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Losing an Airline; GOP's Newest Rep; Recreating Pistorius' Deadly Shooting; Recreating Pistorius' Deadly Shooting; Freed after 30 Years on Death Row; Dow Drops Heavily 80 Points in Early Trade; Big Bonuses for Bankers; Death Row Stories

Aired March 12, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

BILL MCCABE, THE MCCABE GROUP: They can be very precise right down to the size of a car or less than that if they need be. So, you can see doors, or wings, or engines, or something like that. They also have the capability of using the maritime or the Navy assets using sonar.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And the public's being pulled into a high tech search through crowd sourcing, getting a surf (ph) by enlisting large groups of people online. DigitalGlobe, a company which operates commercial imaging satellites, is using satellites to take high res pictures of the area where the Malaysia Airlines jet might have gone down. They're inviting anywhere to go on to their platform called Tomnad to view the pictures. More than 25,000 people logged on the first day to help search.

DR. SHAY HAR-NOY-SENIOR DIRECTOR, DIGITALGLOBE: And they see small segments of the satellite image in an incredibly zoomed in fashion. They are then invited to drop tags and pins where they see either a boat, an oil slick, an area with debris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Now, on the back end, when DigitalGlobe collects a certain volume of reliable tags in one area of a picture, they share that with authorities. They've gotten about a million page views per hour. The traffic's been so heavy, the website has had difficulty staying up.

Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know. I tweeted out their website and a lot of people tweeted me back saying, we just can't get on to the site.

TODD: Right.

COSTELLO: And it's because so many people are logging on. The question is, is it helpful to authorities?

TODD: Well, there's a question about reliability. And, you know, when you're pulling in that many people, is everybody going to have a reliable tag? And that's always kind of an issue when you're doing crowd sourcing. The DigitalGlobe people say on their end they have ways of determining who's reliable and who's not reliable, what's going on in a particular image. They have these algorithms, computer programs that look over, you know, over - at overlapped regions of a picture, you know, where people were dropping a lot of tags and they look at what images people agree on. They kind of do all this in a matrix and cross reference everything. And that's how they come up with an area where they might be able to alert authorities. You know, our people are looking at something in this picture. You might want to look at this. It's pretty incredible.

COSTELLO: So going back to your original premise, all -- we have all this technology, all these satellites -

TODD: Right.

COSTELLO: We still can't find this plane. And it really tells you, you know, it's up to people, really, to focus the search and maybe then the technology will work. You can't really take people out of the equation.

TODD: That's right. I mean technology is a tool. We have to always remember that. You know, I've been reading, over the past couple of days, that radar doesn't even work very well when you're over water, when you're a few hundred miles offshore. So you've just got to have the mentality it does take people. It takes the eyeballing just going over these miles and miles of territory in the ocean to do this and then using technology as a tool to help them.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd reporting live from Washington. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a congressional showdown in the swing state of Florida. And the Republican Party comes out on top. Dana Bash is there.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, the Republican candidate who won here says it's all about local issues and all about the constituents here, but try to tell that to his Republican leaders in Washington. I'll have more on that after the break.

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COSTELLO: Thirty-six minutes past the hour.

Riot police and protesters clashed in Turkey's capital of Ankara today. Police fired tear gas and water cannons after crowds tried to block a major intersection. Thousands of demonstrators turned out for the antigovernment protest, one of many across the country. Outrage erupted after a teenage boy died Tuesday from injuries he sustained in antigovernment unrest last summer. It's believed that the boy's head injury was caused by a police tear gas canister.

Frightening pictures coming to us out of San Francisco this morning. Dozens of people in the city's Mission Bay neighborhood have been forced to flee their homes after searing heat from a fire at a construction site popped the windows in their houses. Investigators are waiting for the scene to stop smoldering before they can search for what sparked this five alarm blaze. No injuries reported.

To politics now, the state of Florida, where Republicans are savoring their first congressional victory of this midterm election year. David Jolly has defeated his democratic opponent, Alex Sink, in a high profile special election viewed by the GOP at least as a referendum on Obamacare. And Jolly got a little bit of help from a beloved game show host and supporter, that would be Bob Barker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BARKER, FORMER GAME SHOW HOST: Hello, Pinellas County. I'm Bob Barker and I wish I could be there with you folks tonight, but I would like to say two things. One, help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered. Two, words that I have waited months to speak. Congressman David Jolly, come on down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: They then played the theme from "The Price Is Right." And you can see David Jolly came on down. It was a lot of fun. Chief congressional correspondent Dana bash is in Indian Shores, Florida, to tell us more.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, look, there's a lot of questions about whether Rand Paul, doing a robo call for David Jolly, helped. My guess is he had nothing on Bob Barker. I'm sure you agree.

But big picture, big picture, there is obviously, as you mentioned, a lot of focus on this. A lot of analyzing the results here. David Jolly, when he gave his speech last night, he made it very clear that this is about local issues. He didn't even mention Obamacare at all and the fact that he, of course, as a Republican opposes it and supports this repeal.

But Republicans in Washington spent no time -- wasted no time, rather, jumping on it saying that they believe that the message that Republicans on the outside spent millions of dollars pouring in in TV ads, that repealing Obamacare is the way to go, is -- the fact that the Republican won here, it is proof that their decision to really go all in on that message for the fall is validated and they are absolutely going to do that.

Now, on the Democratic side, to be fair, Alex Sink, the candidate, was somebody who supported Obamacare but definitely said that she wanted to have changes to it. She sort of supported the fix it don't end it approach. That is also something that Democrats, particularly those who are already in office and trying to defend their seats, especially in the Senate, which is really up for grabs, they've been arguing, too. So we're certainly going to look for whether or not this spooked them, the fact that the Democrat tried that message, it didn't work here in a district that Republicans are reminding us President Obama actually narrowly won two elections in a row, even though this seat was held in Republican hands for 43 years before this special election, Carol.

COSTELLO: Dana Bash reporting live from Florida. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, prosecutors in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial simulated their theory on how Pistorius killed his girlfriend. They brought in the actual door that Pistorius fired those fatal shots through. But is it enough to seal their case?

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COSTELLO: Dramatic developments today in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. Prosecutors brought into the courtroom the very door, the bathroom door, that Pistorius shot his girlfriend through, and the cricket bat he used to try to break the door down after the shooting allegedly stopped. A forensic investigator also got down on his knees to hit the door to simulate Pistorius doing it without his prosthetic legs on. CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps joins us with more.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY PHELPS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: What were prosecutors trying to establish here?

PHELPS: The state was clearly trying to establish that Pistorius was on his stumps, not on his prosthetic legs, when he hit the door with the cricket bat. And this would be in contradiction to Pistorius' affidavit at the bail hearing where he claimed that he had shot with his stumps, but that when he had hit the door with his cricket bat, he had put his prosthetic legs on. Interestingly, it also contradicted the state's versions of events at bail where they had claimed that he had shot Reeva Steenkamp with his prosthetic legs on.

COSTELLO: So Pistorius says he fired the shot, realized it was Reeva in the bathroom and that's when you said he went to put his prosthetic legs on. There is a time line here. Can you really tell where he was standing by just looking at the angle of the marks on the door? I mean can you really determine that?

PHELPS: You can't necessarily determine it for sure. Sometimes with this kind of forensic evidence, you can rule it out. For example, if those marks had been much lower down on the door, it would have made it almost impossible for him to have had his prosthetic legs on. But with the nature of these markings on the door, we can't really say for sure one way or the other. And ultimately it will come down to the interpretation of the state's expert witness on the one hand and the defense's expert witness on the other hand and the judge will have to decide which version of events she finds more compelling.

COSTELLO: And just one last question. Because I just find it curious that the bathroom door was locked.

PHELPS: Well, you know, this -- this is something that people have focused on, the fact that the door was locked, but the truth is from a legal perspective, even from a human perspective, we really can't read anything from that. Sometimes people just have strange habits and they do things that seem unusual to other people. And equally, if you use the state's argument that she had there and locked herself to protect herself from him, then one can say, well why hadn't she fled out of the bedroom door? So what it tells us is that it really doesn't tell us anything for sure.

COSTELLO: Kelly Phelps, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM, a Louisiana man walks free after spending nearly 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Martin Savidge has that story. Good morning, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (inaudible) is a man who spent so much time behind bars and not just in prison, but he's on death row for nearly 30 years. We'll have his first words on freedom in just a minute.

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COSTELLO: Oh yes the bell rang just about 20 minutes ago. Wall Street looking at a second day of losses though, the Dow taking a dive following that opening bell as investors worry about a slowdown in China. You can see the Dow down almost 80 points.

Christine Romans is following the story for us. Good morning Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. I would say there is a real calm in the market this week. So it's not those wild days like we saw last week but still, the Dow retreating more today. It had been within 125 points of a -- of a record high just a couple of days ago. But really you have not been seeing much enthusiasm from the buyers -- that's for sure.

I'm also watching shares of Boeing, Carol, I've been watching that one really since the Malaysian Airlines flight disappear. And even in the days before that you could see that the maker of that Malaysian Airlines plane was -- was down. You could see the stock down just two percent yesterday, eight percent so far year to date.

A couple of things there you know the 777, that Malaysian Airlines plane as we've reportedly many times is pretty much the safest plane in the air. It has a very, very good safety record.

But you know that the -- that the team at Boeing and the team among investigators want to find that aircraft they want to find out what happened here.

Also, it's a Dreamliner. Its much-hyped Dreamliner had some production problems, some hairline cracks in its wings. They are going to have to step back and address that and fix that problem. So that's another problem with the stock there. But really watching those Boeing shares too -- Carol. COSTELLO: OK I want to touch on something else and it has to do with how much money we all make right? President Obama is currently pushing his Labor Department to try to force corporations to pay workers more overtime pay.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: At the very same time, you're going to tell us about bonus checks for the leaders of those corporations. So hit us.

ROMANS: This is Wall Street bankers in particular. Not necessarily CEOs of those corporations but Wall Street bankers. New York State looks at these numbers because they've tracked them per state revenue. Record Wall Street bonuses for 2013 Carol up 15 percent typical bonus, something like $165,000 the third highest on record. And again, the best bonus here for Wall Street since last -- since -- since the crisis in 2008 when everything really crashed.

You know the stock market went up a lot last year. Some of that performance is going to be based -- that bonus performance is going to base on just how great the stock market was.

But another thing to remember is that Wall Street also leading the industry in job cuts so some people losing their jobs on Wall Street, some people getting huge, huge bonuses on Wall Street. I think those bonus numbers really shocked the typical worker they really do -- the highest since 2008, the third highest on record -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I don't think -- I don't think they shock anyone anymore. It's just you know -- whatever. Right?

ROMANS: I am shocked. I think $165,000 is a lot of money for a bonus. The whole structure of Wall Street so a big chunk of your money is bonus but it's a big bonus.

COSTELLO: Yes it is. Christine Romans -- many thanks.

We'll have the latest on the search for that Malaysian Airlines flight in just a moment.

But first, I want to tell you about this story. Louisiana's longest serving death row prisoner is now a free man. Glenn Ford was released yesterday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

CNN's Martin Savidge is following that story. Good morning.

SAVIDGE: Good morning Carol. And you know, I nearly started off by saying, what a good new story for you here. But really it's not. I mean this is a tragedy. This is a clear miscarriage of justice and for this man to be held in nearly 30 years not only wrongfully imprisoned but on death row.

And now, he is finally free. Here is his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SAVIDGE (voice over): Louisiana's longest serving death row prisoner walked free Tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Does Glenn Ford harbor any resentment?

GLENN FORD, WRONGFULLY IMPRISONED: Yes, because I was locked up almost 30 years for something I didn't do.

SAVIDGE: According to the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana a judge ordered Ford free Monday after prosecutors petitioned the court to release him. New information corroborated with Ford has maintained for decades that he was not present at nor involved in the November, 1983 slaying of 56-year-old Isadore Roseman.

His lawyer Gary Clements says its justice delayed but he's happy the day finally arrived.

GARY CLEMENTS, FORD ATTORNEY: And we've been working on this for decades, literally. So we hope that it will be the first day for Glenn to start a new life.

SAVIDGE: Ford was on death row since 1984, making him one of the longest serving death row prisoners in the United States.

FORD: 30 years of my life, if not all of it. I can't go back. My son, when I left, was a baby. Now, he's a grown man with babies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: A powerful thing to say there. The district attorney's office saying that there was some new evidence that came to light that clearly showed he was not the person that carried out the murder of this jewelry store operator and that he wasn't there, so the reason he has been set free. Of course, it means this crime, now unsolved.

COSTELLO: What does he do now?

SAVIDGE: Well, you know, he came and somebody asked him. What's the first thing you are going to do? He said, I'm going to go eat. You know, it's obviously, a very human reaction. But I think also, too, restitution here is a big question. Can he sue? Will he sue?

Under the laws right now, as we understand, in the state of Louisiana, he can get about $250,000, maybe an additional $80,000 for being wrongfully accused. But we're talking, you know, really -- compared to 30 years of your life gone, never to come back. What's the value of that?

COSTELLO: You can't place any value of that -- right.

SAVIDGE: I know.

COSTELLO: That's just awful. Martin Savidge -- thanks so much.

"DEATH ROW STORIES" is an original CNN series, unraveling the truth behind capital murder cases. You can watch an episode tonight at 10:00 Eastern on CNN. I'm back in a minute.

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