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Judge Delays Menendez Brothers Resentencing Hearing; Criticism for Band Aid Charity Single on 40th Anniversary. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 26, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, here are today's top stories.

Ukraine says Russia launched a record number of 188 drones overnight. Ukraine's military says it shot down 76 of them. The country's Air Force says Russia also fired four ballistic missiles which damaged critical infrastructure in one region.

16 people are missing after a tourist yacht sank in the Red Sea along the Egyptian coast on Monday. Egyptian officials say 28 passengers were rescued. Authorities are still investigating what caused the boat to sink, but Egyptian meteorologists say there were warnings of high waves and rough waters in the area.

And Formula One is likely to add a new racing team. The group says it's reached agreement in principle with General Motors to create a GM Cadillac racing team. It would join the sport in 2026. The agreement comes after months of speculation surrounding that deal.

New developments in the Menendez brothers bid to leave prison. The California judge has delayed the resentencing hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez to give the incoming district attorney time to review the case.

The brothers are serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of their parents. CNN's Nick Watts has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN VANDERMOLEN, MENENDEZ BROTHERS' AUNT: They should never have been in such situations as presented themselves. What can a kid do when it's fathers? I can't stand it.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That is Kitty Menendez's sister and this is Jose Menendez's sister.

KITTY MENENDEZ, SISTER OF JOSE MENENDEZ: 35 years is a long time.

WATT (voice-over): They want their nephews home.

MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY: The judge has now set January 30th and 31st as the days for a plenary or fulsome hearing on the resentencing. We're hoping that by the end of that or sometime sooner that we will in fact get the brothers released.

WATT (voice-over): Today, Erik and Lyle Menendez were supposed to make their first public appearance in nearly 30 years, but apparent technical difficulties meant they did not appear in this LA court via video link. All we heard was one brother say, Riley, we've had video access the entire time.

Back in the mid 1990s this was a sensational televised trial after a sensational crime. Prosecutors said the boys wanted their parents money. The brothers who were 18 and 21 at the time claim they feared for their lives after enduring years of emotional physical and sexual abuse by their father and that's why they killed their parents.

[04:35:00]

LYLE MENENDEZ, CONVICTED OF KILLING HIS PARENTS: He would put me on my knees and he would guide me all my movements and I would have oral sex with him.

WATT (voice-over): Lyle and Eric were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty.

WATT (voice-over): Then a 2023 docuseries alleged Jose Menendez, a powerful record exec, had also molested a member of a boy band, Menudo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know what he did to me in his house.

WATT (voice-over): The brothers lawyers pushed for their case to be reopened. Then a Netflix drama and documentary reignited public interest. LA's DA asked a judge to reconsider sentencing which might see the brothers released immediately saying that a jury might react very differently now than they did back in the 1990s.

GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I believe that they have paid their debt to society.

WATT: But DA George Gascon, a progressive, was just ousted in November's election. The tougher on crime Nathan Hochman will take office December 2nd.

NATHAN HOCHMAN, LOST ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY-ELECT: I won't rely on just a Netflix documentary or a Netflix docuseries as the source of my information to make this a very, very important decision.

WATT: Those dramas and documentaries and social media have generated such interest in this case that they had to do a lottery for seats in the public gallery for today's hearing and some of the people in line for those seats weren't even born when this trial happened or when the murders happened.

One of the most emotional moments was when Kitty's sister Joan took the stand and she said this. She said no children should have to live in fear day by day that their dad could come and rape them. It breaks my heart that my sister Kitty knew but did nothing about it.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: One expert told CNN that the verdict may have been different if the jury had known about their parents abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, FOUNDER, UNCHAINEDTV: There's a real case to be made that if all that had gone into the trial, they wouldn't have been convicted.

On the other hand, it was an extremely gruesome killing. They shopped for guns. They ambushed their parents while they were sitting and watching television and eating ice cream. They fired 16 rounds. They blew their father's brains out. They blew their mother's face off. They even paused to reload when Kitty was crawling away to fire the final shot.

So when you think of all that, you have to weigh the allegations of molestation versus this horrific crime and that's up to now the DA to do.

The big question is, is this a case of celebrity justice? What about the thousands of other people who are doing life without the possibility of parole who have their reasons for doing what they did? So all of this is coming to a head because the Menendez brothers have two hit shows on Netflix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson says the outcome of the resentencing depends on a few key issues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Ultimately, it depends upon three very brief critical things. One is punishment and is punishment appropriate. Is 35 years enough, right? So is a measure of punishment.

Number two, does that serve as an appropriate deterrent for not only for them, but in general for other people that might commit crimes?

And number three -- and this is critical -- rehabilitation. Are they sufficiently rehabilitated? That's going to be critical. They say they're doing great in jail, have helped other people, and so that's going to be weighed. All those factors will go into the decision of whether they're released.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: In Pakistan, supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan have breached the city limits of the capital as they continue to clash with security forces. Earlier, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrations in Islamabad. Khan supporters have defied a police lockdown and court order prohibiting rallies inside the capital, sparking these latest confrontations and the clashes have turned deadly.

Doctors tell CNN at least five people have died, including four security officials and one civilian. More than 4,000 demonstrators have been arrested since Friday, according to Khan's PTI party.

Still ahead, setting the record straight on Africa, rapper Fuse, ODG, joins me to discuss why a popular charity song may have raised millions in aid, but has actually cost the continent trillions.

We'll be right back.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS, BAND AID SINGLE: There's a world outside your window And it's a world of dread and fear Where a kiss of love can kill you And there's death in every tear And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: This week marks 48 years since that recording of the song Do They Know It's Christmas sung by some of the biggest names in music during the 1980s and the charity single was made to help raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia particularly and it was later re- recorded to help address other problems facing the continent. But the heart of the message has always been using music and privilege to do good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BOWIE, SINGER: It occurs to me that somebody once said, rock and roll will change the world. Every little sale will help. I promise you.

God bless and have a happy Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The Band Aid Charitable Trust was established to manage continued donations since then, including new earnings from music streaming platforms. The Trust 2023 financial report states they've earned a total income of more than $223 million. But now amid the release of a 40th anniversary mix, there's renewed scrutiny of the song's lyrics, some of the imagery as well, going back to those days and critics have long believed it delivers a stereotypical dehumanizing message about Africa and its people and is doing more harm than good.

Bob Geldof, one of the original Band Aid organizers and chair of the Charitable Trust says in response, quote: This little pop song has kept millions of people alive. Why would Band Aid scrap feeding thousands of children dependent on us for a meal?

And I'm joined by rapper Fuse ODG, who says the lyrics amplify stereotypes of Africa as a continent of poverty, famine and disease.

[04:45:00]

You're invited but did not take part in the 30th anniversary song in 2014, Fuse. And this latest version you wouldn't have got involved in for the same reasons. Can we just go back to the original song?

FUSE ODG, SINGER, SONGWRITER, RAPPER: Yes.

FOSTER: And what you thought of that in its time?

FUSE ODG: I think the original song and the intentions behind it were fantastic because there needed to be, you know, an immediate action for a crisis that was happening at the time. And, you know, I'm immensely grateful for the British public for, you know, taking money out of their pocket to actually donate to help the crisis. So definitely was a fantastic initiative.

My perspective is that, you know, 40 years later, we need to start looking at, you know, the results of what we've achieved over time and see how I guess we can improve the model.

Because from my perspective, you know, it was great that we on surface level were able to help the people in need in Ethiopia. But over the period of time, if we still have to, you know, rely on aid in order to, you know, support countries in Africa for, you know, for our crisis, I think we need to start revising it because we need to start being self sustainable as a continent.

And another kind of issue that I had with the original model was that they pick one crisis in one country and they paint the whole of Africa as one image. And I think that's very detrimental to the whole of the continent.

FOSTER: So the immediate impact was good. It's become dated effectively.

FUSE ODG: Exactly.

FOSTER: Give me a couple of examples of lyrics you have an issue with.

FUSE ODG: So there's a lyric that says no peace and joy in Africa this Christmas and over Christmas now, over the past 15 years, that's where everybody goes. Everybody that I know go to Ghana for Christmas in December. You have a great time for peace and joy to escape the cold, you know.

So in 2014, when he asked me to be a part of it, I made it very clear to him that that's untrue because I've already booked my flight to go to Ghana and, you know, I tried to say to him that there's a way that we can raise money to help the Ebola crisis at the time and still maintain the dignity of the people.

And he was so adamant about changing a model and I felt like if you're trying to help someone, the best thing that you could do is actually start a dialogue and not just keep it a monologue where you say this is the help that you need. Rather, just let's have a conversation because I'm an African, you're helping Africans. So the best person to listen to are the people who are going through it.

So I made the suggestion that what if we change the lyrics to this because the caliber of artists that are on the song will be able to still gather the people and still raise the money that needs to be raised. But he refused and unfortunately I had to say no because it wasn't in alignment with my mission of wanting to reposition Africa as a place of investment, place of tourism, place of joy. So I had to say no, unfortunately.

FOSTER: So it doesn't reflect modern Africa is what you're saying. It's lyrics that might have been useful at the time. And if you want to re-release it, you need to update it to reflect the current problem.

FUSE ODG: Exactly.

FOSTER: So he's being too historic.

FUSE ODG: Exactly. So yes, exactly. And that was my suggestion and also the images that's associated with it.

You know, again on surface level, it was fantastic, you know, an initiative to help the people in crisis in Ethiopia. But I gave an example of the Ebola crisis, when the Ebola crisis happened because of the image that's been put out there by initiatives like Band Aid and the Western media, but Africa kind of being this one image of a place of famine, poverty, and disease filled.

When Ebola outbreak broke out in Guinea, people start canceling their flights in Kenya, which is like 6,000 kilometers apart, which is even greater than the width of the whole of Europe. But people still were canceling their flights. So that's how dangerous it is, you know, in the long run how it affects the whole continent whilst, you know, trying to deal with one crisis in one country.

FOSTER: What I'm interested in is your idea that it's started doing more harm than good. Because Bob Geldof and all of those members involved in the music would say specifically, we raise this money, it goes directly to solve African problems. But you're saying that a side product of that is that Africa isn't receiving money in other ways.

So therefore, it's actually reducing the amount of money that Africans have.

FUSE ODG: Thank you very much for saying that.

FOSTER: I'm not saying it. No, no, because --

FUSE ODG: That's your echo in what --

FOSTER: But just explain that.

FUSE ODG: Exactly. So my point is, yes, we've raised in a short term, right? And it was fantastic at the time. 40 years later, what happened, the side effects of that was people refused to go to Africa to go on holiday. They'd rather give us two pounds and move on with their lives.

FOSTER: Or they could have given you --

FUSE ODG: Two thousand or three thousand, you know, as they do in LA or they do in Ibiza.

FOSTER: And then Africa would be able to solve its own problem.

FUSE ODG: Exactly. Because through, you know, revenue from tourism, trade, investment, we'll be able to be self-sustainable because then we'll be able to, you know, the economy will be able to grow, you know, in a way where it's constructive for the people on ground. So therefore, if anything happens in the future, we'll be able to help ourselves.

[04:50:00]

And not just that, I feel like the consequences of it affecting our collective pride and identity really has been super detrimental to the, I guess, the progression of the diaspora and the African continent.

Because once you love yourself as a person, you want to know everything about who you are and where you're from. But because we've been so disconnected due to these kind of images, we've been disconnected from us, that we're disconnected from our problems. There's so many issues in Africa right now that the diasporans don't know about because they're so disconnected due to the fact that we're not super proud of who we are due to what is linked with.

Over the past 10 years, the Afrobeats industry has gone crazy, booming. And as a result of that, Africans are now falling back in love with themselves. And we're now actually understanding what's really happening on ground.

So there's a lot more support for things that are happening on ground than there was in 1984. So when I'm saying to him that, you know, there's a way to position Africa as a place of opportunity because there's a whole proud nation, whole proud, you know, diaspora that, you know, love their continent and want to do something about it. So even now, the flow of funds going back into the continent is 90 billion compared to aid, which is 50 billion.

So we want to help, you know, ourselves. So we just need to have that dialogue to make it happen.

FOSTER: Do you think it's added to the problem of racism?

FUSE ODG: Do I think it's added to the, it's bigger than -- so I find the big, the problem is bigger than Ban Aid. Let's be very real about it. But the only reason why it's on Ban Aid is because they announced a re-release.

So for me, it's like, OK, cool. You're just feeding into the problem that we currently have. We're trying to change, you know, the worldview of how people see us.

So as a result, we need to show a positive side, which is our mission. We've even launched an educational app called Sonar that allows us to tell the history of Africa and highlight Africa's contribution to the world. And I feel like, you know, this job that we're doing is going so well that I feel like this new re-release is setting us back.

FOSTER: Fuse ODG, thank you so much. We'll be speaking to Bob Geldof later on the network.

FUSE ODG: Thank you for having me.

[04:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: These are live images coming into us from Beirut or sort of the most recent images coming in in the last few minutes, at least. Obviously, the conflict very much ongoing at the same time as the cabinet in Israel is due to meet to discuss a ceasefire agreement and whether or not to sign up to that.

The Prime Minister signed up to it in principle. There's some detail that needs to go through, but there is a lot of hope and positivity in the region that there could be a deal that comes out of that cabinet meeting. But clearly this shows the context of what they're dealing with. So hopes high that we won't be seeing images like this in a few days time.

Thank you for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up next after a quick break.

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