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Jury Deliberating Fate of Dylann Roof; Defense for Roof in Closing Arguments; Evacuations Underway in Syria. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 15, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:07] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Any moment now we will hear from the U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry. He is expected to deliver remarks specifically on the crisis in Syria. This comes at a pivotal point in this five-year war. We will bring you Secretary Kerry's remarks and we'll have much more on what's happening in Aleppo and getting these men, women and children out of there.

But first, let's go straight to Charleston, South Carolina, here. A jury there is now in hour one of deliberations regarding the fate of a confessed church shooter. Was he a hate-filled coward who wanted to start a race war? A man who despised black people? Or was he a suicidal loner, mentally unstable and radicalized online? These are the two characterizations that jurors listened to during these incredibly powerful closing arguments today in the death penalty trial of this young man accused of shooting nine black church goers at Charleston's historic Mother Emanuel Church.

And here, the faces of the nine victims. Pastors, aunties, mothers and fathers shot and killed in what prosecutors describe as a premeditated act of murder spurred by hate. Imagine their families sitting in that courtroom crying and wiping away tears as the bodies of their loved ones are flashed on screen.

Let's begin this hour with Nick Valencia, who is in Charleston, with more on today's closing arguments.

And hour one, Nick, with the jury deliberating.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, it was a very emotional day inside that courtroom. I sat and listened to both the prosecution and defense deliver their closing arguments. The defense, for their part, saying it's not a matter of who did this or what happened on that fateful day in June 2015, but why. And he asked the jury, the defense attorney, David Bruck (ph) for Dylann Roof, asked the jury to consider that.

He also said something very interesting, Brooke. He said his client might be delusional and that there's something wrong with his perception of reality. You remember yesterday that this defense attorney tried to call two mental health experts to the stand, but that motion was denied. Dylann Roof, of course, found competent enough to stand trial.

For the prosecution's part, it was a very impassioned plea by the federal prosecutor, saying that Dylann Roof needs to face - be held accountable for every single one of those shots. Every single one of the 77 shots fired in that Mother Emanuel Church. He, at one point, pointed to Dylann Roof and said, "there is hatred in this courtroom," as that image of the bloody bodies inside the church, those worshippers that were shot and killed allegedly by Dylann Roof. One of the juror started to tear up. Another one noticeably grimaced. There was audible sobs in the courtroom from the victims' family members.

I sat directly behind Dylann Roof's grandmother, who was flanked by a priest. She brought a priest into the courtroom today. And I was also watching Dylann Roof, his reaction, his expressions as he listened to the prosecution paint him as a calculated killer. And as he's been for much of the trial, Brooke, he was emotionless, expressionless, showing no remorse for what he's accused of. The only noticeable difference today was that he wasn't in his prison-issued jump suit. He showed up in civilian clothes, wearing a blue sweater and gray pants, but was almost like a statue there, didn't motion at all or make any gestures or say anything as the closing arguments were given out loud.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Remember his mother had that heart attack last week. Now the grandparents sitting in the courtroom.

VALENCIA: Yes.

BALDWIN: And, again, this shooter, emotionless.

Nick Valencia, thank you. We'll stay in close contact if there is any news from the jury.

But, meantime, I want to tell you about the most chilling pieces of evidence that this jury heard. It was a 911 call. It was a 911 call from the survivor in that Bible study room. Her name is Polly Sheppard. She was the only person inside that Bible study hall whose life was spared deliberately.

So we'll play you this 911 call. I just want to warn you, it is excruciating to listen to, but it's an important piece of this story, and the timeline. Here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLLY SHEPPARD: Please answer. Oh, God.

OPERATOR: 911, what's the address of the emergency?

SHEPPARD: Please, Emmanuel Church. There's plenty people shot down here. Please send somebody right away.

OPERATOR: Emmanuel Church?

SHEPPARD: Emmanuel AME, 110 Calhoun. OPERATOR: And there's people shot?

SHEPPARD: Yes, he shot the pastor. He shot all the men in the church. Please come right away.

OPERATOR: OK, my partner's going to be getting some help on the way while I get a little more information from you, OK? Stay on the line with me. Are you safe? Are -

SHEPPARD: He's still in - he's still in here. I'm afraid. He's still in here.

OPERATOR: Where are you?

SHEPPARD: I'm in Emanuel AME Church on 110 Calhoun.

OPERATOR: Yes, ma'am, but where are you inside the church?

SHEPPARD: In the lower level.

OPERATOR: You're in the lower level? Where is the shooter?

[14:05:03] SHEPPARD: He's in the - in the office. Please send somebody right away.

OPERATOR: OK. Yes, ma'am, I've got officers en route to you. Don't hang up with me. I want you to stay on the line with me. You stay as quiet as possible, do you hear me?

SHEPPARD: Yes, I'm under the table.

OPERATOR: What is - what is your name, ma'am?

SHEPPARD: Polly Sheppard.

OPERATOR: All right, Miss Polly. Like I said, my partner's getting some help on the way while I get this information from you, OK? You stay on the line with me. And -

SHEPPARD: He's come, he's coming, he's coming, please.

OPERATOR: OK, did you see him at all?

SHEPPARD: Yes, he's a young 21-year-old white dude.

OPERATOR: OK.

SHEPPARD: Please. I mean, we've got some people very hurt, please.

OPERATOR: Yes, ma'am. And you said that - were you able to see the gun? Do you know what kind of gun it was?

SHEPPARD: No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything about guns.

OPERATOR: OK. That's OK. And where are the weapons now? SHEPPARD: He's got it in his hand. He's reloading.

OPERATOR: How many shots has he fired?

SHEPPARD: I don't know, there's so many. Three different rounds. Oh, God - God, please help me.

OPERATOR: OK.

SHEPPARD: Please help us, Lord.

OPERATOR: OK.

SHEPPARD: Help us, Lord, please. Help us, Lord, please. Jesus, help us. There's so many people dead I think. Oh, my God.

OPERATOR: You said there's so many people dead?

SHEPPARD: I think they're dead, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: When Polly Sheppard says she believes it was God who spared her life that night, she lost some of her nearest and dearest friends. I actually sat down and talked to Miss Sheppard just a couple months ago in Charleston. She told me she had forgiveness in her heart. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Evil walked into the side door of your church.

POLLY SHEPPARD, SURVIVOR: I had faith. That's why I'm still here. I prayed under that table and he left me here. So I - I can't doubt him no time.

BALDWIN: Is there a day that goes by that you don't think about what happened?

SHEPPARD: No, I think about it every day. Every day.

BALDWIN: Do you remember the message of the Bible study was? Was there a passage?

SHEPPARD: Mark 4:13-20. Seeds sown on stony ground, shallow ground. And good ground. Stony ground is not going to grow. On shallow ground, it grows, but it dies real fast. But on fertile, solid ground, it grows.

BALDWIN: And of all passages to be reading that night when he walked in there and he was hoping to plant these seeds of evil and hate and of racist thoughts -

SHEPPARD: It didn't work.

BALDWIN: It didn't work. SHEPPARD: He was in the wrong place.

BALDWIN: When you sit in those pews on a Sunday morning, what does it do for you, for your heart, your soul?

SHEPPARD: I feel at peace in church.

BALDWIN: I've talked to a lot of people who have been in horrible situations and those who survive sometimes feel that, why me. Do you ever think that way?

SHEPPARD: I often do, yes. There's something for me to do. And I'm sure he'll let me know what it is. Maybe I'm doing it already, I don't know. But there's something - he wasn't ready for me yet.

BALDWIN: Do you have a favorite hymn or a song that you go to in moments of -

SHEPPARD: My favorite is, "when peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, God has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul."

BALDWIN: How often do you sing that or think that?

SHEPPARD: I think it often. Very often.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She doesn't often like to talk about what happened in that room, but I am so grateful to you, Polly Sheppard, for sharing that with me.

Let's have a bigger conversation about the case. I have legal analyst and defense attorney Mark Geragos here. Also with us, civil rights attorney and former prosecutor Charles Coleman, Jr.

So, gentlemen, welcome to both of you.

And just first, Charles, let me turn to you and ask. You know, we know, hour one, the jury has - now has this case.

CHARLES COLEMAN, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Sure.

BALDWIN: And they're mulling it over. How long do you think it might take?

COLEMAN: Honestly, Brooke, I don't think that this is going to take very long. At the same time, they are considering 33 different counts and you have 33 different federal statutes that they're considering, many of them having to do with hate crimes. And so they may be sort of going through the weeds to make sure that each of those, they're able to convict on, but I don't expect this to be a very long or extended deliberation.

BALDWIN: Mark, let's talk about closing arguments here. And from the defense, you know, this attorney was calling this man suicidal, an impressionable loner, influenced by online racist rants who never grasped the gravity of what he did. What was the defense attorney trying to achieve there? What narrative was he crafting?

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Look, David is - David is probably one of the two or three best practitioners of capital defense and this has got to be the most frustrating case in the world for him. Not just because it's such a horrific crime, but because he's got so much trouble with his client trying - being, you know, benched and then brought back and then benched again. And it's a - it's a horrific situation. I mean this case literally takes the criminal justice system and pushes it to the edge. I mean it really is probably the hardest thing you can do as a defense lawyer.

[14:10:20] What he wants to do, his strategy is here, and he's done it capably in many other cases, is he wants to set up - he's not trying to win the guilt phase. This is looking towards the penalty phase.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GERAGOS: And so what he's trying to do is set that up. That's why he wanted to call the two mental health experts and he was denied. But he's looking towards that penalty phase and that's what's so frustrating for him. If he's benched - if, you know, it comes back guilty and there is a penalty phase, and then he's benched and Dylann Roof is going to lead that penalty phase, that's just a suicide mission (ph).

BALDWIN: Because he says he wants to represent himself, correct? I mean during the penalty phase.

GERAGOS: Correct. Correct.

BALDWIN: Right.

GERAGOS: And he's got to -

COLEMAN: And -

GERAGOS: He's got a right - he's got a right to do it. But, you know, the frustration of this, for me at least, is, I was reading today, and I haven't talked to any of the victims' families, but it looks like you have -

BALDWIN: Yes.

GERAGOS: Most of them have forgiveness in incredible ways and they were willing to just take -

BALDWIN: And most of them - and some of them don't even - some of them don't want him to be put to death.

COLEMAN: Right. And I think that what's interesting about this -

GERAGOS: Right.

COLEMAN: Entire discussion, when you talked initially, Brooke, about the fact that there's so different narratives that are being advanced by the prosecution and the defense, and that is, quite frankly, a straight set-up for the penalty phase of this trial. It's really not about whether this -whether Dylann Roof will get convicted.

BALDWIN: He confessed.

COLEMAN: He confessed. So that's not really a question. What's happening here is a chess game with respect to trying to position Dylann Roof or characterize him in such a way that's going to determine the outcome of the penalty phase in this trial.

BALDWIN: So how does that work? Just looking ahead, you know, if and when there is this conviction of this first phase, when you look ahead to the penalty phase, Mark, how does this lawyer who, you know, you say is phenomenal, how does he fight for his life given what he has done?

GERAGOS: He doesn't, and that's what I'm sure is frustrating him because normally what he would be able to do is, he doesn't - it's not a who did it or who done it, it's basically, you know, try to find some mercy. And the problem is here that everything he would normally do to set up that second act or that second half, he's not going to have control of in the second half. So he's probably kind of - I would assume, geared that closing argument to the fact that, look, I'm going to assume, at least internally, I'm not going to be able to argue it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to set it up so that when this jury sees this kid, they'll realize how deranged he is, how crazy he is, and that maybe some of the things I said in the guilt phase will resonate with them by proxy or by example.

BALDWIN: Mark Geragos and Charles Coleman, let's leave it there. Who knows when we could get this verdict. We'll stand by for that.

But I do want to just read the names of the nine innocent victims who lost their lives and remember them today. Cynthia Hurt, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Reverend Depayne Middleton, Dr. Reverend Clemente Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Reverend Daniel Simmons, Senior Reverend Sharonda Coleman Singleton, and Myra Thompson.

Again, the deliberate - the jury deliberating right now in Charleston. We'll bring you that decision as soon as it comes down.

Meantime, just in, a source close to the Trump transition says the president-elect is, quote, "concerned" about Russia hacking during the election. This after months of dismissing the intelligence that points to Moscow. Those details ahead.

Plus, a disturbing discovery in the mysterious crash of an Egypt Air jet back in May. We are now getting word traces of explosives have been found on the victims.

Stay here. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:20] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. A new ceasefire in Aleppo is holding, at least for now. Let me show

you some pictures and tell you, you are now looking at something the 50,000 people trapped inside the Syrian civil war have prayed for. See these buses? A safe way out. These green buses and ambulance vans today were allowed to carry people out of Aleppo, a city where bombs rained down again and again and again. Every single day.

These pictures showing not only the long line of evacuation buses, but the near complete destruction of Aleppo. Look at that. One of the world's oldest cities, a city that was once a thriving, bustling metropolis. These pictures before and after, an indication of the scale of ruin. The city essentially flattened.

But the safe passage out of Aleppo is fraught with dangers. One convoy coming under attack by sniper fire and people inside this city, they are still begging the world to help them. A new video, one of the most heartbreaking yet, a plea from a group of orphans inside of Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Hi, this might be the last time you see and hear from me. My name is Yasmeen Kaimouz and I am 10 years old. We are scared of the air strikes. We wish you will get us out of Aleppo. We wanna live like everyone else!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins me now. He spent last week in Syria.

Fred, tell me the latest on the ceasefire and we see the green buses. Where are they going?

Forgive me. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:39] BALDWIN: All right, back to that ceasefire that is for now holding in Aleppo. Fred Pleitgen was just in Syria last week. Let's try this again, Fred. Let's talk about - we saw all of the pictures of the green buses lined up, trying to safely get these civilians out of town and out of harm's way. Is that a successful effort? And where are they going?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Brooke, it's starting to be a successful effort. The latest that we're getting literally from just a couple of minutes ago is that a second convoy of buses packed with civilians and fighters as well leaving that last rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo has just arrived in other rebel-held territories in Syria. So that convoy was conducted successfully. Each of the first two convoys that have gone have about 1,000 people on them. And a third convoy is apparently being loaded up just now.

Now, all of this, of course, was called into question earlier today when the first convoy, as it left, actually came under fire. One person was killed, several people were wounded, and that's when all of this was suspended for a while but now it seems to be back on track and it seems to be working. The route that it's taking, it's a very good question, Brooke, because what happens is that they leave the rebel enclave in Aleppo. They have to go through government-held territory to then move into another part of Syria that's under the control of the opposition. You can imagine when those people are sitting on those buses, they're extremely vulnerable. They could get shot at any time. So it's a huge leap of faith that they have to take to get on those buses, especially in this volatile situation where you have guys on the ground on both sides who have been fighting each other fiercely for months, have been very trigger happy, and now are being told, stop the fighting, just let these guys go through.

BALDWIN: It is life or death for them, Fred. We saw a report, Syrian state TV had said that 4,000 rebels and their families would be evacuated from eastern districts, but we're still - you talked about pockets of resistance. You talk about government-held territory and holding their breath I'm sure. But what - I mean there has to be fears of retribution on rebels wherever they're taken.

PLEITGEN: Yes, I mean you're absolutely right, and that certainly is the case. When you - when you look at the situation there, especially in the Aleppo area, I mean right now these people say that they are going to be let out of these territories and allowed safe passage into other rebel areas. But, of course, there were other areas that were swept by opposition - or by government forces before and in those areas there are reports by the United Nations that apparently there were executions. They haven't been able to independently verify that, but they said that comes from sources that have been telling them the truth in the past. So there's huge concern. And the United Nations and the U.S. has told both the Assad regime and the Russians that it's on them to make sure something like that does not happen. That civilians are unharmed, but also that the rebel fighters who are captured are not executed as well. It's a massive concern, especially in a civil war, you know, that's been going on for such a long time and that's been so brutal for such a long time.

[14:25:37] BALDWIN: Waiting to hear from Secretary of State John Kerry. He'll be addressing this. We'll listen for that.

Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much.

Just into us at CNN, President-elect Donald Trump reacting to reports of Russia hacking during the election. What a transition source is revealing to CNN about why Trump is now expressing concern.

Meantime, would the president-elect consider lifting sanctions against Russia? What two Trump loyalists are doing in Moscow and what they're telling certain circles about the possibility of sanctions being lifted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN.

In politics here, let's talk about some breaking developments. This Trump transition source telling CNN that President-elect Donald Trump is quote/unquote "concerned" about intelligence agencies' findings that Russia engaged in hacking during the U.S. presidential election. The source adds, Mr. Trump and his team are also concerned the issue is being used to delegitimize his win. This is coming out as we were also learning not one but two Trump loyalists have appeared in Moscow.

[14:30:06] One, former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston. He's talking with American business people there about the possibility of Donald Trump taking another look at those sanctions.