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CNN This Morning

Elizabeth Price is Interviewed about Son's Shooting; Liz and Noa Naftali are Interviewed about Abigail Edan; C.J. Rice to Challenge Sentence; Memorial for Rosalynn Carter. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 28, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Inquiry that should go forward into the president. There's a lot of doubt that they're finding any facts or evidence to this effect. But Hunter Biden's lawyers say, you subpoenaed, we're ready, put him on the stand.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: We'll see what happens next.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: An update for you this morning on the man who is accused of shooting three Palestinian students in Vermont. Police say when they approached 48-year-old Jason Eaton at his home Sunday he said, quote, I have been waiting for you. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder. He is being held without bail and police are still investigating if they are going to charge this as a hate crime.

There is some good news to report this morning. Sources tell CNN one of the three men has been released from the hospital. He has not been identified, however, due to concerns for his safety.

I am joined now by Elizabeth Price. She is the mother of one of the victims, Hisham Awartani. He's a student at Brown University. And he and his two friends were shot while just out for a walk after a birthday party.

Elizabeth, thank you very, very much for being with me this morning.

ELIABETH PRICE, MOTHER OF VERMOT SHOOTING VICTIM HISHAM AWARTANI: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: We understand your son is still hospitalized and expected to be for about the next month. Can you just update us on his condition this morning?

PRICE: Yes, I mean, it's been hard to get a catch up with the condition because I'm traveling and my father, who is there, is exhausted. And Hisham is exhausted. So, we're going to be there in a few - like I think 24 hours. And so, we'll be able to be on the ground and know exactly what's going on. But last I knew he was still in ICU, immobilized to try and get the

swelling down on his back, making sure that he's been getting medication to make sure his spinal fluids and blood is at a good enough level to keep it, you know, healing. His clavicle is broken and he has a fractured thumb due to the bullet embedded in his back. He has a hard time regulating his body temperature. So, they are managing that with either keeping him warm or packing him with ice bags. And in total, I guess some diagnosis is that he has an incomplete spinal injury, which means that he can feel his legs but currently can't move them.

HARLOW: But you had said last night that you just want to be with him as his mother, of course, as every mother would.

PRICE: Yes.

HARLOW: I'm so glad that you're on your way and that you're going to be able to be by his side.

You're in Aman, Jordan.

PRICE: Yes.

HARLOW: And as I understand it, the king of Jordan is sending help, is that right, for him?

PRICE: It's amazing the support that we've received. The king's personal physician has reached out to me to express -- to convey his majesty's concern for Hisham and the other boys and is hoping to send a specialist to meet Hisham and access Hisham and identify what kind of support Hisham needs.

HARLOW: Wow.

PRICE: So, it is really an act of generosity by King Abdullah.

HARLOW: It certainly is.

PRICE: We're really (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Elizabeth, one of the reasons that your family decided along with Hisham that he should stay in the U.S. for the holidays is you thought he would be safe here. Is that right?

PRICE: Yes. Yes. Yes.

HARLOW: And then this happened.

PRICE: I mean -- yes. Yes. I mean, I think it's -- it was a shock to us that this would happen. And Burlington is a quiet place. It's - I mean it is still a community that I admire, I respect, I value. It's a place where, you know, it is more like our home, which is so community and family oriented in Palestine than any other place I've been to in America. So, I still respect the Burlington community. But it just goes to show that with easy access to guns and in a context where the mainstream narrative and leaders in the community and in the government exhort in political - in the political spectrum, you know, exhort people to - to other -- to other the people who are being different from them, that creates opportunities or creates thoughts that people might act on. And when you have a gun and you act on something, it can have lethal consequences, or in the case of these children, life changing consequences.

HARLOW: I know you're very close to all the boys. They grew up together. I know you must be counting the minutes until you can get here and embrace them all.

Elizabeth, we are rooting for all of them. Thank you.

PRICE: Very much. All right, thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, after 50 days, four-year-old Abigail Edan is finally reunited with her loved ones. We're going to speak with two of her family members about that return. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:13]

MATTINGLY: After some 50 days of captivity in Gaza, this was the moment four-year-old Abigail Edan was finally reunited with her loved ones. Hamas kidnapped Abigail on October 7th. Of course, it was the same day she became an orphan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, her mom was killed in front of her when her - when her kibbutz was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October the 7th. Abigail ran to her dad then, who then was gunned down -- gunned down as well while using his body to shield little Abigail. She then ran to a neighbor for help where they were all taken hostage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Abigail is a dual American citizen. She was released on Sunday. And that makes her the first American hostage freed since the start of this truce. She was taken to Schneider Children's Medical Center. You see her there happily reunited with her aunt, her uncle, and her grandparents.

And joining us now again Abigail Edan's great aunt, Liz Naftali, and her cousin, Noa.

Li and Noa, I mean this day, the fact that it is finally here, that you can see those images, everything that you were praying for, how does it feel, Liz?

LIZ NAFTALI, GREAT-AUNT OF FREED HOSTAGE ABIGAIL MOR EDAN: Well, it's a miracle. It's remarkable. We thank you for having us again. And I'm so glad that we're on this side where Abigail, who turned four on Friday, is free and she is with her family and she is with her sister and her brother. So, it feels amazing in that respect because she is now safe at home.

But there's two things. One is, there's still many hostages that haven't been released and are not home with their loved ones. And for Abigail, this is going to be a journey. I mean she witnessed her parents both be murdered.

[08:40:01]

And so this is going to be a long journey for her. But the fact that she is home and that she is with her family, we can at least have a sigh of relief and know that she is with her loved ones.

MATTINGLY: You know, Noa, to that point, the journey ahead, you almost can't comprehend how difficult it will be. But you also see kind of the spark in her eyes, the smile in those photos as she's surrounded by family. You talk about the family infrastructure that's in place for her as she goes through that journey.

NOA NAFTALI, COUSIN OF FREED HOSTAGE ABIGAIL MOR EDAN: Abigail is a little girl who is full of love of life. And to see her, again, to see her smiling is really remarkable. Her family is incredible. They are -- they have been through so much, and yet they have everything that they need emotionally in order to be there for this child and they are surrounded by the love and support of their community and we're relieved to see her home. It gives us hope to see that this framework is working, that the United States and Qatar are managing to bring Israel and Hamas to some kind of deal. And we really hope to continue seeing people coming home to their loved ones where they belong.

HARLOW: And to that point, Liz, that is why you and Noa are wearing those patches on your shirts, right, with the number of days. And you change them every day. You continue to wear them even though Abigail is home.

L. NAFTALI: Well, yes. I mean 52 respects now the amount of days that hostages have been somewhere in the dark, somewhere in Gaza. And, in many cases we don't know where all of these hostages are.

HARLOW: Yes.

L. NAFTALI: And it's been made clear that they don't even know where a nine-month-old child is right now. And so we wear this because we have American hostages, Israeli hostages. And until they come home, every day we want people to understand, these are real lives that have been taken, abducted, and we want to make sure people understand that just the severity of this and that it isn't -- it's hard -- we can lose track of time, but this is 52 days that these people have not been with their loved ones. We don't know anything about them. The Red Cross hasn't been able to visit with them.

And in the same breath, I will say that I know that President Biden and his team and the government and, as Noa mentioned, the Qataris, everybody is working to release them. But until that happens, every day we need to understand what this really means.

MATTINGLY: Noa, what's the relationship like between family members of those who have been taken hostage, both that have been released and that are still being held? You guys have been so critical to keeping this front and center, to keeping the spotlight on this issue as the diplomatic talks have gone forward. Do you have contact with other family members? Do you coordinate? Do you talk about how this is all going to work to keep pressure on?

N. NAFTALI: I hope that none of you will ever know what we have gone through, what these families are going through, but we know and these other family members know and that communication and support has been, I think, one of the only things, main things keeping us going in this absolutely unbearable and excruciating reality. And we hope that no one will ever have to join this club.

MATTINGLY: I certainly understand that. And it's working. Nobody would want to be a part of that or have to go through what you have all gone through, but it is having an effect. We've seen the effect in the photos with Abigail and so many others. So many more still, obviously, need to come home.

Liz and Noa Naftali, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

L. NAFTALI: Thank you.

HARLOW: We do have some sad breaking news just into CNN to report.

Israel, this morning, confirming the death of a man who was listed as a hostage. The IDF says that Ravid Katz was taken during the terror attack on October 7th. It is unclear if he died in Gaza or if he was killed in Israel. His body was, though, brought over the border. He was from kibbutz Nir Oz. His sister is Daron (ph) Katz Asher (ph). She and her two young children, Raz (ph), five years old, and Aviv (ph), just two years old, you see them there, they were among the hostages freed on Friday.

MATTINGLY: Well, C.J. Rice has been in prison for more than a decade. Now he's one step closer to freedom. CNN's Jake Tapper joins us about this critical development in his case.

HARLOW: And happening right now in India, a rescue mission to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel for more than two weeks. Some should be out at any moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:49]

MATTINGLY: This morning, a Philadelphia man is one step closer to freedom. Yesterday, C.J. Rice was granted a petition for writ of habeas corpus by a Pennsylvania judge as a teenager. Rice was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for a 2011 shooting. The judge found that Rice's trial attorney rendered ineffective assistance and ordered that Pennsylvania decide whether to retry him or free him within 180 days.

HARLOW: It was a cover story in "The Atlantic" last year that started the ball rolling on a legal effort to get Rice released and really to bring justice. The title of that report, "This is Not Justice: A Philadelphia Teenager and the Empty Promise of the Sixth Amendment." And the reporter who wrote that incredibly compelling and important piece learned about C.J.'s ordeal after Rice's pediatrician said he didn't think C.J. could have done this crime because he himself was recovering from a shooting at that time. And that reporter, our very own Jake Tapper. The pediatrician, his father, Dr. Theodore Tapper.

Watch part of Jake's original CNN report on Rice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. THEODORE TAPPER, C.J. RICE'S FORMER PHYSICIAN: He had staples in his abdomen over approximately an 8 or 9-inch surgical incision from his breastbone straight down as far as you could go.

[08:50:07]

There was no way this young man, five days after I saw him, was running anywhere, let alone walking fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining us now, CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

Wow, Jake, what a - what a culmination of a lot of work. So, the fact that this judge, Jake, granted this petition for writ of habeas corpus, what does it mean now?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it means his conviction was overturned. And now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has 180 days to decide whether they are going to set C.J. free or whether they are going to retry his case. And the commonwealth will be represented by the district attorney of Philadelphia. And a division in the district attorney's office has already ruled that C.J.'s was - C.J. was denied Sixth Amendment rights and was not given a competent attorney.

So, I expect, I do not know this for a fact, but I expect that ultimately the district attorney of Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, will free C.J. Again, I do not know that for a fact. But since his office has already ruled that C.J. did not have adequate representation and since C.J. has already done 12 years in prison for a crime that I do not believe he could have committed, a crime that nobody was seriously injured in, much less killed, I think that ultimately C.J. will be a free man. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

MATTINGLY: Jake, can you take people back to your piece, both how you kind of got into it, but also, it was so damning in how it was written and, based on your reporting, how it actually came to be.

TAPPER: OK, so my dad is a pediatrician. He's retired now. And he worked in a - in a poorer section of Philadelphia, a lower income section. And C.J. was his patient. And C.J. was shot in 2011. And a few weeks after he was shot, C.J. was accused of participating in a shooting, but my dad said he couldn't have done that shooting. He couldn't have walked up to this family and then run away because he could barely walk. But, you know, the justice system, quote/unquote justice system in

this country is what it is. And based on a photo lineup of very questionable circumstances, one witness said that C.J. did the shooting. And based on that one witness, C.J. was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, even though his co-defendant was completely acquitted.

And my dad asked me to take a look at this after years and years of trying to get C.J.'s conviction overturned based on the fact that he didn't think that it was fair, and that he didn't think his medical testimony was adequately respected during the trial and that he didn't think C.J.'s lawyer was very good, a woman who has since passed away.

I took a look at it and realized that he had actually inadequate representation. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees you counsel. And he really did not have adequate counsel. And so I went to my friend Jeff Goldberg, who is the editor of 'The Atlantic," and I said, I would like to write about this. And Jeff, to his great credit, assigned me another researcher, reporter to help me write this story. And we wrote this piece. And Jeff put it on the cover of "The Atlantic," October 2022. And hopefully that got a conversation going.

In the meantime, my dad, I think, although he won't confirm it, hired an attorney named Carl Schwartz, and he filed this habeas petition based on the same argument that C.J. did not have adequate representation. And the district attorney's office in September agreed. And then one judge in October agreed. And then the second judge yesterday also agreed. So C.J.'s conviction has been overturned. And now we're just waiting for the system to move forward and let C.J. out for this great injustice.

And I would just like to -- I know I'm rambling, but I would just like to point out, we know that jails, prisons, are full of kids like this. Full of lower income, especially people of color, and that C.J. just happened to have been lucky to have had a pediatrician with a son who's a journalist. And it sucks. This is the system we have.

HARLOW: Yes. Well, that's why you put air quotes around justice, right, Jake? How many other C.J.s are out there? This is everything, Jake.

TAPPER: Thousands.

HARLOW: Thousands. That's exactly right.

Thank you, Jake, for all you did on this. We'll track it.

TAPPER: Well, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Of course.

MATTINGLY: President Biden and the first lady heading to Georgia at any moment to honor the late Rosalynn Carter. Some others who plan to be there, well, it may surprise you.

[08:55:02] We're going to take you to Atlanta, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: At any moment, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will depart for Atlanta to attend the memorial service of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

MATTINGLY: Jimmy Carter will also be there, as well as former President Clinton and every living former first lady, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump.

CNN's Eva McKend is live at the Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta.

Eva, what do we know about the plans for today?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil and Poppy, in just a few hours the motorcade will arrive here from the Carter Center to the Glenn Memorial Church. We're on Emory University's campus.

And then this momentous tribute, this memorial service will begin. You mentioned a number of esteemed figures. But we'll also hear from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, former country music stars Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks. We'll hear songs like "Morning has Broken," "Great is Thy Faithfulness." If you're familiar with the church tradition, you'll know how powerful those songs are and how important they were to the former first lady.

And I think all of this really illustrates that the former first lady was a legendary figure in her own right, separate and apart from her husband, the former president, Jimmy Carter.

Here's how members of her family are thinking about this moment.

[09:00:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM FULLER, JIMMY AND ROSALYNN CARTER'S NIECE: We know how much we loved her. And it's just so heartwarming to see how the nation loves her.

I want people to remember my Aunt Rosalynn as someone who stood up for what she believed in. You know, she believed in equal rights for women. She believed in caregiving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: A true testament to their love story that the former president, 99 years old, that he will be here to honor his wife.

Poppy. Phil.

HARLOW: Yes, certainly quite a day ahead. And we will have -- Eva, thank you very much -- full live coverage of that. It begins at noon Eastern right here on CNN.

Thank you so much for starting your day with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is now.