interests of the foster children in their tests. They say that's because the research carried minimal risk, and the children would benefit from being included. On that point, there is disagreement.
RUTH MACKLIN, ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Now, clearly, giving an AIDS cocktail, which is experimental, has never been given in children before, administering that, it's just foolish and wrong to call it minimal risk. The sad story is that those who are supposed to be caring for and overseeing research on vulnerable subjects just dropped the ball.
KOCH: The Associated Press investigation found between 700 and 1,400 foster children have taken part in AIDS drug studies since the late 1980s. They were funded by the National Institutes of Health. NIH would not answer questions about why it never followed up to make certain hospitals were following the rules.
It only issued a statement saying that quote "if those safeguards need to be strengthened, NIH will do everything in its power to do so."
(on camera): Some foster children were sickened, some even died while participating in the AIDS drug trials. Critics charge that may have happened because there was no advocate to protect them.
(voice-over): But supporters like Schristner maintain many are living healthier lives today, precisely because they took a chance on then unproven treatments.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: CNN's Kathleen Koch.
We're joined from Houston tonight by Dr. Mark Kline, an AIDS researcher, as well as a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. It's good to see you.
Let's just quickly, if we can, set the times here on what was going on at the times in the area of AIDS research and HIV. The kids were dying.
DR. MARK KLINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE: Aaron, it was a challenging and really a devastating time for the parents, for the children, and for the doctors who were caring for them. This was a time when there were very few effective therapies available by prescription, and our feeling at the time really was that, in many cases, the best opportunity for long life and health for these children was perhaps by participation in a clinical trial that offered access to newer and potentially more potent drugs.
BROWN: Now let's look at some of the particulars. I think that's an important starting point here.
As you look back on it, the beauty of 20/20 hindsight, I suppose, is there any question in your mind that foster children, in particular, should have had someone, specifically advocating for them?
KLINE: Well, I think there probably is a two-part answer to that question, Aaron. First, even in retrospect, I believe that the children who participated in the trials mentioned were exempt from this rule regarding an independent advocate because all of these trials had the potential to produce direct benefit for the children, and because of what we knew about the drugs that were in use by prescription at that time, we felt very strongly that these experimental drugs offered a better risk benefit calculation for the children.
Now, the question about whether there should have been an advocate of some sort, I think in every case there was. There was the foster parent, who was looking out for the interests of the child. There was, in many cases, an agency like Children's Protective Services, that was looking out for the best interests of the child. And hopefully the medical team, the pediatricians and the social workers and nurses, were looking out for the best interests of the child.
BROWN: Presumably, all of you cared about the children. No one's suggesting -- well, maybe some people are suggesting -- we're not suggesting, that no one cared about these kids. It's that the federal law required -- and we can parse this a little bit, but it does seem to me the federal law required there be someone independent of the foster parent because these kids have no parents. There are people -- and you know this -- there are people who would argue that foster children are so vulnerable, and I think there are some states that, in fact, make this law. That foster children shouldn't be allowed to ever be involved in these experimental tests.
KLINE: Yes. And I disagree strenuously with that contention. At the time, remember that the drugs we have available for children with HIV were not particularly potent. And we knew that their benefit was only partial and short-lived.
We were fighting to find life saving therapies for children. We were working as quickly as we possibly could. And I think it was important to give children in foster care the same access to the newer and potentially more powerful medicines that children with parents had. I personally would have found it indefensible to say that, as a group, we would exclude foster children from participation in these trials.
BROWN: Just a last quick question. 20 years later, the state of medical ethics changed in how -- in what doctors know and in how doctors think?
KLINE: It has. I think that we all are certainly better informed. And I have to say I think that the issues that have been raised just in the past few days have educated all of us about this issue of independent advocates and the vulnerability of this particular population of children enrolled in clinical trials.
But this was a life or death situation. And many of these children who did access the clinical trials are still alive today because they were in the clinical trials. I firmly believe that.
BROWN: Dr. Kline, good to meet you. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it a lot. Thank you.
Mark Kline at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
Still to come on the program tonight, a place that most of us will never get to see in person. North Korea, a strange and sometimes frightening place. We'll see it through the eyes of two young women for whom it is absolutely normal.
And, of course, normal around here is morning papers. Because whether it's Korea or New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In our "News Doc" segment tonight, we introduce you to a pair of extraordinary young women. But we want to start with a somewhat wider view.
Southeast Asia seen from space at night, at night. The lights representing cities and villages and human activity.
Now look at the Korean Peninsula. A sea of lights in the south, utter darkness in the north. For all we know about North Korea, this might as well be as good a view as it gets.
Recently, though, the North Korean government gave a group of filmmakers the access and the time to tell quite a story about the country and its people, a more revealing story perhaps than the government bargained for. And that is where our two young women come in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL GORDON, DIRECTOR, "A STATE OF MIND": For the first time ever, North Korea, the secret state, would reveal itself to outsiders.
"A State of Mind" is a film that follows two North Korean school girls. We filmed them over a period of nine months, and it basically shows daily life in Pyongyang through the eyes of these two school girls.
We were then granted the access to the Mass Games, the biggest human performance in the world.
Up to 12,000 schoolchildren are used. Each school practices daily until perfection is achieved.
Essentially, Mass Games is a metaphor for North Korea. It's all about teamwork. It's all about the place of the individual within that team. And although this is a spectacular, it can only be done by all these individuals working together for the greater good.
There are two girls, one was 13, and one was 11. The 13-year-old was a girl called Pak Yun-Soon (ph), who was the best gymnast for her age. And that's why she was chosen.
What made it very interesting for us was there were three generations in her family that live together, and five of them in a very small, two-room apartment.
We got the full sort of list of daily life. We were in their homes when they woke up. We were there all through the day. We went to the schools, went to the workplaces. We got a fairly all-around flavor of daily life in Pyongyang.
Even in the central district of Pyongyang, the most important area of the city, most nights are spent without electricity at some point in the evening.
The blackout was quite an extraordinary moment for us, because during the whole time that we'd negotiated the access, we said, if that happens, you know, we carry on filming. They were quite annoyed, because the blackout sort of happened on their watch, you know, and it's not something that's you're particularly proud of. But, obviously, there was a reason. It was the Americans' fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated on screen): This is all because of the Americans. Because we're always doing things like air raids and blackout, I think, just as we're taught at school, we have to endlessly hate the U.S. and fight them to the end.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated on screen): When I was young, I didn't know if the U.S. imperialists were bad or good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: (INAUDIBLE) is an educational for the Korean people to sort of continually educate their own people in their beliefs about the Korean War. Granddad took his granddaughter to the war museum to show what had happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated on screen): Grandfather, is that (INAUDIBLE) from the U.S. Army or something?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: He took the girl to the museum in order to show her what the American imperialists had done to his country, and in his eyes, what they continue to do by being in South Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated on screen): I saw the brutal bombing of our country, and the atrocities suffered by our people. I saw things being done that no human could do. I became more enraged about U.S. imperialism, and felt we had to rid this land of U.S. imperialism completely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: The grandfather is a construction worker. He's worked on every major construction project over the last 35 years, which is essentially he's rebuilt Pyongyang. And we said, what's your favorite building? And he said, well, actually, it's my apartment. You know, I built this in 1994, and I didn't realize I would move into it. But this is what I have the most pride in, because it's where I built the house my family lives in.
It's Sunday, the official day of rest in Pyongyang.
"State of Mind" is only a tiny fraction of what is out there in North Korea, but it's the first time they've ever allowed anything like this. And really, just understanding and just being able to see the North Koreans, life goes on within the system.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Again, the name of the documentary is, "A State of Mind."
Up next on NEWSNIGHT, testimony in defense of Michael Jackson, and the runaway bride, the next chapter. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of you know who. But first, 30 minutes from when we last saw her. So in that regard, we're right on time. Erica Hill with the headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Indeed you are, and I'll take it.
Aaron, we start off with another you know who, Michael Jackson. His defense team calling its first witness to the stand today. Two young men testified that, while they spent many nights sleeping with Jackson at his Neverland ranch when they were children, the singer never molested them.
A high-speed police chase this afternoon in Broward County, Florida, local reports say began after an armed robbery, when the suspect took off in a white Chevy camper sideswiping some cars as he zips along the highway. The driver eventually swerved into the median, allowing police to move in and arrest him.
And a double explosion this morning outside the British consulate in New York City. Two improvised devices blew up, slightly damaging the building. No one was hurt. Police don't have any suspects. Video surveillance tapes from buildings in the area are being examined for possible clues.
And that is the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you.
As we prepare to write another chapter in the story of Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride, we will say again that running away is not a crime in America, but there was that little fib she told which led to another apology read by another spokesman, which only seemed to raise more questions and quell little anger. Here's CNN's Charles Molineaux.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry for the troubles I caused.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter and a stony faced Police Chief Randy Belcher watched today's statement waiting for more.
MAYOR SHIRLEY LASSETTER, DULUTH, GEORGIA: As far as anything for the city, I don't think we got anything from that.
MOLINEAUX: The city of Duluth estimates the search for Jennifer costs upwards of $60,000. The city clerk is still going over stacks of e-mails, mostly critical of Jennifer or demanding she pay the city back. Some are sympathetic. Some offer a bit of free analysis.
TERESA LYNN, DULUTH CITY CLERK: They felt like she was disturbed, that she was acting out scenes from the Julia Roberts movies.
DR. THOMAS SMILEY, WILBANKS' SPOKESMAN: Please may a sure you that my running away had nothing to do with cold feet.
MOLINEAUX: As the pastor at Jennifer Wilbanks' family church read her statement of apology, he said that her disappearance was a flight not from marriage or her fiance John Mason, but her own inner demons.
SMILEY: I had a host of compelling issues which seemed out of control. Issues for which I was unable to address or confine.
MOLINEAUX: Pastor Tom Smiley said Wilbanks is still in a fragile state and is now getting professional psychological help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that's really pretty.
MOLINEAUX: Angie Dooley, at Duluth's Annabellagio bridal shop has seen her share of jittery brides. She is not about to be satisfied with any prepared statement.
ANGIE COOLEY, ANNABELLAGIO BRIDAL SHOP: I think it would be nice for her to come forward herself and just apologize to the community and just let them know she didn't mean for this to happen.
MOLINEAUX: Duluth's mayor hopes this is a sign of progress.
LASSETTER: From the legal side of that, and I thought that would come out today. But it hasn't. But I think this is the first step for Miss Wilbanks and that is her deep apologies.
MOLINEAUX: As for that legal side, the Gwinnett County D.A. says his office should finish up its investigation perhaps as early as tomorrow. The degree to which the mayor and the rest of the community is satisfied with Wilbanks' contrition and her willingness to make good might just possibly affect whether criminal charges are filed against her.
Charles Molineaux, CNN, Gainesville, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, we'll continue our coverage on that, morning papers -- that's morning papers, Aaron, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. If you figured out why yesterday's weather word for today in Chicago was quintessential. Did you figure that out? I don't think you did.
Christian Science Monitor, "Could Bigger Sunni Role Stop Attacks?" insurgent violence -- it's just been awful for the last four or five weeks. "Insurgent violence following formation of Iraq's new government continued yesterday, killing at least 20 people." I think 60 people died yesterday.
The Daily News, there was a big scare this morning here in New York, and the Daily News -- we're so pleased to have the Daily News, but we'd like more edge to their headlines, OK, over there. "Terror Jitters, Secured Heightened After Makeshift Grenade Explodes At British Consulate." Speaking of the British -- I can do a segue out of anything. "Blair Set To Win Third Term But With Smaller Majority." Tony Blair there. You can't really see him. I guess they're punishing him a little bit for that Iraq stuff that didn't play very well.
The Times Herald Record, upstate New York. Can you get me over here, Ed? "Cheerleaders Flip Out Over School Restrictions." Texas has passed legislation to make it illegal, I guess, to have sexually suggestive cheerleading.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow, buoyant. Today, by the way, is 05-05-05. Get it? Quintessential. We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: V.E. Day -- remembering World War II and the greatest generation tomorrow on the program. "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 eastern time. Those good folks are eating and preparing the program as we speak. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Until then, good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 5, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. Imagine, if you can, what it would be like to be gone for a decade. Not gone away, a different kind of gone. Unable to see or remember, unable to speak, essentially a coma. And then one day, for reasons unknown, you are awake again just like that. For a decade, your world stopped, the rest of the world kept going. Imagine that, and you're living Don Herbert's story. Here's our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nine years ago, this fire robbed Donald Herbert of nearly everything but his life. He couldn't speak. He couldn't see. Usually, he couldn't walk. Then on Saturday for a little while, Herbert got it all back, summoning words and memories, talking with family in ways he hadn't for nearly a decade.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For us to speak to and to be recognized by my husband, their father, after 9 1/2 years, was completely overwhelming.
GUPTA; No one knows why Herbert suddenly seemed to recover. No one knows why he hasn't been in such good condition since Saturday. Doctors say it's impossible to know his prospects for recovery. But his family and the firefighters so loyal to Herbert know his character.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always wanted to be at the front where the fire was. He knew what it took to put it out, and he wanted to be part of putting it out.
GUPTA: Ten years ago, 34-year-old firefighter Donald Herbert was at the front, always the first in, always the last out is what his friends say. Herbert was accustomed to plunging in and saving lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would go beyond the call of duty. He would go the extra mile.
GUPTA: But what happened during this particular fire on a cold December morning in 1995 would give the chills to any firefighter. The roof caved in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made a big whoosh sound, and it just -- it was on the ground in probably seconds. GUPTA: A seemingly routine fire had turned tragic. Fellow firefighter Joe Victor was there that night stunned that his friend Donald Herbert and two other firefighters lay trapped under a thick pile of rubble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire was burning still, so we were trying to put some water on the fire to keep it from burning, and find him at the same time. And we got him out. They say the time was six minutes from the time it collapsed to the time we got him out.
I was doing mouth to mouth on Donny, and Michael McCarthy, lieutenant 33 at the time, started doing compressions. And we tried to get him down in the ambulance as fast as we could because, you know, we know that you got to get -- you know, we're going to have to get him down there and get him started if there was going to be a chance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was going through your mind when you...
GUPTA: Herbert wasn't breathing yet. They rushed him to an ambulance and got him breathing on the way to the hospital, but he would not awaken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard because you don't stop thinking about it and thinking maybe we could have done something different. But I don't know how much faster we could have gotten to Donny.
GUPTA: Fellow firefighters sat in vigil at Eerie County Medical Center waiting for their brother to awaken from a deep coma. Doctors at Eerie could provide no answers to family or friends about how long he might remain that way. Then, three months later, he emerged from his slumber blind and virtually speechless.
For the next nine years, his condition would fluctuate. At times, he might be despondent. At others, he would walk gingerly with the help of his family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Initially, when I first saw him -- he has a significant brain injury and he was dependent on the nursing home for care. And no responses, really. I mean, he was not speaking. He hadn't been speaking with family or the nurses at that time at all. He was following some commands, very limited.
GUPTA: The fire had stolen Herbert's ability to care for himself, so his family members would have to step in. But as too often is the case in these emotional situations, they didn't always agree on who should make the decisions.
After legal proceedings, Linda, his wife, would prevail. And ultimately all of them would agree that, if his heart or lungs failed, doctors would not be asked to step in and be heroic.
But his heart and lungs were strong. And Donald continued to live his quiet life at the Father Baker Manor Nursing Home. His family visiting him frequently. And friends would shuttle him around in the fire truck. They'd sit in the sun and talk to him about old times.
Then, after 9 1/2 years of deafening silence, Herbert would emerge from his stupor with a start, asking a nurse simply to call his wife.
LINDA HERBERT, DONALD HERBERT'S WIFE: My son Nicholas, who had just turned 4 at the time of the accident, is just thrilled to have his father call him by name, hug him and speak with him.
GUPTA: And his buddies from the firehouse are equally astonished.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that he was holding a conversation with his family, that he was talking to his kids. It was just -- it was amazing. It was nothing short of a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; I think he was just asleep for a long time, and he finally wants to come back to work is what it is. The vacation is over.
GUPTA: Herbert's family is being cautious in their optimism.
DR. EILEEN REILLY, DONALD HERBERT'S PHYSICIAN: They're just so excited and realistic, you know. I think over the ten years they've been with him through all of this, they have a great understanding of a brain injury, and they know that maybe this is not forever and maybe this was a gift that we were given for a short period of time.
But they're very -- extremely hopeful. And they want to move forward with therapy and whatever the right -- the next step would be, they want to move in that direction for him.
GUPTA: His buddies, on the other hand, believe the strength that drove Herbert when he fought fires will also drive his recovery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a fighter, oh, yes. If anybody can do it, Donny can come back, absolutely. That's the kind of guy he is.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On Saturday, the same day that Don Herbert began talking, another remarkable event was unfolding hundreds of miles away in North Carolina. It began as so many stories do, an ordinary day, two teenage boys set out to fish. But ordinary quickly turned into horrifying. Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The two boys were drifting in the Atlantic -- 3:00 in the morning, pitch black. They'd been praying for a boat, a boat big enough and close enough to rescue them.
JOSH LONG, SURVIVED AT SEA: All of a sudden, I heard a loud roar.
LAWRENCE: Instead, an enormous freighter almost killed them.
LONG: I went into shock. As soon as I saw the boat, I just froze up. I couldn't move.
TROY DRISCOLL, SURVIVED AT SEA: When you look up, the boat's like real high.
LONG: And all of a sudden, his wake just lifted us up, laid the boat on the side, and then pushed us out of the way, and we just drifted off.
DRISCOLL: Water came in, and we started freezing.
LONG: Water flooded the boat. It was scary.
LAWRENCE: The big container ship didn't even slow down, probably because its crew never knew the little boat was there. When Troy Driscoll climbed back in, he was just about ready to give up.
DRISCOLL: Actually the first time I actually got mad at God in my life. I never thought that would happen, but I just -- I was really confused, and I was asking him, why me? Like, what did I do to deserve this?
LAWRENCE: Troy is 15 years old. Josh long, 17. On April 24 they went out for a morning of fishing, just off the beach near Charleston, South Carolina.
LONG: And we just put the boat in right here, and the sand bar back there, we were just going to paddle straight across to the sand bar.
LAWRENCE: A rip tide caught their boat and started dragging them out to sea. They thought about swimming back to shore. But Josh remembered what his grandfather taught him, stay with the boat.
LONG: Just because I didn't have flares and I didn't have this and that doesn't mean that he didn't teach me what I need to know.
LAWRENCE: Their boat had one sail and no paddle. The Atlantic currents knocked them around for six days, the sun beating down. They went swimming to cool off, careful not to swim too long.
LONG: You'd be in the water for 10, 20 minutes and you have to get out because the sharks would be coming around.
LAWRENCE: A few times a day, they'd gargle handfuls of salt water.
LONG: It was bad. So, I just tried not to drink it. Sometimes you couldn't help it. You needed something down there. LAWRENCE: And when the sun went down, they hugged each other to stay warm.
LONG: At night the waves were so bad coming over the side of the boat. You couldn't sleep, because we were sleeping in water and it was freezing cold.
LAWRENCE: Josh and Troy talked openly about dying, but feel they survived because of their faith.
LONG: We would pray to God and say, if it's not your will for us to live, then just let us come home. I said, we can at least watch our families from up in heaven.
LAWRENCE: They drifted for six long days before a fishing boat rescued them off the coast of Cape Fear, more than 100 miles from where they put to sea.
(on camera): What was your first thought when you actually got a look at that boat that they rode out there for six days?
PETTY OFFICER DANA WARD, U.S. COAST GUARD: It was amazing. It was utterly amazing.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Petty officer Dana Ward says the Coast Guard studied the ocean for three days. But with no sign of the boys, they had to call off the search.
WARD: They didn't have any safety or survival gear. So, for them to be alive, it's extremely lucky.
LAWRENCE: Since then, it's been one celebration after another. In the emergency room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you too, darling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, buddy!
LAWRENCE: Coming home from the hospital.
(CHEERS)
LAWRENCE: And going back to school.
(CHEERS)
LAWRENCE: Everywhere, they've wanted to talk about how they survived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What God did for us is worth telling everybody.
LAWRENCE: Because what some would call pure luck, these kids call a miracle.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Charleston, South Carolina. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, I wish we were all about happy endings tonight, but we're not.
For four years, she was a child without a name or a family or a history. She was a nameless victim adopted by a community in Kansas City that would not allow her to be forgotten. They called her Precious Doe, as in John Doe, meaning name unknown. She had been murdered, decapitated, and the truth be told, dumped like so much garbage.
But she wasn't garbage. She was a child. And tonight, she is a child with a name, and a child whose killers are at long last known.
Here's CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNETTE JOHNSON: This is right here, it's where her body laid...
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Right there.
JOHNSON: ... where I will take you.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Annette Johnson has walked this path dozens of time and wondered just who the little girl was. Her headless nude body dumped on the road. The head found a week later dumped in a bag. No name, no family. No one in this little girl's life who even reported her missing. It was up to strangers to keep at least her case alive.
JOHNSON: I decided to put together a committee, which is called the Precious Doe Committee. That's the name that we gave her, because we didn't know who she was, and to us she was precious. And we named her Precious Doe.
GRIFFIN: Vowing not to let her die anonymously, the Precious Doe Committee held a vigil in this park every week for the past four years.
JOHNSON: Every vigil, she was there with us.
GRIFFIN (on camera): She wanted you to find her.
JOHNSON: She did. And every night, I pray about it. I have children of my own, and we in the community felt like this is our child. And we had to protect her. And we had to come out here and rally for her.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The citizens group pushed police to stay on the case and watched as detectives tracked down hundreds of leads that seemed to go nowhere.
JOHNSON: We thought she was the child in Florida. We thought she was from Jamaica. So I was always very optimistic. GRIFFIN (on camera): And each time you had your hopes up and...
JOHNSON: And they crushed them. They got crushed, but I knew it would come. I knew the day would come.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Thursday, Annette Johnson and everyone in Kansas City who adopted a girl they never knew, heard the news they had waited four years to hear.
CHIEF JIM CORWIN, KANSAS CITY POLICE: The little girl we have known for four years as Precious Doe has a name.
GRIFFIN: Erica Michelle Marie Green would have been 8 years old this month.
JOHNSON: I felt so relieved. I felt so happy. And then I started to feel sad. Because I had to think about all night, and I tossed and turned and said, what happened?
GRIFFIN (on camera): But along with the joy of finding out who this little girl was, Kansas City also learned how precious Erica Green died, and there was nothing precious about it.
(voice-over): Prosecutor Mike Sanders at this prayer vigil Thursday night said the mother and stepfather have confessed. He has charged both with second-degree murder. Sanders said the reason the couple gave for killing the girl is even more horrific than how they disposed of her.
MIKE SANDERS, JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: She didn't want to go to bed, became somewhat fussy and started to cry. At that point, he then struck her, threw her to the ground, and then by her statement, kicked her in the head.
GRIFFIN: Then, police say, the couple used a hedge clipper to decapitate this child, dumping the body down this road and the head in the woods.
Not a happy ending. How could there be one? But at least for those who have waited and prayed for a precious little girl, the ending has a name.
(on camera): Do you wish Erica Green, maybe she does in your mind, know how much she is loved by this community?
JOHNSON: She does. I know she does. Because I feel her presence. Every time when I am here, I still feel her presence. She is happy, she's running around. When we're holding hands, she is running between us, you know, laughing, looking at her teddy bears, touching them, smelling her flowers, and saying, boy, they love me. They love me.
GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, Kansas City, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Still ahead from us tonight, No Child Left Behind. The pressure to perform well on tests is intense. So intense, it's led to widespread cheating, and teachers and principals are part of the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.
BROWN (voice-over): The teachers say their principals told them to help their students cheat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and, like, peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer's wrong or right.
BROWN: The kids say it happens all the time.
Children in foster care. They were sick, and medical experiments offered them hope. But also deadly risk. Who was there to protect them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had it not been for a certain drug study, that little boy would have died.
BROWN: Did the experiment exploit the children?
The explanation everyone was waiting for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please may I assure you that my running away had nothing to do with cold feet.
BROWN: The words are the runaway bride's. If not cold feet, then what made her run?
We're not running anywhere tonight. We're in New York, and this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, teachers who say they're under pressure to help students cheat on tests.
A quarter past the hour, if your clock is running three minutes slow, Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta with the headlines -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron. Good to see you tonight.
We begin with the first high-level demotion of a military officer due to the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. President Bush today demoted Brigadier General Janis Karpinski to the rank of colonel. The Army cited her for dereliction of duty, but determined no action on her part contributed to the abuse of prisoners.
Voters reelected Tony Blair to a historic third term as Britain's prime minister on Thursday, but they sharply reduced his Labour Party's majority in parliament in an apparent show of anger at Britain's role in Iraq. Analysts say this means Blair could be replaced at some point by another Labour Party leader.
A grand jury in Atlanta has indicted suspected courthouse killer Brian Nichols on 54 counts, including four felony murder charges. Back in March, Nichols allegedly shot a judge and three other people to death. The prosecutor has stated that, if Nichols is convicted, he will seek the death penalty.
And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, we'll see you in about half an hour from now, about. Thank you.
President Bush campaigned for the White House and won in part on the Texas miracle -- education reform with a strong dose of standardized testing. It became the basis for the president's No Child Left Behind program, and it is not without controversy. Educators and parents alike worry that teachers will spend more time teaching the test than teaching the subject. But in a report airing this weekend on "CNN PRESENTS," filmmaker Stanley Nelson highlights another more serious concern. Teachers teaching kids to cheat because, if the kids fail, the school fails.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2003, another scandal hit the Houston school district. This time there were allegations of cheating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was approached by the principal and informed that I didn't know how to give tests the Wesley way, and that I was informed on how to give the test the Wesley way and that the expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, boys and girls, we're going to go ahead and begin. Open your test booklets.
I handed out the text test. I said -- I read the instructions out of the administrator's manual. I said, OK, get busy. The kids were looking at me with blank stares, and I said, what are you waiting on? And about a third of my students said, the answers. I know that the teachers are cheating because kids have told me that's how it was done with their particular teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would like walk around the room and you'd see that she would be helping kids and telling them that the answer's wrong. You need to do it over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was to stop behind them until they placed their finger on the right answer, and then I was to continue walking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and, like, peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer's wrong or right. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard her talking to students like next to me saying, well, which one do you think is right? Which one do you think is wrong? And helping them eliminate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's disturbing to me that we're not only taking away their education, but we're instilling in small young children, nine, 10 years old, that whatever works for you is OK. But it's not only the teachers' fault. This isn't coming from a lower level. This is coming from way up in the district.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The principal of Wesley Elementary declined to speak with CNN. Accusations of fraud first surfaced in 2003 when teachers began reporting incidents of cheating to the school board and to the Houston Teachers Union. While an investigation was started by the school district, it quickly stalled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm not sure what happened. I've reviewed the file, and it seems that a year or so back, things kind of stopped as far as -- I can't -- you know, I just don't know why they didn't go any further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't until January of 2005 that current Houston school superintendent Abe Saavedra launched a new investigation, examining allegations of cheating at 23 Houston schools.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that testing and assessment is important. The fact is that, in this school district, as there is in the human race, there are dishonest people, all right, and we don't throw out programs because there are a few people that may abuse the situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is not unique to Houston. Forty- four other schools in Texas are under investigation for suspicious rises in test scores, and within the past year, seven states have launched investigations, suspended staff or thrown out tainted scores.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The internal investigation on cheating by the Houston Independent School District has just been concluded. It found cheating on state tests at four schools. Plans are under way to fire six teachers and demote two principals and an assistant principal.
At seven other schools, students say their teachers helped them on tests, but the investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence of cheating. We also note that the Houston probe found no conclusive proof of cheating at Wesley Elementary School. Again, the larger program on CNN PRESENTS this weekend.
In a moment, young children in foster care with a disease that kills. Doctors have a medicine that could have saved them or made them sicker, but it's experimental. So who decides if the child should be allowed in the test?
And later -- she hasn't said I do, so what is the runaway bride saying about what she did. A break first around the world. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "This Week in History," in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to reach outer space.
In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to ever become prime minister of England.
And in 1994, South Africa elected its first black president as Nelson Mandela came to power. And that is "This Week in History."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: This is a story about seriously ill infants and toddlers and drugs that could save them. We know that now. Doctors did not know that then. All they knew was that the children were sick and in some cases dying, and that the drugs they were studying at the time might save them -- or perhaps might make them sicker, or worse. And that was the dilemma. It is not, however, the controversy or even the outrage today which has to do with who the children were and who was looking out for them or not. Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shirley Schristner does what few of us would do. She takes in sick children, a foster mother.
SHIRLIE SCHRISNTER, FOSTER PARENT: And the CPS worker said to me, I don't know why you're going to take this little boy. He only has about two weeks to live.
KOCH: She might be considered a hero, and maybe she is. Schristner allowed some of those children, children with HIV, to be used in drug trials, and some are alive today because of that decision.
SCHRISTNER: And, had it not been for a certain drug study, that little boy would have died, and I'm here to tell you today that that little boy is a football player, and he is a straight-A student.
KOCH: And in some cities, it was what wasn't done that raises questions. Some foster children never had anyone protecting their interests, never had an advocate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To suggest that my predecessor's or that I would be willing to engage in any Tuskegee like experiments is just not right.
KOCH: An investigation by the Associated Press found many foster children were never given the required advocates to oversee their participation in the potentially risky trials. A preliminary count in New York City found less than a third of the 465 foster children in AIDS drug tests there got such monitors. Though such monitors are required by city law, law designed to ensure that kids are not used as guinea pigs in the interest of science.
JENNIFER JONES AUSTIN, NY ADMIN. FOR CHILDREN'S SERV: We have not found here in New York City, in the reviews that we have done to date, any evidence, any indication that children were inappropriately enrolled in clinical trials or that children once enrolled in clinical trials did not get the medical care that was being sought for them.
KOCH: At least seven states used foster children in AIDS drug tests, but major institutions like Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York say they never named advocates to represent the interests of the foster children in their tests. They say that's because the research carried minimal risk, and the children would benefit from being included. On that point, there is disagreement.
RUTH MACKLIN, ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Now, clearly, giving an AIDS cocktail, which is experimental, has never been given in children before, administering that, it's just foolish and wrong to call it minimal risk. The sad story is that those who are supposed to be caring for and overseeing research on vulnerable subjects just dropped the ball.
KOCH: The Associated Press investigation found between 700 and 1,400 foster children have taken part in AIDS drug studies since the late 1980s. They were funded by the National Institutes of Health. NIH would not answer questions about why it never followed up to make certain hospitals were following the rules.
It only issued a statement saying that quote "if those safeguards need to be strengthened, NIH will do everything in its power to do so."
(on camera): Some foster children were sickened, some even died while participating in the AIDS drug trials. Critics charge that may have happened because there was no advocate to protect them.
(voice-over): But supporters like Schristner maintain many are living healthier lives today, precisely because they took a chance on then unproven treatments.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: CNN's Kathleen Koch.
We're joined from Houston tonight by Dr. Mark Kline, an AIDS researcher, as well as a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. It's good to see you.
Let's just quickly, if we can, set the times here on what was going on at the times in the area of AIDS research and HIV. The kids were dying.
DR. MARK KLINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE: Aaron, it was a challenging and really a devastating time for the parents, for the children, and for the doctors who were caring for them. This was a time when there were very few effective therapies available by prescription, and our feeling at the time really was that, in many cases, the best opportunity for long life and health for these children was perhaps by participation in a clinical trial that offered access to newer and potentially more potent drugs.
BROWN: Now let's look at some of the particulars. I think that's an important starting point here.
As you look back on it, the beauty of 20/20 hindsight, I suppose, is there any question in your mind that foster children, in particular, should have had someone, specifically advocating for them?
KLINE: Well, I think there probably is a two-part answer to that question, Aaron. First, even in retrospect, I believe that the children who participated in the trials mentioned were exempt from this rule regarding an independent advocate because all of these trials had the potential to produce direct benefit for the children, and because of what we knew about the drugs that were in use by prescription at that time, we felt very strongly that these experimental drugs offered a better risk benefit calculation for the children.
Now, the question about whether there should have been an advocate of some sort, I think in every case there was. There was the foster parent, who was looking out for the interests of the child. There was, in many cases, an agency like Children's Protective Services, that was looking out for the best interests of the child. And hopefully the medical team, the pediatricians and the social workers and nurses, were looking out for the best interests of the child.
BROWN: Presumably, all of you cared about the children. No one's suggesting -- well, maybe some people are suggesting -- we're not suggesting, that no one cared about these kids. It's that the federal law required -- and we can parse this a little bit, but it does seem to me the federal law required there be someone independent of the foster parent because these kids have no parents. There are people -- and you know this -- there are people who would argue that foster children are so vulnerable, and I think there are some states that, in fact, make this law. That foster children shouldn't be allowed to ever be involved in these experimental tests.
KLINE: Yes. And I disagree strenuously with that contention. At the time, remember that the drugs we have available for children with HIV were not particularly potent. And we knew that their benefit was only partial and short-lived.
We were fighting to find life saving therapies for children. We were working as quickly as we possibly could. And I think it was important to give children in foster care the same access to the newer and potentially more powerful medicines that children with parents had. I personally would have found it indefensible to say that, as a group, we would exclude foster children from participation in these trials.
BROWN: Just a last quick question. 20 years later, the state of medical ethics changed in how -- in what doctors know and in how doctors think?
KLINE: It has. I think that we all are certainly better informed. And I have to say I think that the issues that have been raised just in the past few days have educated all of us about this issue of independent advocates and the vulnerability of this particular population of children enrolled in clinical trials.
But this was a life or death situation. And many of these children who did access the clinical trials are still alive today because they were in the clinical trials. I firmly believe that.
BROWN: Dr. Kline, good to meet you. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it a lot. Thank you.
Mark Kline at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
Still to come on the program tonight, a place that most of us will never get to see in person. North Korea, a strange and sometimes frightening place. We'll see it through the eyes of two young women for whom it is absolutely normal.
And, of course, normal around here is morning papers. Because whether it's Korea or New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In our "News Doc" segment tonight, we introduce you to a pair of extraordinary young women. But we want to start with a somewhat wider view.
Southeast Asia seen from space at night, at night. The lights representing cities and villages and human activity.
Now look at the Korean Peninsula. A sea of lights in the south, utter darkness in the north. For all we know about North Korea, this might as well be as good a view as it gets.
Recently, though, the North Korean government gave a group of filmmakers the access and the time to tell quite a story about the country and its people, a more revealing story perhaps than the government bargained for. And that is where our two young women come in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL GORDON, DIRECTOR, "A STATE OF MIND": For the first time ever, North Korea, the secret state, would reveal itself to outsiders.
"A State of Mind" is a film that follows two North Korean school girls. We filmed them over a period of nine months, and it basically shows daily life in Pyongyang through the eyes of these two school girls.
We were then granted the access to the Mass Games, the biggest human performance in the world.
Up to 12,000 schoolchildren are used. Each school practices daily until perfection is achieved.
Essentially, Mass Games is a metaphor for North Korea. It's all about teamwork. It's all about the place of the individual within that team. And although this is a spectacular, it can only be done by all these individuals working together for the greater good.
There are two girls, one was 13, and one was 11. The 13-year-old was a girl called Pak Yun-Soon (ph), who was the best gymnast for her age. And that's why she was chosen.
What made it very interesting for us was there were three generations in her family that live together, and five of them in a very small, two-room apartment.
We got the full sort of list of daily life. We were in their homes when they woke up. We were there all through the day. We went to the schools, went to the workplaces. We got a fairly all-around flavor of daily life in Pyongyang.
Even in the central district of Pyongyang, the most important area of the city, most nights are spent without electricity at some point in the evening.
The blackout was quite an extraordinary moment for us, because during the whole time that we'd negotiated the access, we said, if that happens, you know, we carry on filming. They were quite annoyed, because the blackout sort of happened on their watch, you know, and it's not something that's you're particularly proud of. But, obviously, there was a reason. It was the Americans' fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated on screen): This is all because of the Americans. Because we're always doing things like air raids and blackout, I think, just as we're taught at school, we have to endlessly hate the U.S. and fight them to the end.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated on screen): When I was young, I didn't know if the U.S. imperialists were bad or good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: (INAUDIBLE) is an educational for the Korean people to sort of continually educate their own people in their beliefs about the Korean War. Granddad took his granddaughter to the war museum to show what had happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated on screen): Grandfather, is that (INAUDIBLE) from the U.S. Army or something?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: He took the girl to the museum in order to show her what the American imperialists had done to his country, and in his eyes, what they continue to do by being in South Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated on screen): I saw the brutal bombing of our country, and the atrocities suffered by our people. I saw things being done that no human could do. I became more enraged about U.S. imperialism, and felt we had to rid this land of U.S. imperialism completely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON: The grandfather is a construction worker. He's worked on every major construction project over the last 35 years, which is essentially he's rebuilt Pyongyang. And we said, what's your favorite building? And he said, well, actually, it's my apartment. You know, I built this in 1994, and I didn't realize I would move into it. But this is what I have the most pride in, because it's where I built the house my family lives in.
It's Sunday, the official day of rest in Pyongyang.
"State of Mind" is only a tiny fraction of what is out there in North Korea, but it's the first time they've ever allowed anything like this. And really, just understanding and just being able to see the North Koreans, life goes on within the system.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Again, the name of the documentary is, "A State of Mind."
Up next on NEWSNIGHT, testimony in defense of Michael Jackson, and the runaway bride, the next chapter. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of you know who. But first, 30 minutes from when we last saw her. So in that regard, we're right on time. Erica Hill with the headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Indeed you are, and I'll take it.
Aaron, we start off with another you know who, Michael Jackson. His defense team calling its first witness to the stand today. Two young men testified that, while they spent many nights sleeping with Jackson at his Neverland ranch when they were children, the singer never molested them.
A high-speed police chase this afternoon in Broward County, Florida, local reports say began after an armed robbery, when the suspect took off in a white Chevy camper sideswiping some cars as he zips along the highway. The driver eventually swerved into the median, allowing police to move in and arrest him.
And a double explosion this morning outside the British consulate in New York City. Two improvised devices blew up, slightly damaging the building. No one was hurt. Police don't have any suspects. Video surveillance tapes from buildings in the area are being examined for possible clues.
And that is the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you.
As we prepare to write another chapter in the story of Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride, we will say again that running away is not a crime in America, but there was that little fib she told which led to another apology read by another spokesman, which only seemed to raise more questions and quell little anger. Here's CNN's Charles Molineaux.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry for the troubles I caused.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter and a stony faced Police Chief Randy Belcher watched today's statement waiting for more.
MAYOR SHIRLEY LASSETTER, DULUTH, GEORGIA: As far as anything for the city, I don't think we got anything from that.
MOLINEAUX: The city of Duluth estimates the search for Jennifer costs upwards of $60,000. The city clerk is still going over stacks of e-mails, mostly critical of Jennifer or demanding she pay the city back. Some are sympathetic. Some offer a bit of free analysis.
TERESA LYNN, DULUTH CITY CLERK: They felt like she was disturbed, that she was acting out scenes from the Julia Roberts movies.
DR. THOMAS SMILEY, WILBANKS' SPOKESMAN: Please may a sure you that my running away had nothing to do with cold feet.
MOLINEAUX: As the pastor at Jennifer Wilbanks' family church read her statement of apology, he said that her disappearance was a flight not from marriage or her fiance John Mason, but her own inner demons.
SMILEY: I had a host of compelling issues which seemed out of control. Issues for which I was unable to address or confine.
MOLINEAUX: Pastor Tom Smiley said Wilbanks is still in a fragile state and is now getting professional psychological help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that's really pretty.
MOLINEAUX: Angie Dooley, at Duluth's Annabellagio bridal shop has seen her share of jittery brides. She is not about to be satisfied with any prepared statement.
ANGIE COOLEY, ANNABELLAGIO BRIDAL SHOP: I think it would be nice for her to come forward herself and just apologize to the community and just let them know she didn't mean for this to happen.
MOLINEAUX: Duluth's mayor hopes this is a sign of progress.
LASSETTER: From the legal side of that, and I thought that would come out today. But it hasn't. But I think this is the first step for Miss Wilbanks and that is her deep apologies.
MOLINEAUX: As for that legal side, the Gwinnett County D.A. says his office should finish up its investigation perhaps as early as tomorrow. The degree to which the mayor and the rest of the community is satisfied with Wilbanks' contrition and her willingness to make good might just possibly affect whether criminal charges are filed against her.
Charles Molineaux, CNN, Gainesville, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, we'll continue our coverage on that, morning papers -- that's morning papers, Aaron, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. If you figured out why yesterday's weather word for today in Chicago was quintessential. Did you figure that out? I don't think you did.
Christian Science Monitor, "Could Bigger Sunni Role Stop Attacks?" insurgent violence -- it's just been awful for the last four or five weeks. "Insurgent violence following formation of Iraq's new government continued yesterday, killing at least 20 people." I think 60 people died yesterday.
The Daily News, there was a big scare this morning here in New York, and the Daily News -- we're so pleased to have the Daily News, but we'd like more edge to their headlines, OK, over there. "Terror Jitters, Secured Heightened After Makeshift Grenade Explodes At British Consulate." Speaking of the British -- I can do a segue out of anything. "Blair Set To Win Third Term But With Smaller Majority." Tony Blair there. You can't really see him. I guess they're punishing him a little bit for that Iraq stuff that didn't play very well.
The Times Herald Record, upstate New York. Can you get me over here, Ed? "Cheerleaders Flip Out Over School Restrictions." Texas has passed legislation to make it illegal, I guess, to have sexually suggestive cheerleading.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow, buoyant. Today, by the way, is 05-05-05. Get it? Quintessential. We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: V.E. Day -- remembering World War II and the greatest generation tomorrow on the program. "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 eastern time. Those good folks are eating and preparing the program as we speak. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Until then, good night for all of us.
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