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NBA Bans Clippers Owner for Life; Worst GDP in Two Years; Botched Execution in Oklahoma; Worst GDP Number in 2 Years; Sterling Mistress Reportedly "Devastated"; Malaysia Announces Investigation Team

Aired April 30, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a night of rebirth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.

COSTELLO: Los Angeles rallies and the Clippers conquer the court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be proud of your team.

COSTELLO: The team's owner banned.

ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: I am banning Mr. Sterling for life.

COSTELLO: And fined just 1/1000 of his worth. So will Donald Sterling be forced to sell his team?

Botched execution.

COURTNEY FRANCISCO, REPORTER, KFOR: He was struggling to talk.

COSTELLO: An Oklahoma inmate and 43 minutes of hell.

FRANCISCO: We didn't know if he was still dying or if they were still pumping drugs in him.

COSTELLO: A horrifying situation.

DAVID AUTRY, ATTORNEY FOR CLAYTON LOCKET: They wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible.

COSTELLO: Shades of Katrina.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have gone up there with chainsaws to try to be able to cut holes in the roofs, try to be able to get the people out of there.

COSTELLO: People trapped in their attics, almost a foot of rain in 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The moment of death is just an inch away.

COSTELLO: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The NBA has handed down a sports death penalty to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. But the big question this morning is how Sterling will respond. And will other NBA owners vote to force Sterling to sell the team. Clippers fans, they raised the roof for their heroes last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It was the first time the team had been home since Sterling's racist rant audiotape surfaced. The Clippers won a pivotal game five in their playoff series with Golden State. Coach Doc Rivers say the game was cathartic for fans as well as the team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOC RIVERS, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS COACH: You think it's just the players. It was the fans, too. You know, everybody was going through this. And it was almost like everybody wanted to excel tonight, and it was good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It was good. The game after -- the game came hours after Commissioner Adam Silver acted decisively, banning Sterling from the NBA for life. That means Sterling can't go to the games, practices or enter any Clippers facilities. Sterling was also fined $2.5 million and now he faces the possibility of losing his franchise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SILVER: As for Mr. Sterling's ownership interest in the Clippers, I will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: There's been no public comment from Sterling since this NBA ruling, but before Silver's sanctions, Sterling told FOX Sports the Clippers were not for sale.

If Sterling wants to fight, we know he has a long history of legal battles. If the Clippers do go up for sale, boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr., is throwing his hat into the ring. Mayweather, the world's highest paid athlete last year, says he can well afford it.

Rachel Nichols, host of CNN's "UNGUARDED" and CNN's Dan Simon are covering the business and sports side of the Clippers story.

Welcome to both of you. But I'd like to start with Dan.

You're outside the Staples Center. There was talk of player boycotts, fan boycotts, but the fans showed up in force.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They really did, Carol. You know, for the first few days of this story the mood was downright somber. What Adam Silver did here is he essentially removed the idea of any kind of rebellion. It's almost as if he gave the fans permission to cheer and celebrate.

As you said, it wasn't even clear if there was going to be any sort of boycott. We didn't even know what kind of show of support we would see here at Staples Center. Would there be a full house? Well, as soon as that decision was rendered, we know what happened. The fans came here in a big way to cheer on their team.

But I would suggest to you that if you weren't cheering for a team prior to all of this, you're now a Los Angeles Clippers fan -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I think you're right about that.

OK, so, Rachel, the game was great, but now comes the hard part. Tell us about the next steps for the NBA.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST, UNGUARDED: Well, Adam Silver did everything in his power. He banned Donald Sterling for life, made him be able to basically stay away from the NBA in any capacity in the future, fined him $2.5 million which is chump change for Donald Sterling, but is the maximum of what Adam Silver was allowed to fine him.

However, separating from his team, forcing him to sell the team, Silver can't do that on his own. So what he did was very interesting. He threw down the gauntlet publicly to the owners. Only the other owners can remove Donald Sterling. They have to do it by a 3/4 vote which is extremely high. And we heard in the days leading up to this some trepidation from other owners.

We heard Mark Cuban say it's, quote, "a slippery slope to remove a fellow owner for comments that he made in private." We heard some concern. So what Adam Silver did was very interesting. I asked him in the press conference do you think you have the votes, and he said, I don't know, I haven't polled the other owners. The ones I've talked to I feel confident in.

By not doing that poll ahead of time, by not building consensus ahead of time, he basically threw it out in public and is now going to force the hand of the other owners to basically have to say to their fans, to their players, yes, I'm going to side with the racist or I'm going to vote yes. Which decision do you think they're going to make -- Carol?

COSTELLO: Well, there is this issue, Rachel, that a lot of people are talking about today, frankly. So Mr. Sterling says these heinous things in the privacy of his own home. Should he really be forced to sell his business? He didn't break the law. He said awful things but he didn't break any laws. So why should he have to sell his team?

NICHOLS: Well, the question is this somebody that you want as a business partner, is this someone that you want to be associated with. If you're a sponsor, do you want to spend your money with this man? If you're a player, you want to play for this man? If you're one of the other owners or one of the people who works in the business of the NBA?

Do you want this man as a partner? If you are TNT, you're ESPN, do you want this man as a television partner? I think pretty everybody on that list has said no, and that's the reason that they want him out.

COSTELLO: So, Dan, I know that the spirit -- I mean, fans were happy at the game last night. But as time goes on how do you think they'll react in a long run?

SIMON: I think it kind of depends on what happens. Is Mr. Sterling going to contest this? Most legal analyst say if he does, he will lose. But I think going forward in terms of the playoffs, I think there's going to be a full show of support for the Clippers going forward? The next game, of course, is in Oakland.

And, you know, just in terms of the way they played last night. It seemed like, you know, for the players, there was a real burden that had been lifted off their chest. You know, they came out and they played -- they played very well and they won the game. And now they have the momentum going into Oakland.

COSTELLO: Dan Simon, Rachel Nichols, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a condemned killer dies of a heart attack in Oklahoma 43 minutes after he was given a lethal injection.

CNN's Pamela Brown is here with more on this botched execution.

Good morning, Pam.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. That's right, Carol. An execution gone wrong, sparking fierce debate. So what happened? We'll tell you right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: An execution prison officials say usually takes less than 12 minutes, dragged out for a tortuous 43 minutes. Last night Oklahoma tried a new cocktail of drugs to execute killer Clayton Lockett. But 16 minutes into the execution, horrified witnesses say Lockett was clearly still conscious and trying to talk and in excruciating pain.

CNN's Pamela Brown joins us with more on this story.

Hi, Pamela.

BROWN: Hey there, Carol. Authorities are looking into what caused this botched execution, whether it was the way the drugs were administered or the combination of drugs. The inmate who died had recently lost a court battle to find out the source of the drugs used in his execution. Last night witnesses say they watched in horror as he seemingly struggled to talk well after he was given the lethal chemical cocktail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANCISCO: He was struggling to talk, but those were towards we got out, "man, I'm not," and "something is wrong."

BROWN: They may be the last words spoken by Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett uttered during his botched execution. Lockett's vein exploded during the lethal injection, prompting authorities to quickly halt the procedure.

ROBERT PATTON, DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: It was my decision at that time to stop the execution.

BROWN: The first drug in the lethal injection cocktail is supposed to render a person unconscious, but witnesses say Lockett was still conscious seven minutes after that first injection. At 16 minutes he seemingly tried to get up and talk. It was then that prison officials closed the blinds, shutting out the media gathered to witness.

FRANCISCO: We didn't know what was happening on the other side of the blinds. We didn't know if he was still dying or if they were still pumping drugs in him.

BROWN: Forty-three minutes after the first injection, Lockett died.

PATTON: The inmate suffered what appeared to be a massive heart attack and passed away.

BROWN: Lockett and Charles Warner, the inmate set to be executed after Lockett Tuesday. Both convicted of rape and murder were at the center of a court fight over the drugs used in their executions. Oklahoma's high court initially stayed their executions only to lift those stays last week, saying the men had no right to know the source of the drugs intended to kill them.

AUTRY: They wanted to hurry up and get it done with as little transparency as possible. There should not be another execution in this state until there's a full investigation into what went wrong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin ordered an investigation into the incident and issued an executive order granting a two-week delay in executions.

And interesting to note here, Carol, Oklahoma is one of several states that has been fighting to keep information about the suppliers of lethal drugs confidential.

COSTELLO: And that's because these suppliers are afraid of repercussions if it gets out that they're supplying these lethal drugs. Is that right?

BROWN: That's right. So there have been some drug companies who have pulled out and said you can no longer use our drugs for these types of lethal injections, and then there are other companies who say, look, we're not going to let you use our drugs unless you keep our names private because of the fear of political backlash and that they could be targeted. So that's really what's behind these secrecy laws in some of these states.

COSTELLO: Pamela Brown reporting live from Washington this morning.

A bit of news just into CNN. It appears the American economy was frozen by a brutally cold winter. A new report says the GDP grew by just .1 percent in the first quarter. That's the worst it's been in two years.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to parse it out for us.

Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There's not much to parse. It was a really bad first quarter, Carol, and frozen is the best way to put it. I mean, the economy barely moved, barely moved. I mean consumers were the only ones spending money. Businesses weren't, the housing market didn't do as well as anybody thought. So this was a very tough quarter.

But, Carol, this is a rear view mirror picture, and the question is, have things begun to thaw? Is the economy doing a little better now? Was it mostly weather that held people back or -- held the economy back and is that going to thaw?

There are plenty of people this morning, plenty of economists who think thinks are getting better. They're hoping for a better jobs report on Friday. They're hoping this, the slowest economic growth in two years, they're hoping it's behind us. Not ahead of us, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans, thanks so much.

NEWSROOM is back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A lawyer for the woman at the center of the Donald Sterling scandal reportedly says she is devastated over what happened. V. Stiviano's attorney tells "The L.A. Times", she is not Sterling's mistress and had nothing to do with releasing the audio tapes of Sterling's racist comments.

Exactly who is V. Stiviano?

CNN's Deborah Feyerick looks into her background.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As she left her Los Angeles home Tuesday, V. Stiviano's intuition proved correct. The 31-year-old woman posting online, quote, "One day, I will look back at Instagram and say, I've been there and I've done that."

It was her Instagram page and this photo with magic Johnson that reportedly sent her boyfriend, Donald Sterling, over the edge.

Stiviano was president of a company bearing her name. It was suspended in 2008 by the California franchise tax board. It was unclear what the company did. Stiviano describes herself as artist, lover, writer, chef, poet, stylist, philanthropist, saying, "I do it all."

HARVEY LEVIN, FOUNDER, TMZ: She definitely likes the rap world.

FEYERICK: Court records and public records show Stiviano used at least five names, they include Vanessa Maria Perez, Monica Gallegos and Maria Valdez. During the now famous argument, Sterling seems at a loss for words when his girlfriend lays out her ethnicity.

DONALD STERLING: Delicate white or a delicate Latina girl.

V. STIVIANO: I'm a mixed girl.

STERLING: OK. Well --

STIVIANO: And you're in love with me. And I'm black and Mexican, whether you like it or not.

FEYERICK: Born October 1982, Stiviano is almost 50 years younger than the 80-year-old billionaire. She met the mogul about four years ago. He apparently began supporting her almost immediately. In a lawsuit filed before the tapes went public, Sterling's wife alleges Stiviano targeted her husband and initiated and participated in a sexual relationship with him in exchange for gifts allegedly worth more than $2.5 million.

Those gifts include a $1.8 million L.A. duplex and two Bentleys and a Ferrari, with license plates on Instagram that read, "I heart you V" and "V hearts you."

According to TMZ Sports, Stiviano says she was archiving Sterling's conversations at his request.

EVAN ROSENBLAUM, TMZ: She claims she is not his girlfriend, an employee, an archivist who is tasked at recording conversations and working with a Clippers charity.

FEYERICK: A team spokesman says Stiviano did not work for the Clippers organization, Sterling had several other family charities.

(on camera): Stiviano's lawyer says he plans to respond in the next several days. Now, it's unclear when the relationship ended or if it ever did officially. However, Sterling's wife is suing Stiviano, saying her husband had no right to use the couple's community property to buy the girlfriend anything, not the apartment, not the cars, nor anything else. The wife wants it back.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So, now the NBA turns its focus to other owners, pushing them to get Donald Sterling to sell the team. But should they go along with the league's plans? Talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's been 54 days since Flight 370 disappeared. Search crews still have no idea where that plane is or what happened the night it went missing. So, is it time for the current leadership to step aside and let the United States run the investigation?

A new op-ed in "The Washington Post" contends that, quote, "There are too many big unanswered questions surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that need reliable answers. The world should now count on America to solve this problem and answer those questions. After all, this is why the world has an America."

Let's talk about this. I'm joined by aviation analyst Miles O'Brien, ocean search specialist Rob McCallum.

Welcome, gentlemen.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Hello.

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Hello.

So, Miles, is it time? Because Malaysia has put together this special team. It includes people from the United States. So, why not then take the lead?

O'BRIEN: Well, I've been saying this all along, that really in the case of an incident like this, you need a nation that has demonstrated expertise in this particular kind of investigation. If you look the world over, there aren't many nations that have, and certainly no nation has more experience than the United States of America.

I think probably it would be better if it was couched in terms of an international investigation, drawing on all the resources of places like Australia, Great Britain, France, that all had very competent, similar structures than the U.S. does to investigate crash.

The bottom line is, just because you can buy a 777 doesn't mean you have the expertise sitting in your country to investigate why it might have gone down. That's something I wish the Malaysians recognized earlier.

COSTELLO: So, Rob, I want to run down this team Malaysia has announced. Malaysia announced participants in this independent investigation, in addition to the team leader, the U.S.'s NTSB will be on the team, along with Britain accident investigations branch and China's aircraft accident investigation team among others, as well as representatives from Boeing and Inmarsat.

So, how do you manage a group like that?

MCCALLUM: Well, I think that's the key challenge. But importantly all of those groups bring something vital to the table. So, you wouldn't want to proceed with a team that didn't have representatives from all of those organizations. Over the next few days, we'll see how the leadership is determined.

But I think you'll see the Malaysians will lean on somebody with a great deal of experience, and that may very well be the U.S., or it may be somebody that's had more recent experience such as France with the Air France disaster.

COSTELLO: So, do you think Malaysia is willing to do that, Miles? It seems so sensitive about so many things.

O'BRIEN: Here we are 54 days later. We've been talking about this since pretty much day one. Obviously, there's been reluctance to do that, reasons for that I suppose. I think that really this is -- a crash like this has implications the world over. There's a fleet of 777s still flying today. God forbid there's a flaw in that that we're going find out the hard way exists.

So, it's very important these investigations are done by the best and brightest minds on the planet. They may not all live in Malaysia. As a matter of fact, we know they don't all live in Malaysia.

So, this needs to be something that needs to be discussed outside the emotional context of a crash like this. And we should be looking at international control in investigations like this marching forward. There is international capability to structure these kinds of investigations. It should become routine.

COSTELLO: And, Rob, I understand that Malaysia will finally release its preliminary report tomorrow. But we probably won't find much out from that report. But it's a good start at really being transparent perhaps.

MCCALLUM: Yes, absolutely. I think information is the sal (ph) that starts to heal the wounds for those have lost people on MH370.