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Tech Experts Working Non-stop on Website; Helicopter Crashes into Pub, 8 Killed, 14 Hospitalized with Serious Injuries; Detained Vets Apologizes for Korean War Acts; Film "An Unreal Dream" About Michael Morton; Mexico Releases Imprisoned Hit Man, Now Back in United States; Homeless Man Creates Beautiful Music

Aired November 30, 2013 - 17:00   ET

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

ROSA FLORES, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosa Flores in for my friend Don Lemon. Thank you so much for being with me on this Saturday. We have a lot to get to, and we start with ObamaCare take two. The White House said that it's a train wreck website that would be fixed by the end of November. Well, tomorrow is December 1st. And if the site isn't fixed, President Obama could see his approval ratings drop even lower. CNN's Tory Dunnanis covering the last-second fix-it from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TORY DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a frenzied race to fix HealthCare.gov and today November 30th, is the day when President Obama promised the website would be running smoothly for the vast majority of users.

PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: By the end of this month, we anticipate that it is going to be working the way that it is supposed to. All right?

DUNNAN: It's been two months since the botched rollout on October 1st. Sparking a firestorm in Congress, and forcing the administration to set a self-imposed deadline.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: The assessment that we have made is that it will take until the end of November for an optimally functioning website.

DUNNAN: The latest from Jeffrey Zions, the man the president brought in to turn things around, is that the fix is on track, that the website should be able to handle 50,000 users at the same time, double what it once could. And overall, more than 800,000 users per day. But there's a caveat.

To be clear, November 30th does not represent a re-launch of HealthCare.gov. It is not a magical date. There will be times after November 30th when the site, like any website, does not perform optimally.

DUNNAN: And too many people are trying to log in could still spell trouble. The administration says, they'll be put in a virtual queue and will get an e-mail with a better time to sign on. Troubleshooters have been working around the clock, including at this command center in Columbia, Maryland. One expert we talked to says, even if the 50,000 concurrent users' goal is met, how much time they're spending on the site could be a headache.

LUKE CHANG, SOFTWARE DEVELOPER: So, the challenge isn't how many lanes do you have on the highway, it's how fast the cars can go down the highway. Because if there's any breakdown, you'll have a big traffic jam and pileup behind you.

DUNNAN: Republican critics like Congressman Fred Upton aren't letting up. He's taking aim at the administration's claim that running smoothly for the vast majority of users means an 80 percent success rate. Saying, quote, "the situation is so bad that a 20 percent failure rate is the goal."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: And CNN's Tory Dunnan joins me now. And Tory, is the White House confident that this is going to work? Are they like all of us and have their fingers crossed?

DUNNAN: I think everyone has their fingers crossed, but the latest from the administration is that HealthCare.gov is actually performing well on deadline day with what officials are saying is heavier-than- usual weekend traffic. Now, we do know the site was shut down overnight for fixes and updates, we're told there will be more of that tonight but that they're, quote, "on track." And of course Rose, there are also managing expectations saying this is not like turning a light switch on or off and we should probably expect to see some problems down the road, but the main focus, of course, is what happens at midnight, what happens tomorrow and the days to come.

FLORES: That's right. Is it going to work? All right, Tory Dunnan, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

DUNNAN: Sure.

FLORES: And President Obama has a lot riding on the reboot of the Health Care website. The site's rough start has taken a serious toll on how Americans view the president. Last night on ABC he said he's aware of what's gone wrong but that not enough attention is given to what's going well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": It's hard to sit opposite you, Mr. President, and say this, but a lot of the criticism is personal. People just don't think you're trustworthy.

OBAMA: Well, I don't think that's true, Barbara, you know, the truth of the matter is, is that I got re-elected in part because people did think I was trustworthy and they knew I was working on their behalf. I think the bottom line is, Barbara, that I don't know any president who hasn't gone through certain periods during their presidency, maybe George Washington might be the exception --

WALTERS: I remember, interviewed him.

OBAMA: Yes. Well, he probably would have told you, if that were true, that there are going to be moments where things aren't going as smoothly as you want. Very rarely are the good things that happen get the same attention as the things that aren't working as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: The president's approval rating has fallen since the rollout of HealthCare.gov. A CNN poll of polls compiled Thursday put his rating at 41 percent. Near a low for his five years in office.

A helicopter crashed through the roof of a pub, killing at least eight people in Glasgow, Scotland. A band was playing for a crowd hanging out in the pub when suddenly the police chopper smashed through the roof. Three of the dead were the helicopter's crew. Five others were killed in the bar. Fourteen people have serious injuries. Earlier we heard from a witness who saw the terrifying crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I could hear this noise above me, but I couldn't see what it was, and then I looked around and in front of me, about 1,000 feet, between 500 feet and 1,000 feet in the air I could see a helicopter in distress, and then suddenly it just completely lost power and fell from the sky like a stone, really dramatic and terrifying moment. It really did plunge at huge, huge pace towards the ground and it was completely out of control. There was absolutely no -- I wouldn't believe for a second that the pilot was in control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Investigators searched into the night for the others who might be buried in that rubble. CNN's Richard Quest is tracking the story in Glasgow.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And the police were asked out at the news conference earlier this evening. They said basically that the helicopter had crashed through the roof of the building and was now dominating the room. And until they were able to remove the helicopter, which would be a sensitive and complex task, they really wouldn't know what's underneath. So, we're going to have to wait quite some time, because what we've seen over the last few hours, we've seen a long crane. In fact, you can see it now over my shoulder. A long crane with rescue workers very gingerly going over the pub's roof, going down to the helicopter, but being careful not to disturb it.

Because obviously the entire structure is very fragile and extremely unstable. The air accident investigation board, which is the British equivalent of the NTSB, they are already here in Glasgow, and they will be the lead authority in to why this police helicopter came down. It's quite common for the police helicopter on most days I'm told it is flying over Glasgow, and it was on its approach pattern into the city heliport, which is about two miles up the river. So, we don't know why, but the -- but the eyewitnesses say it appears to have been the sound of a sputtering of engine. The rotors appeared to have stopped.

And then the helicopter just fell out of the sky. There are other people who are suggesting that actually what was happening was that the pilot was trying to do a controlled, emergency landing on the roof of the building and got the helicopter on down, and then, of course, it crashed through the ceiling. It will be some time obviously before an investigation puts those details into perspective. For the moment, the way Scotland is looking at this, Rosa, the first minister of Scotland described it as a black day for Scotland and for Glasgow.

FLORES: And that's our Richard Quest in Scotland, and, of course, our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those people.

We move on now to Alaska. The NTSB is investigating a plane crash last night that killed four people including the pilot and a baby. Police say ten people were on board the single engine Cessna. So far there's no word on how the six other survivors are doing. The charter plane crashed in a remote area in Southwestern Alaska near St. Mary's Village.

Health officials in Las Vegas have a medical mystery on their hands. An illness sent about 40 adults and children at a youth football national tournament to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. Many of the patients were staying at the Rio all-suites hotel in Casino. Now hotel used shuttles to take them to the hospital, several of the people affected were from Santa Monica, California. The Rio Hotel says, it's working with officials to figure out the cause of the problem.

For every ten shoppers this weekend, let's be honest, there's a few lookers as well. Seeing what's available only to go home and then buy it online, hopefully for less, but stores have caught on, and that benefits you! The shopper. We're talking about it next.

And later, a man sent to prison for 25 years for murdering his wife. But there's one problem. He didn't do it. We're looking at the case and asking how does an innocent man serve time and come out being a better man.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Welcome back. It's 12 minutes past the hour. Wal-Mart says more than 22 million people converged on its stores yesterday. Jumping the gun on the traditional Black Friday holiday sales. In many places security had its hands full trying to keep shoppers from surging into stores, possibly even triggering a stampede. The day was marred by several unfortunate incidents, we should add. A shopper in Las Vegas was shot and wounded when someone tried to rob him of his TV that he had just bought.

Now to Virginia, a fight over a parking space led to two different arrests. Now, police say they arrived at the Wal-Mart to find one man holding a rifle on another who had a severe knife wound. Tough pictures there. And in Philadelphia one woman pulled out a stun gun as she tussled with another woman inside a mall. Police are investigating.

Now, have you heard the term show rooming? It's when someone goes to the store. They find what they want. Then they go home and, well, buy it online, usually a lot cheaper. But now brick and mortar stores, they're catching on. They're stepping up their game and taking a web page out of the online retailer's book.

That's why CNN Money's tech expert Laurie Segall is joining us. You're talking about something called shopping 2.0. What is that?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECH REPORTER: I've coined it, that's right.

FLORES: That's right.

SEGALL: You know, look, it's all about stores just getting to know you better. Think about when you walk in, if the stores know more a little bit more about you what you would like and that kind of things, it's very futuristic, but it's actually happening now, check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL (voice-over): This holiday season look for shopping to get a little bit personal. Welcome to shopping 2.0. Where stores know your gender, they know your mood.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Hello, Mr. Tacomodo (ph), welcome back to the Gap.

SEGALL: With one new technology they can even anticipate what you might want.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Two samoles (ph).

SEGALL: That's Cako, a cupcake store in San Francisco trying out tech built by a company called index. It helps retailers target products to you based on your taste.

ALBERT CHEN, CAKO OWNER: If you like red other cupcakes, you probably like the combination of cream cheese as well as cocoa cake and we would recommend the pumpkin cheesecake.

JONATHAN WALL, INDEX CO-FOUNDER: We kind of looked to Amazon as the back job to a lot of the things that we do. Amazon's vote really an incredible experience online and a lot of this has to do with their ability to recognize who you are.

SEGALL: They want to bring that experience offline.

WALL: Offline retailers need to be able to recognize you really on any channel you engage with them, whether it be online, social or in- store.

SEGALL: The technology which you opt into is baked into their payment system to collect your buying behavior. It's also integrated into a store's app so you'll get push notifications when you enter the store.

MARC FREED-FINNEGAN, INDEX CO-FOUNDER: So, it will say, welcome back, Marc. It might suggest a new product. Maybe provide you with an incentive to try something new.

SEGALL: The index founders were previously behind Google wallet but this technology doesn't require a phone to pay.

FINNEGAN: Yes, you don't have to pull out your phone or your wallet. You walk up and you enter an index PIN. And you effectively log into the store.

SEGALL (on camera): Right now the technology is limited to smaller retailers like Cako but the index founders are hoping that eventually the technology will be in major retailers. And imagine this, by walking into a store, you're actually logging into that store.

(voice-over): Ads are getting smart, too. Imagine technology that knows your gender. Knows how you feel. Immersive labs is making this possible with digital ads on phones or tablets that use the webcam to analyze your reaction and whether you are excited by the product or not. Other entrepreneurs set out to transform the way we pay and this the season where surprisingly less might be more.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: See, my wallet is filled with cards. Credit cards, debit cards, reward cards, gift cards. Filled with them. Too many. This is a coin.

SEGALL: The connected device digitally combines all your credit cards into one.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All these cards are inside my coin.

KANISHK PARASHAR, CEO, COIN: Ended up choosing the wallet you'll be choosing on the coin.

SEGALL: It works on an app, users swipe their cards, take a picture and keep one card for all purposes.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All you ever need is one coin for all your cards.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: And you can imagine this kind of technology, think about this, you walk into a restaurant. They know who you are. They know the dishes you've ordered in the past. They give you recommendations. They know if you're a vegetarian or not. This is technology that's being built right now in Silicon Valley. It's not just one company, it's many companies working on it.

FLORES: And to me it's a bit scary because it's almost, like, they have too much information about you it's almost, like, oh, my gosh, they even skew how much you're going to pay for certain things, because it's like, oh, let me give you a coupon so you can buy or what is it? SEGALL: Well, privacy is also huge. I spoke to the folks from Immersive Lab and they said, well, we don't collect the data. This is anonymous data but there need to be people like us asking these questions right now while the technology is actually out there being built.

FLORES: Thank you so much, Laurie Segall, we appreciate it. Lots of good stuff, thank you.

An American held captive in North Korea admitting to war crimes. Yes, crimes, he says he committed while serving in the Korean War more than 60 years ago, but will those words set him free?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: The U.S. has volunteered to destroy the most deadly and volatile portions of Syria's chemical weapons supplies. The United Nations and the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons have been inspecting and seizing Syria's chemical weapons sites since October. The U.N. has set a deadline for the middle of next year for all of the chemicals to be destroyed. The destruction is expected to happen at sea on board a U.S. ship.

In Iran, meantime, the president says it will not dismantle any of its nuclear facilities as part of any future deal on its nuclear development. In an interview with the "Financial Times," President Hassan Rouhani was asked if dismantling Iran's nuclear facilities amounted to a red line, he answered, quote, "100 percent." Iran, of course, cut a six-month deal last weekend to limit its nuclear development. Israel has said any long-term deal must lead to the dismantling of Iran's nuclear capability.

In North Korea, the state-run news agency says an 85-year-old American veteran who has been detained for about a month has apologized for his actions, including killing troops and civilians during the Korean War. The White House is responding to Meryl Newman's apology saying in part, given Mr. Newman's advanced age and health conditions, we urge the DPRK to release Mr. Newman so he may return home and reunite with his family.

The White House is also asking for fellow detainee Kenneth Bay to be released, the question now, of course, will Newman's apology help him get released. Here's CNN's Karl Penhaul in Tokyo.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: State media is reporting that the North Korean authorities are accusing American retiree Meryl Newman of hostilities toward North Korea, of infringing on its sovereignty and dignity, and also slaving the socialist system. That sounds like political mumbo jumbo until you look at the detail of what exactly they're accusing him of. North Korea is focusing very heavily on Mr. Newman's record as a U.S. officer. They say that he engaged in espionage, subversion and also sabotage activities during the Korean War and also significantly during a short period after the war ended.

In a taped and written confession, Mr. Newman says that he did train and advise a covert and clandestine group of anti-communist parties and guerrillas who operated behind enemy lines inside North Korea. That unit is the sixth partisan infantry regiment a group that military historians say was controlled by the United States and also the United Nations and also coordinated closely with the CIA. Fast- forward, then, to October of this year, and that is when the North Korean authorities say that Mr. Newman returned to North Korea on this tourist package and attempted to re-establish contact with some of the former guerrillas that he had trained and also with their families and their descendants. In his taped confession, Mr. Newman does say that he asked the tour guide to help him make contact with some of those people.

Now, of course, we don't know whether this statement find (audio gap) voluntarily or whether it was coerced. We don't know whether the words are his own or whether the text was written by the authorities and simply passed to him. We also don't know whether the names and events alluded to in that text are, in fact, accurate. What we do know, though, is that statement was signed on November the 9th two weeks after he was arrested as he prepared to leave North Korea. We don't know why it's taken the North Korean authorities three weeks to make this public.

Now, some of the political analysts I've been speaking to say that this confession could satisfy the North Koreans, for propaganda purposes and they now may be preparing to release Mr. Newman. One should, however, of course remember the case of Kenneth Bay, a Korean- American who was arrested in North Korea a year ago now and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Political analysts have said even if the North Korean authorities are preparing now to release Mr. Newman, they may insist on some kind of diplomatic contact with the United States to work out logistics. They may also insist on handing him over to a high-level delegation.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Tokyo.

FLORES: And up next here on CNN, a young mother murdered. Her husband convicted of the crime, but there's a big problem here. He didn't do it. We're looking at this case from multiple angles, all that is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: The CNN film "An Unreal Dream" is the true story of Michael Morton, a man who spent 25 years in a Texas prison for a crime he did not commit. A juror's search for emotion on the stand and a defendant's effort to suppress it seemingly led to a life sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I guess I kept looking at Michael and just noticing that he just didn't seem to have a lot of feeling about him. I guess I kept looking for some emotion that would let me know something about him, what was going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Michael had an amazing capacity to compartmentalize things so that he didn't bring his grief into the office. I don't know what he did with it.

MICHAEL MORTON, WRONGFULLY CONVICTED IN 1987: I didn't think I was going to get convicted. It was going to be a longish trial, but then it would be revealed that there can be no there there. There's nothing to convict. There's nothing hard. There's nothing that says, look, this guy did it. There's nothing beyond a reasonable doubt. And I couldn't imagine what could possibly be manufactured to make 12 people think that I'd killed my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: What led to -- what led a jury to convict Michael Morton of murder? Find out when CNN films premieres "An Unreal Dream" next Thursday at 9:00 Central -- 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Now, truth matters. That's the phrase at the center of this film, and it's one of the only things that helped Michael Morton not give up hope while he was in there.

And joining me to discuss this film is criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes, in Atlanta; and clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere, here in New York.

And I've got to say, this is, like, right off of "Shawshank Redemption." When I was watching it, it reminded me of this.

Let's talk about his psychology, because initially he was -- when he first got convicted, he was very bitter. He was very angry. And then he had some, we could call it, like, a God experience.

DR. JEFFREY GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: A transformation.

FLORES: And it all changed.

GARDERE: Exactly. You're left with two things. First of all, you never think this can happen to you or to anyone. We've been taught, if you tell the truth, then the truth shall set you free. You'll be OK. It didn't happen here. He told the truth. He went to jail, incredibly.

So, what are you left with? At this point, yes, you become bitter, but you either die or you thrive. Not survive, thrive. And that means completely changing your life, having that God experience that you talked about, Rosa, and making something completely different than you ever were before. That's the only way that you go on from something like this.

FLORES: Oh, my gosh, I cannot even imagine.

And, Holly, let's go to you. Because there was no murder weapon. No physical evidence, yet jurors said something like, there wasn't enough evidence to show that he didn't do it. What do you make of that?

HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: What I make of that is a little something in the law that we call burden shifting. It is always incumbent upon the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That doesn't appear to be what the jury thought was happening here. They thought that he needed to prove himself innocent.

And this film, our viewers are in for such a treat. I had the privilege of previewing it. And what these jurors have to say is just amazing, because you need to understand, as a trial lawyer, and I've been a prosecutor and a defense attorney, it's our job to educate them. And some of the jurors talk about his lack of emotion. Well, if that's the case, I would have liked to have seen the defense during the original trial address it. You need to address your strengths and your weaknesses. And they should have told that jury, just because he doesn't react like you think he should, he's not grieving like you would grieve, that doesn't make him guilty. This was a purely circumstantial case. And it just comes down to the jurors not understanding how the system worked.

FLORES: It's unbelievable.

And let's keep on that topic of the jurors. Because the jurors later realized that they had convicted an innocent man. And I can only imagine what would be going through them.

And I know -- let me tell you, folks, when you watch this film, it's a roller coaster of emotions.

Can the jury get over this?

GARDERE: Well, I think they learn a lesson. Just like Morton, they were transformed also. They understood that they made a very big mistake. They were looking for emotion in this man. He's so understated, just as this documentary is very understated, but also very powerful. So, I would think the only way that they could make it is to say, yes, we made a mistake. But now this has taught us a very tremendous lesson about life.

FLORES: And these jurors were in tears after this.

Now, Holly, we've got to talk about emotion, because I know that one of the things that was driving this was the fact that he did not show any emotion in the courtroom. It's one of those things where, you know, he's -- he says a lot of the times he was in a lot of pain. He was going through all this as well. But in this case, emotion, showing no emotion, works -- worked against him.

HUGHES: Right. And that's why you need to personalize your client for the jury. Whether you are the state and your client is the victim of the crime, or whether you are the defense attorney and it is the person sitting in the chair next to you, you need to explain to the jury this man doesn't express emotion like you do. You know, ask him that question when he's on the stand, if you put him on the stand, say to him, why aren't you crying? Didn't you cry when your wife was killed? You need to explain to the jury why he is reacting this way. You can't assume that they're going to know, because when you spend so much time with a client, you get to know them. You sit with them, whether it's interviewing them at the jail or your office. You can't assume the jury is going to understand that's the way this man is. And it's fascinating when you see this film, you understand. Because even now, this is a man who could be bitter, he could be resentful, he could be angry, and he's understated. I think Dr. Jeff used that word. And he is even talking about this horrible injustice, he is so compartmentalized and so understated that we, as citizens, when we sit on a jury and we, as lawyers, we need to be careful not to let emotion overrun the law and the letter of the law.

We need to be a little bit suspicious of purely circumstantial cases, Rosa, because if there's no direct evidence, then we need to really ask ourselves is that proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

FLORES: And I tell you, folks, there are so many magical moments in this film.

Another reminder for you. CNN Films' "An Unreal Dream" premieres Thursday at 9:00 eastern right here on CNN.

And criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes; clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere, don't go anywhere, folks. I want to get your thoughts on this story.

A former Mexican cartel hit man released from prison, back in the United States. He's a free man. Or should we say a free kid? You see, he's only 17 years old.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Welcome back.

As promised, back with me, clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere, here in New York with me; and criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes, in Atlanta.

Mexican authorities have freed a former cartel hit man who served three years in prison for torturing and beheading at least four people. But get this, he was only 14 years old at the time.

Let's get the back story from CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even in a country ravaged by years of drug cartel-fueled violence, it was a shocking scene. In Mexico, three years ago, a baby-faced American teenager accused of working as an assassin for the South Pacific drug cartel was paraded in front of reporters.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo was just 14 years old when this was filmed. Jimenez Lugo is known by the nickname (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). He laid out gruesome details of his life in organized crime.

EDGAR JIMENEZ LUGO, ACCUSED MURDERER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). LAVANDERA: Jimenez Lugo said he was 11 years old when he started killing, and slit the throats of four victims himself. He also said drug cartel leaders picked him off the street and forced him into carrying out the assassinations and that he was high on drugs when he killed cartel rivals.

He was convicted as a juvenile and sentenced to three years in prison. Now he's 17, and was released from prison Tuesday in Mexico. News cameras captured the release. He was quickly deported back to the United States, flown to San Antonio, Texas, where he disappeared back into American society.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they helped facilitate his return, but say privacy laws prohibit the agency from releasing more details.

He was born in San Diego. He's a U.S. citizen. He served his prison sentence and does not face any criminal charges in the United States, so he's free to move around like anyone else.

(on camera): When the young man landed here in San Antonio, we're told he was turned over to an aunt and will spend some time in a rehabilitation center, but it's not exactly clear where that will be.

State Child Protective Services here in Texas say they are not handling his case. And many people will be watching with interest to make sure this young man doesn't return to a world of violent crime.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: All right. So, Holly and Jeff, let's discuss this.

And, Holly, let's start with you.

He served his time. He's back here in his home country, in the United States, legally. Is there anything that police can do to track him?

HUGHES: No, not legally. I mean, they can keep an eye on him. They can conduct surveillance from afar. But they cannot interfere with his right to move about. He was sentenced in Mexico under their juvenile code. He served the max that he was, you know, allowed to serve as the law stands there. So, here in America, he is a free man. And as we say, he has paid his debt to society.

FLORES: And, Jeff, to you. Does a child this age even understand what he is doing?

GARDERE: Well, we're talking about a person who has a brain that's not fully formed yet. Impulse control judgment is extremely poor. He explains, and we can only take his word for it, that he was on drugs, probably placed on drugs by the cartel, brainwashed by the cartel, threatened by the cartel that if he didn't kill these people, murder these people, that he would be killed, too. That's what he says, so we take him at his word for it. And let's look at this politically. And I think Holly would agree, why would Border Patrol get involved, why would the U.S. government get involved in helping as far as repatriation and as well getting him back together psychologically, emotionally? So they feel that he was taken advantage of, as I think many of us do, despite the horrific crimes, because he was so young.

My fear for him, the fear everyone may have for him, let's hope he wasn't so brainwashed that he had gotten positive reinforcement, a thrill from those killings, and in a time of stress, doesn't revert back to that kind of behavior while he's going through the psychological rehabilitation right here in the United States.

FLORES: Oh, my gosh, what a mess.

And, Holly, to you. He served three years in prison. Do you think that that's an appropriate sentence?

HUGHES: Well, no, of course, I don't. He beheaded four people and he admitted to it, but unfortunately, under the law in Mexico, that was the maximum he could receive, Rosa. But I do know, in reading through what is called the federal civil code there in Mexico, they work very closely with their juvenile offenders to try to rehabilitate them. And I know that this young man has received constant counseling. They have worked on not just trying to deal with what he did, but why he did it.

And if we think about it, this is not such an unusual story. Let's think about the Manson family murders, where adults, complete, total grown people were made to do these horrific things because they were brainwashed. They were influenced. They were led down that path.

So, when you think about a little boy -- and being kidnapped at 11, he was a little boy. So, when you think about what he did and why he did it, being threatened, being brainwashed, hopefully, all of the work that they've done with him, while he was serving that prison sentence -- and they are going to continue that counseling here in the United States. You know, I've read reports where they have referred him to resources here. So, hopefully, it will work.

FLORES: Yeah. We have our fingers crossed on that one.

GARDERE: Sure.

FLORES: Criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes, in Atlanta; and clinical psychologist, Dr. Jeff Gardere --

GARDERE: Pleasure.

FLORES: -- here in New York.

And thank you so much for helping us make sense of this.

We, of course, are working on a lot of other stories. Some people spend years trying to play classical music. The man you are about to meet can barely feel his own fingers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: But as you can hear right there, he has no problem making beautiful music. His story, after the break.

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FLORES: Welcome back.

David Welsh has never taken a music lesson. He's been homeless nearly his entire life. While he can't read music, he can definitely play it.

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(MUSIC)

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FLORES: Welsh literally moved people to tears as he played at this secondhand music store. He believes his talent must be God given.

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DAVID ALLEN WELSH, HOMELESS PIANIST: I have been on the streets since I was 6 years old. I don't know how to play music, but I like what I hear in my head. Sometimes I don't even know what key I'm pushing. You know, my eyes aren't even open. I'm just letting the music play the music.

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FLORES: Welsh has been living on the streets of Vancouver for so long his fingers are numb from the frozen, cold nights. But that doesn't stop him from playing the music he plays. For the past year, he's come to the same music store to play the piano. Of course, you could say they don't mind him stopping by.

Now, here at CNN we are preparing for our own holiday tradition, "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute." It's a celebration of the top-10 heroes of the year and their extraordinary work helping others. It airs tomorrow night at 8 00 eastern.

Right now, we would like to introduce you to one of the heroes, Dale Beatty, a wounded soldier making sure every veteran gets the support at home that they need.

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DALE BEATTY, CNN HERO: All veterans have been taught to be responsible for the guy to your left and the guy to your right.

(SHOUTING)

BEATTY: And no matter what, people go to bat for them if they need you.

Go ahead.

Last man, go.

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BEATTY: We wouldn't leave one of our soldiers behind on the battlefield, but we do it so often here at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did three tours in Vietnam. My injuries include my right leg, left elbow and lower back. For 35 years no one cared.

BEATTY: Every war is forgotten when the next war starts. People welcome me home and say they love us and that I'm their hero. I knew after meeting other veterans that wasn't the case for all of us.

These other guys who struggle, they need a hand up.

It is my mission to help other veterans get the support and homes they need from their communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the young man why we are all here today.

(APPLAUSE)

BEATTY: It's just getting the community engaged around a couple of simple changes to someone's house or an entire house built from the ground up.

We want to make their life easier, safer, just better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could not get my wheelchair in and out my front door because I had steps with no handrail. And it made me less of a social person.

BEATTY: We are able to build a deck and a ramp.

There used to be a concrete sidewalk here. We busted that up, got it out of here.

Doesn't sound like a lot, but the impact that it made was tremendous. And their emotions are being rehabbed as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They made me realize the challenges that I have had to end endure meant something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They jump started me back into life. Purple Heart Homes said welcome home.

It's great to be home after 40 years. BEATTY: Regardless of when you serve, where you served, we are all the same. We are all veterans.

They just need to know that somebody does care about them.

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FLORES: And there's much more after the announcement of CNN's Hero of the Year. Don't miss the act of incredible acts of generosity that brought the entire audience to its feet. Watch tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern only on CNN.

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FLORES: Imagine being on the edge between life and death, having a chance to return to this world or go to the next one. Well, many people feel near-death experiences can shed light on what heaven is.

I explored the work of one artist who says heaven is an art.

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FLORES (voice-over): Heaven inspires curiosity. For Wyclef Jean, heaven is in New York.

(SINGING)

FLORES: For Lady Gaga, it's a disco heaven.

(SINGING)

FLORES: For avant garde Japanese artist, Yayok Sama (ph) heaven is an art.

(SINGING)

FLORES: Her exhibit, at the David Swirner Gallery in New York, is called, "I Who Have Arrived in Heaven."

ALES ORTUZAR, DIRECTOR, DAVID SWIRNER GALLERY: The Infinity one in particular is really about gazing into on oneself into infinity. And the paintings are the expression of that, too, of the infinity of the internal, the other world.

FLORES: People wait in line for hours to experience the Infinity room for 45 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes me feel, like, happy and also sad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt the timeless part of it.

FLORES: For others, tentacles and mirrors are a clear reflection of the afterlife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's almost like clouds moving you up and up. FLORES (on camera): Webster's dictionary defines heaven as the abode of God, the angels and the spirits of the righteous after death. Most people go to a different scripture for the answer.

(voice-over): Perhaps the Bible, the Torah, the Koran. If you ask religion professor, Peter Awn, at Columbia University, the answer depends on your faith.

PETER AWN, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Christianity clearly argues for an afterlife, a heaven. For Muslims, on the other hand, they view paradise in much more concrete terms. For the Jewish community, one achieves ones immortality, in a sense, through ones family.

FLORES: It's safe to say, one thing holds true across time, the definition of heaven is intensely personal.

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FLORES: And you can hear more of these extraordinary stories when you watch "To Heaven and Back," tomorrow night, 7:00 Eastern here on CNN.