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Connecticut Train Collision; Plane Catches Fire; North Korea Launches Missiles; Real-Life Drama At Cannes; Powerball Jackpot At $600 Million; Texas Digs Out From Tornado Damage; Weekend Weather Could Be Rough; IRS: No Politics In Tax Exemptions; Obama Wants "Shield Law" For Media; Cuts At National Parks; Victim: Madoff Still Blames Others; Markets Still On Upward March; Can O.J. Simpson Win A New Trial?; Jurors Hear Emotional Statements; Back To Boston: Moments Of Impact

Aired May 18, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks, Poppy. Investigators are peeling back the wreckage now from two commuter trains trying to find out what caused that terrible collision. We'll go live to the scene in a moment.

And the IRS scandal is just one of the problems facing the Obama White House, but could there be any legal fallout from these scandals? Our legal guys will be weighing in coming up.

And did you already get your Powerball ticket? Well, the drawing for the $600 million jackpot is tonight and everyone wants a shot at it, but what are your odds?

We begin with that devastating commuter train crash in Connecticut. NTSB investigators are now on the scene. The collision last night injured dozens of people and it's creating quite a nightmare for commuters.

Let's go straight to national correspondent Susan Candiotti who is live in Bridgeport for us. So Susan, what is happening there right now?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. Well, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are currently on site and of course, they are fanning out to take a closer look at this accident scene, which they said covers about 200 yards or so, so the length of let's say two football fields.

We're talking about two commuter trains, one going eastbound from New York heading to New Haven, Connecticut, and the other one going in the opposite direction. The first one derailed a little after 6:00 in the evening at the height of rush hour on Friday night when that accident happened.

So they are trying to determine, of course, what caused it. Of course, a number of passengers were injured, 250 passengers between the two trains, 70 people were hospitalized. The good news is the vast majority have been released from the hospital. Three remain in critical condition.

Here are some of the things that the National Transportation Safety Board is taking a look at as possible reasons for the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EARL WEENER, NTSB: We'll be looking at the braking performance of the train, the condition of wheels, and condition of the car. We'll be looking at the general condition of the track and the rail bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Still a lot of work to be done. There are so many possible causes. They don't know how long it will take. They are also talking about when the trains derailed one thing that kind of slowed them down a little bit is the twisted metal broke apart, but they were slowed down by the gravel they had to go through.

So things they said could have been much worse. They are also saying that you can imagine, Fred, these lines are so popular they don't know how much time it's going to take and how long the lines will be out of service by the time these investigators get their work done. So how long it will take for commuters to get their service back online between New York and Boston.

WHITFIELD: Susan, what are some of the things that they are looking into as to how this happened in the first place?

CANDIOTTI: Well, as the investigator was telling you, they are looking at the braking system. They are looking at the possibility of human failure. They will be talking to passengers to see what they might have heard and seen. There might have been braking problems on the track. The condition of the track might be in play. They are not discounting anything at this time. The question of foul play came up. They don't know enough yet to rule anything in or out -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Candiotti, keep us posted on that. Thank you so much from Bridgeport, Connecticut.

All right, some pretty frightening moments for passengers aboard a plane this morning. A Russian plane carrying 140 people caught fire as it landed in Moscow. Investigators believed the fire started in the Boeing 737 left landing gear. No one was injured. The passengers included members of a Russian pop band however.

All right, now to news out of North Korea, North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula today. That's according to South Korea semi official news agency. The launch appeared to be a routine test of a short range tactical weapon. Tensions have been diminished in the region since last month.

And then this in Europe, sounds of gunfire and a jewelry heist. They are not unusual on the screen at the Cannes Film Festival however -- this time it was not on the silver screen instead the drama was very real. A 43-year-old man was actually arrested after firing a gun loaded with blanks during a live television interview.

You see folks who were scattering there. And among the scatter, Oscar-winning actor, Christoph Waltz. He was running for cover. The suspect, as you see pictured here, who authorities are not identifying told police the he believes in God and wants to change the world. He was examined by a psychiatrist who says he's not mentally ill. This drama comes after jewels worth more than a million dollars were stolen from a hotel room on Thursday there during the Cannes Film Festival.

So if you want a shot at winning $600 million in this country, today is your last day to buy a Powerball ticket. It's the biggest jackpot in Powerball history and the second biggest lottery prize ever.

Lisa Desjardins is live for us in Falls Church, Virginia. Lisa, you already purchased a ticket. Are you feeling lucky?

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I have to be honest. I'm kind of a pragmatist, Fredricka. I mean, I would love it if this ticket wins, but I'm a little open about my real chances here. The odds as we've telling folks this morning of any one ticket winning are one in 175 million.

I know that might be a number that actually means nothing to people, so we'll give you some context in a minute. But the odds might be just a little bit higher here at this store because last march there was a $1 million winning ticket. In fact, you know, it's not just the lottery winner who gets money from that. Here's the store's recognition.

The store itself got $10,000 last year. That was just from that $1 million winning ticket. So let's look at a graphic what that means, 1 in 175 million for a single jackpot win tonight. Well, how about holes in one on a golf course?

If you were to strike consecutive holes in one on a Par 3 course, the odds of that are 1 in 156 million, Fredricka. So think about it that way. Your odds really are not all that great.

WHITFIELD: But that doesn't deter people from dreaming of clutching that winning ticket. But if no one wins tonight, right, we're talking about this $600 million, it is going to go up substantially.

DESJARDINS: Yes, then we're talking about crazy money honestly. If no one wins tonight, the jackpot will be $950 million. It will be insane. In fact, the one good thing about only buying one ticket, Fredricka, is that if you buy a second ticket you can double your odds. I'm actually going to go do that right now so one more Powerball. We'll see how many I'll buy today during these live shots. So now my chances have doubled.

WHITFIELD: Good, very good. We're happy for you. I'll be buying my ticket today too. So, you know, maybe I'll get two. All right, Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much. Good luck.

DESJARDINS: Right here, the winner.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll remember that from Falls Church, Virginia.

All right, not so lucky, a town in Texas, a tornado made its way through and now help is starting to pour in. We are there straight ahead.

And O.J. Simpson in court this week, he wants to get lucky. He wants a new trial on his robbery and kidnapping conviction. We'll find out what the chances are for him to get out of jail a little later on this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. What took minutes for tornadoes to destroy will take months if not years to rebuild. The people in Granbury, Texas, face a long, hard road ahead as they also mourn the death of six people there. Today, survivors started lining up for permits to go back to their homes to see what might be left of them.

Our Nick Valencia is live for us in Granbury. So, Nick, the biggest needs right now are what?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The biggest needs are getting people back into the community to see what's left. We're outside of the church, the Church of Christ, where hundreds of people lined up earlier this morning to get the permits that allow them to go back into the Rancho Brazos neighborhood.

Fred, this EF-4 tornado just hovered right over that community and completely obliterated. We have been hearing haunting stories of survival, but none more haunting than the story of 17-year-old of Dillon Whitehead who said the tornado picked him up 20 feet in the air and he thought he was taking his last breath.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DILLON WHITEHEAD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I was in the air. I was about 20, 30 feet up in the air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tornado picked you up?

WHITEHEAD: Yes. I opened my eyes and see all the debris flying around me. A piece of wood hit me in head. I was doing somersaults on the ground. I tried to run away from it. It kept on dragging me. I kept on getting hit by stuff. Something pushed me down to the ground. I got knocked out. I woke up and I pulled the debris off me and started running away. The wind was still dragging me down. I finally got away from it. I looked back at the tornado and -- it was unreal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Dillon said he was lucky to be alive. His story is not too unsimilar from the stories we have been hearing from other residents who had their homes flattened. We also talked to the seven people who were presumed missing after the tornado. They were a family, the Rodriguez family. They spoke to me earlier from their car.

They didn't tonight go on camera, but they said they are lucky to be alive. They said they were actually one of first people out of the Rancho Brazos neighborhood, which is why people couldn't get in touch with them. Right now, they are staying with a friend and only have their clothes on their back. They said they have nothing to go back to -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Unbelievable. Nick, I'm still fascinated by Dillon's story. So do you know anymore about, you know, how it was that he was swept up? Was he already outside? Was he inside his home when this happened? What about other family members?

VALENCIA: Dillon was outside at the time of the tornado. He said he saw the hail. He was outside in front of his house. He saw the clouds sort of shift and start to swirl. At that point, he tried to go back inside and that's when the tornado snatched him and picked him up.

He said he was doing summer -- summersaults and he couldn't get out of the tornado's grasp. He was finally able to come back to consciousness. He was hit with a piece of wood that knocked him out for a brief period of time and he was able to reconnect with family members.

His mother was alongside of him while he was doing that interview. She was not injured at all, but he suffered very serious injuries. A broken foot, he was in crutches. Stitches to his left and you saw the black eyes. He is still recovering and you know, he said that sort of blank stare going through shock still. A lot of the residents in Rancho Brazos are going through the same thing -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's extraordinary. Even given what he's been through, he is one to consider himself lucky given that six people died. All right, thanks so much. Nick Valencia, appreciate that.

All right, the Upper Midwest, well, it might be next. Severe weather is expected from that same system that generated the Texas tornadoes or at least one tornado perhaps. Then in the south, this is the scene in Ardmore, Alabama. It may have been a tornado that hit that area uprooting the trees as you see.

Let's check in with Alexandra Steele in the Severe Weather Center. So are we talking about the same system there or are these two separate trajectories there?

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There are some separate situations happening. We have a robust atmosphere and unfortunately, it looks like this could be the greatest tornado in terms of the number of tornadoes we've seen thus far this year. It's been a very quiet year in terms of tornadoes.

Of course, we get to see some strong tornadoes the other day, but in terms of the amount, this really could be the most we have seen. All right ,so here's a look at the radar, a couple different things happening. This is the southeast. This is not the quadroon of concern for tornadoes today.

But we have had an awful lot of flooding throughout Alabama especially around Birmingham this morning, major flash flood warnings. We've seen between 5 inches and 6 inches of rain. Now farther west, it's the plains today and plains in Upper Midwest tomorrow. That will see the threat for tornadoes, most likely tomorrow, some very strong tornadoes.

But it's along this I-35 corridor, so let me delineate the day and show you how it will all come together. Now here are the ingredients we haven't had thus far this season, a lot of warm, moist air coming in here from southeast. We haven't had here dew points, which is the measure of the amount of moisture in the air, in the 70s where they are now and will be for the next few days. That's ingredient number one.

Again, we also have this upper level feature, which will be incredibly robust. So we have about 50 mile per hour winds at about 5,000 feet coming in from the southwest, this warm, moist air coming in at the surface. With that it is called the dry line and that's where we're going to see these tornadoes fire up.

So here's the concern today. It's really Western Kansas, Central Nebraska, and west of I-35. Now 7 million people impacted today, 20 million tomorrow along I-35. So you can see delineated from Sioux City to Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Wichita, that's where we'll see strong tornadoes most likely so for today, large hail, damaging winds.

Here's the delineation where we'll see them today, tornadoes likely and tomorrow, farther eastward, strong tornadoes. Again, Fredricka, this really looks like the biggest tornado outbreak we have seen this season finally everything coming together so really a scary scenario and 30 million people impacted between now and really on Monday.

WHITFIELD: Yes, because usually we would have seen already a lot more tornadic activity at this juncture. Now it's just heating up all of a sudden.

STEELE: Absolutely only 70 tornadoes in April compared to two years ago we had 800 tornadoes in April. So April and May obviously the pea, it's been quiet, but now that's not the case as we head towards the next three days. It's really tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow the big show, and then on Monday.

WHITFIELD: All right, folks need to stay tuned and keep close attention. All right, thanks so much, Alexandra. Appreciate that.

All right, you might want to call it a stormy week for the White House this past week. The IRS scandal is just one of the problems facing the Obama administration. So we talk like impeachment, jail, are there legal challenges for the White House on the horizon? Our legal guys will be weighing in on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A week after the IRS admitted, it flagged applications for tax exempt status from groups with conservative- sounding names. The agency's outgoing commissioner blamed the problems on overloaded workers, not political targeting. So listen to this crucial question that Steven Miller answered at a hearing yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE DEVIN NUNE (R), CALIFORNIA: Did you ever have any contact either by e-mail, phone or in person with the White House regarding the targeting of tax exempt groups from 2010 until today?

STEVEN MILLER, ACTING IRS COMMISSIONER: Absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's bring in our legal guys. Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor is joining us from Cleveland. Good to see you.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Hi, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Las Vegas. Good to see you as well.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hi, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, gentlemen, so Steven Miller, he resigned this week as acting commissioner, but he still showed up on Capitol Hill yesterday facing tough questions. You heard his response. Miller said that the IRS division that handles request for tax exempt status was, in his words, overloaded because of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision. So Richard, explain the correlation there.

HERMAN: Well, in 2010 the Supreme Court in that Citizens United gave overly broad powers now to corporations and many corporations flooded the IRS to get tax exempt status. What the IRS did here was really put the screws to certain groups that were seeking the status under the umbrella of if your company is involved in political activity, if that's the intent and the purpose of your entity, you're disqualified from tax-exempt status.

So that was the rationale behind the IRS and in the end, Fred, when the smoke clears here, this is administrative and regulatory. It's not going to rise to criminality despite the Tea Party waving flags and the Republican Party getting up in arms over this.

WHITFIELD: Avery, do you agree these were legitimate questions that were to be asked of any applications and perhaps it's not an issue of certain groups being targeted? Perhaps it's just an issue of there were more Tea Party-related groups that had kind of flooded the application process?

HERMAN: Convenient.

FRIEDMAN: Well, they did flood it, but the fact is the inspector general's investigation showed, yes, there was political intervention, significant to use their word. But of the 300 organizations, 70 were Tea Party so there were some evidence to that. I think Congress has the right question of Miller, was there a connection between the White House? He, of course, said no under oath.

You know what? We have heard partisan calls for impeachment, which is stunning to me because what the heck? Maybe we should do an investigation first. There's a question of whether or not the attorney general can do it. Believe me, Justice can do it. Congress is now doing it. Call for an independent council.

Actually to be honest with you, it's not a bad idea. From a bipartisan perspective, Fredricka, that's the way to go. Let's get this cleaned up and tighten up the IRS.

WHITFIELD: It sounds like both of you are in agreement that this is not criminal, that the words impeachment and jail time being used here might be an overreach. But an independent council is something that would be appropriate.

FRIEDMAN: I agree.

HERMAN: What's interesting to know here, Fred, is that when the former commissioner testified in July of 2012 before Congress and was specifically asked in 2012 about what was going on here with the tax exempt status and the increase by the IRS, he made like he didn't know, so you know, that's the one area --

FRIEDMAN: That has nothing to do with White House.

HERMAN: No. I'm not saying the White House. I'm talking about the issue here.

FRIEDMAN: Maybe he's going to face contempt of Congress. We'll see, nothing to do with White House.

WHITFIELD: There's another issue that I guess is being invited to be part of the process of scandals as related to the White House and we're talking about the federal shield law to be reintroduced to the Senate, the president wanting that. He's asking for that after the Associated Press revealed the Justice Department had seized some of the phone records from the AP as part of a national security leak investigation. So Avery, explain the shield law and how and why this is appropriate for the president to be requesting.

FRIEDMAN: Well, it's a long time coming. I think this is a reaction by President Obama to distract from the issue. Frankly, this is a constitutional outrage. You have over up to 100 reporters and editors, reporters of the "Guardians of the Democracy" and the Department of Justice is supposed to notify news outlets before something like this happen. To say we need a shield law. We have been talking about needing a shield law for 20 years. It's overdue. Yes, we need it, but even with a shield law, there's an exception when dealing with national security. Good thing to propose, but it doesn't resolve the issue of Justice Department's inappropriate behavior with the Associated Press. Absolutely wrong, constitutionally problematic.

WHITFIELD: So Richard, how else might the Department of Justice gone about or even the White House go about trying to figure out who is leaking information, if we're talking about national security is at stake and that's a justification for seizing these records?

HERMAN: In this day in age with what's been going on and especially in light of what just happened up in Boston, the federal government has broad powers to protect the United States and to protect us and Avery talked about the exemption. You can have all the shield laws you want.

When the government and the White House have that ability to couch their investigation in terms of protecting the United States, they can do it and there's no protection to the citizens. They are going to do it.

Again, just like in the prior discussion, there will be no criminality here. Even though the request was overly broad and maybe never done in history before this broad, nobody is going to have to face any criminality here.

FRIEDMAN: It was by the rules.

HERMAN: They didn't do it.

WHITFIELD: This is the kind of discussion and debate that's taking place right inside beltway. We're going to have you back in 20 minutes for other topics to talk about including that of the Jodi Arias penalty phase as well as what's going on in the O.J. Simpson trial. We're going to talk about the penalty phase in particular.

Get a load of this. Someone sets up a camera in Alaska hoping to get an up and close kind of look at a grizzly bear and, boy, did they get that. Maybe too close. We're going to talk about how this came to be and what's to be learned from it.

All right, but first a trip this summer to the national parks may reveal the splendor of nature something like what you just saw perhaps and the impact of government cutback. Josh Levs is on the go with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can still count on old faithful to be on time, but the rest of your schedule at Yellowstone and other national parks could change this summer.

MIKE LITTERST, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: The sequestration called for a 5 percent cut to the National Park Services' budget. Part of the savings is going to come in form of 1,000 summer seasonal employees so lacking those employees, visitors will see fewer ranger- guided program that those might have given or the closure of some facilities one or two days a week.

LEVS: Adjusted hours and programs can be found on the National Park Services' web site nps.gov. But despite the cuts, there are still plenty of special events planned for the summer.

LITTERST: We will be commemorating some of America's most important civil war to civil rights events from the 150th anniversaries of the Battle of Gettysburg and Pittsburgh to the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

LEVS: Admission will be the same for most parks except for one special day.

LITTERST: August 25th marks the 97th birthday of the National Park Service. We'll mark that day with free admission to all the national parks. So that's a good time to plan for a late summer get away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Beautiful. All right, you can find out more about the park service cutbacks at cnn.com/travel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Stories trending right now online. This young girl's expression says it is all. You're about to see it right there. What's become a trend, a high school senior asks someone famous right there in this case pro basketball player Dwyane Wade to go to prom. He said yes. He showed up. She's going to remember it forever. This video is a huge hit on YouTube right now. That's cute.

On to St. Petersburg, Russia, right now. Take a look at this, lightning striking a television tower creating that brilliant light show. And that tower, it's the highest point in St. Petersburg. It acts like a lightning rod and it works.

Do you ever want to see an Alaskan grizzly bear up close? This photographer for the BBC set up a camera hoping to kind of come across a bear and it actually happened. The bear took a bite or two out of it. You get to see up close and personal the teeth right down its throat. It needs a little dental work there too. It's all for the point of conservation. You appreciate the scariness, but also the beauty of this incredible bear.

All right, hip hop in Libya, Italian restaurants, only two years after the fall of Gadhafi. Anthony Bourdain ventures into Libya with a closer look at the very rich culture there. Anthony Bourdain "PARTS UNKNOWN: Libya" on Sunday night 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

Bernie Madoff speaks exclusively to CNN from prison and what he says has one of his victims even more upset, that story on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The man behind a multibillion dollar deception that defrauded more than 2,100 investors tells CNN he feels bad for what he did. We're talking about Bernie Madoff. He spoke to CNN exclusively from prison in North Carolina. Madoff said, quote, "I live with the remorse, the pain I caused everybody. Certainly my family and the victims," end quote.

But one victim who lost his life savings wishes Madoff would just stay silent throughout his 150-year sentence. Mike De Vita is one of the authors of "The Club No One Wanted To Join: Madoff Victims In Their Own Words." De Vita spoke to CNN earlier by phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DE VITA, VICTIM OF MADOFF SWINDLE (via telephone): Why would Bernie continue to call the press? Why is he at a point in his life where he just can't be quiet? The thing that bothered me is he continues to blame others for what happened here. Certainly, I guess my perspective on this is that Bernie Madoff was nothing more than a name on a sheet of paper to me.

It was purely by reputation and by the material I saw about what he was doing. My preference, I guess at this point is he remains quiet until 2139 when he's released from prison. I guess, he has an ego so large he has to stay in news, he has to continue to talk about this, but he cons to blame other people for something that, frankly from my perspective, he did this and he's the only one who did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So of the $17.5 billion swindled, $5.4 billion has been repaid to victims.

It's been another good week for U.S. markets. Stocks finished higher for the fourth straight week. Our Alison Kosik has details.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. It was another record-setting week for the U.S. stock market. The Dow closed at record highs, four out of five days this week so make that 21 times so far this year the Dow has closed at a record high. The S&P 500 also ended the week at a record high.

A big milestone for Google's stock price, it topped $900 for the first time ever after it announced a new streaming music service to compete with Pandora. It also announced a major upgrade to Google Maps. Google seems to be gaining ground at Apple's expense. Google shares are up while Apple is down 18 percent.

The stock market rally is having a positive effect on consumers. We learned Friday that consumer confidence climbed to a six-year high this month. Most of the good feelings are coming from upper income households more likely to be invested in stocks. Earnings from some of the nation's top retailers told a different story about U.S. consumers. Wal-Mart said sales at stores open at least a year were down 1 percent last quarter. The retailer said sales were held back by the payroll tax increase that took effect at the beginning of the year and delayed income tax refunds.

Macy's reported a 20 percent increase in profit boosted by tighter cost controls and a 3.8 percent increase in sales. Trouble at rival JC Penny also helped Macy's. JC Penny posted a quarterly loss of over $289 million on a more than 16 percent decline in sales.

They closed the books on the Ron Johnson era. The former Apple star was fired from JC Penney after his strategy to revamp the department store only made matters worse. The company is looking forward, not back and also said the company is focused on renewing customer excitement and loyalty -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Alison Kosik.

All right, they are the hot legal cases everyone has been watching all week long. O.J. Simpson taking the stand, can he convince the court to grant hum a new trial?

And Jodi Arias has lost her freedom, but now she will possibly lose her chance to live. The legal guys are back with us right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: O.J. Simpson back in court. Our legal guys are back with me now, Avery Friedman in Cleveland and Richard Herman in Las Vegas. Good to see you guys again. OK, Yale Galanter, he's the Miami lawyer who represented O.J. Simpson after Simpson's ill-fated run-in with sports memorabilia dealers back in 2007.

So all week long Simpson's new lawyers have been trying to get his robbery and kidnapping convictions thrown out on the grounds that Galanter bungled the case back in the day. They say he didn't let O.J. testify, didn't pursue a plea bargain, didn't challenge key state evidence and pocketed a half million dollars without hiring a single expert in the case. Guys, let's look at this case one more time. Richard, are these grounds for a new trial?

HERMAN: If the grounds are legitimate, maybe a judge would look at it, but everyone who gets convicted uses the ineffective assistance of counsel as the grounds to appeal it. You need credibility. That's what you need. And this week I'm sure O.J. and his handlers thought he did a good job.

That was until Yale Galanter got on the witness stand and not only refuted everything but told a judge O.J. called him the day after the holdup and said, I know I'm in trouble. I told the guys to bring the guns and it got out of hand. It's over. Fred, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. O.J. is staying in Vegas.

WHITFIELD: Avery? FRIEDMAN: The other part of it is that the underlying premise of this is that O.J. am so charismatic, so charming that as long as I take the stand, everything is going to be perfectly fine. You know what, Yale Galanter knew who his client was, knew exactly what he was doing.

The question becomes is the judge going to believe the lawyer or O.J.? Even though Galanter said I'm uncomfortable talking about this, O.J. waived the right of client/attorney privilege. It was his last shot and I bet you even Yale understands that. It's going to go up in smoke, but yeah, he was portrayed as a crummy lawyer, did a lousy job. I don't think the judge is going to buy it.

WHITFIELD: Is this what could happen when the attorney that represents you also has some financial interests outside of the courtroom and those two things came together and there's a conflict? I heard some arguments that this kind of exemplifies that?

FRIEDMAN: Absolutely perfectly. But fact is they have been good friends for a long time and now he turned into Benedict Simpson. It's not going to work.

WHITFIELD: Not buying it, Richard?

HERMAN: The attorney fought hard. He did everything he could to defend him in a very difficult case. This is instant karma. This is John Lennon singing for O.J. The Vegas case, he had a legitimate shot to beat. He was wrongfully convicted in Vegas, but he got 33 years. He's not getting out in nine years. There's no way Vegas is going to let him go. Here's here for awhile. We'll see.

WHITFIELD: Another high profile case the Jodi Arias case. She is appealing to the jurors and she will do so next week trying to get them to spare her life. She was convicted of first-degree murder, that we know, for killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Well, this week's Alexander's family told the jury what the loss meant to them and it got very emotional.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am a police officer and some of these photos are more gruesome than I have ever seen in my 11 years of law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother's murder has had a major impact on me. It's even invaded my dreams. I have nightmares about somebody coming at me with a knife and then going after my wife and my daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So Richard, how impactful is this kind of testimony? One would think that jurors have already made up their mind about what kind of penalty to impose.

HERMAN: Hopefully not because they are going to deliberate on that this week. But victim impact statements are devastating. These statements are some of the most devastating I have ever seen. One thing interesting to note from a lot of the CNN anchors watching the show and covering it, when they were watching the impact statements, people in the audience were crying, but none of the jurors were crying, Fred.

None of the jurors were crying. This jury, although they are qualified, they answered the question, can you impose the death penalty, they all said they could. It's one thing to say you can do it. It's another thing to actually do it. And otherwise there's no.

WHITFIELD: That's a real conflict. What about Arias herself? She's going to make her appeal, but people might remember that she actually went on television after her conviction. That's something that doesn't ordinarily happen. She said that the death penalty would be the ultimate freedom, but we have heard from the jury. They are doubtful of her. Is this reverse psychology? Is this how they would interpret that?

FRIEDMAN: Fredricka, if anyone can really interpret what this woman is saying, they are Houdini because this jury cannot stand her. She wants the death penalty. I think she's going to get it. I don't see that the mitigators outweigh the aggravators. Those are the factors that go into it. At the end of the day, the jury had made clear at the first two, this is the third phase, pretty clear where they are going. I think we do know what's going to happen here.

HERMAN: Fred, her mother is going to get on the witness stand and beg this jury to spare her daughter's life. What do you mean so what? This is a death penalty case. The mother is going to spare her daughter's life. Arias is to only come clean and beg for forgiveness. That's her only shot here.

WHITFIELD: We will --

FRIEDMAN: Anymore college graduation speeches you're going to be making? You have done two already.

WHITFIELD: I didn't get a chance to fulfill last weekend's promise because I was so ill. I got a terrible, terrible bug. I couldn't shake it. I had no voice.

FRIEDMAN: High profile.

WHITFIELD: I couldn't run my mouth last weekend. I apologize to the folks at North Carolina Central, maybe next year. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Of course, the legal guys are here every Saturday at this time to give us their take on the most intriguing legal cases of the day. We look forward to hearing from them again next weekend.

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WHITFIELD: Tonight, CNN will take you back to the day terrorism marred Boston's biggest day. "Back From Boston: Moments of Impact" tells a story from the eyes of people who were right there on the scene including a photographer who saw the suspected bomber before the device blew. Here's an excerpt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The images that stuck with me the most are the ones of all the people who thought nothing of themselves to run back into that scene, not knowing what was there or if it was even safe to help people, help the victims. I am a freelance photographer and I'm also a staff photographer at Tufts University. This was my third straight marathon. The finish line of the marathon is a special place. Everybody there is in such high spirits because they just ran a marathon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was with my girlfriend's roommates and we were having a great time. We were watching the runners. Just that one guy, you know, he didn't look like he was having a good time. He just didn't seem right. He was there and then he was gone and then boom. The next thing you know, you hear fireworks and I'm on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hear all this cheering and then a loud boom goes off. Then silence. Then second one went off and then it got really loud and chaotic. I knew it was bad when I saw people kicking over gates. These are the big barriers that the police set up. People were throwing them down, running on to the course. I had never seen anything like that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Very impactful. Tonight the photographers and at least one of the victims, in Boston on that day, hear their incredible stories. "Back To Boston: Moments Of Impact" that's tonight at 8:00 on CNN.

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