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CNN Live Today

John Roberts Expected to be Confirmed; DNA Could Save Death Row Inmate; Author John Grisham Visits Biloxi

Aired September 29, 2005 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are right at the half hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Here a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
In Southern California, winds have pushed brush fires across more than 10,000 acres in four counties. Looking at live pictures now from the Chatsworth area. This is the largest single fire and it doubled in size overnight. It has burned more than 9,000 acres in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles. One home has been destroyed and hundreds more could be in danger.

New Orleans resumes the phased-in homecoming that has been suspended by Hurricane Rita. Beginning today, business owners can return to the French Quarter and central business district. And residents living in those eight dry zip codes can now start coming home beginning tomorrow.

At any moment, two U.S. senators will address the gas supply problem created by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Democrats Charles Schumer and Dick Durbin want to create a national strategic reserve of gasoline and jet fuel. It would draw upon - it would be drawn upon in times of fuel shortages, similar to the national reserve now in place for oil.

Let's go to Capitol Hill. We're on the verge of confirmation in the next hour. Senators will cast their votes on John Roberts and his nomination to be the next chief justice of the United States. His approval is so certain, in fact, the White House already has plans to swear him in later today.

Our congressional correspondent Joe Johns joins us with a closer look. Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. This is certainly not going to be a cliffhanger. The reason to watch this coverage is because it is a historic moment.

I have some numbers for you. Forty-three is the number of American presidents there have been so far in the United States. Sixteen is the number of chief justices of the United States. Seventy-seven is the number of senators who are expected to vote for John Roberts, according to a count by Democrats that was taken fairly recently. About two dozen members of the United States Senate expected to vote against Roberts. The debate on the floor of the Senate today, mostly about what type of chief justice John Roberts will be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I hope I am proven wrong about John Roberts. I have been proven wrong before on my confirmation votes. I regret my vote to confirm Justice Scalia, even though he, too, like Judge Roberts, was a nice person and a very smart Harvard lawyer. I regret my vote against Justice Souter, although at the time, his record did not persuade me he was in tune with the nation's goals and progress.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I do not know, none of us do, the mark that Chief Justice Roberts will leave on the court. With his many fine qualities, he may be a great administrator. He may lead some great reform of our court system. He may revolutionize some area of law. But he will be a successful leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: John Roberts expected to be the youngest chief justice of the United States since John Marshall and that was a long time ago. Of course, that vote expected to occur sure around 11:30 Eastern time today. That time certainly could slip as the speeches continue.

The looming issue obviously, Daryn, is when will the next nominee to the Supreme Court be named? Who will that be? Of course, it's up to the White House. Back to you.

KAGAN: And meanwhile, John Roberts getting to work right way, right?

JOHNS: That sure -- it looks that way. We expect him to be sworn in later today. And obviously, they want him on the bench and up to speed by the time the court starts its official business, October 3rd.

KAGAN: All right, Joe Johns on Capitol Hill. We will be back to you later in the morning. Thank you.

As Joe was mentioning, the court session opens -- the new session opens on Monday, with the first new chief justice in decades. But with another new justice on the horizon, a range of controversial issues could face new tests.

Let's check in with our Randi Kaye, who introduces us to a man whose life may hinge on the balance of the court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, Tennessee, is what Paul Gregory House calls home.

(on camera): So they call this the long hall?

PAUL GREGORY HOUSE, DEATH ROW INMATE: Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): For 20 years he's lived here, on death row. House has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair.

(on camera): Did you kill Carolyn Muncey?

HOUSE: No.

KAYE: Did you rape Carolyn Muncey?

HOUSE: No.

KAYE (voice-over): It was July 13th, 1985, when Paul House's life took a giant leap toward death. That day, his neighbor, Carolyn Muncey, disappeared from this tiny shack she and her family called home. Her body was found the next day, less than 100 yards from her home, in Luttrell, Tennessee. The mother of two had been badly beaten. There were signs of a vicious struggle.

Paul House was a friend of Muncey's husband. He was also a convicted rapist, out on parole.

PAUL PHILLIPS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think that he knew that he could trick her to leave the house and get her down by that creek, and I think his intentions were a sexual assault. The reason she was killed is because she fought back.

KAYE: When police questioned House about the murder, he told them he'd been home all evening. But his live-in girlfriend admitted House had gone out for about an hour.

(on camera): Not telling them you had left the house that night turned into a fatal mistake for you.

HOUSE: Pretty much.

KAYE (voice-over): House had no idea how bad things were going to get. He told police he was jumped while out walking. He escaped through the woods, arrived home with cuts and bruises.

PHILLIPS: I don't buy it all, no. That would be called hogwash in Lutrell, Tennessee.

KAYE: But House's biggest problem? Forensic evidence. His jeans, transferred to the FBI lab for analysis, had Carolyn Muncey's blood on them. The chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee testified the blood found on House's jeans not come directly from Carolyn Muncey's veins, but likely spilled from the samples en route to the lab.

PHILLIPS: I actually saw the evidence being prepared, to be transported to the FBI laboratory. It was packaged properly.

KAYE: In the end, the jury convicted House of first degree murder, and sentenced him to die.

JOYCE HOUSE, PAUL HOUSE'S MOTHER: He called me and he said mom, have you have heard about DNA? And I said no. And he said, OK, read about it, because he said, that's going to get me out of here. He said that will prove that I didn't do it.

KAYE: House pushed his new lawyer, Stephen Kissinger, to order state-of-the-art DNA testing on fluids from the scene, something not available during his trial 20 years ago. Persistence paid off. The semen discovered on her nightgown belonged to her husband, so there's no proof House raped Carolyn Muncey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that was our Randi Kaye reporting. Right now, I want to show you a live picture from the floor of the U.S. Senate. Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, he is speaking about Judge John Roberts, the vote to confirm him as the next chief justice of the United States will begin very soon.

Let's listen to Senator Leahy.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: ... fellow citizens. We stand in the shoes of 280 million Americans here in this chamber. What a somber, humbling responsibility we have in casting this vote. I was glad to hear the Republican leader say earlier this week that judge must jettison politics in order to be a fair jurist. He's right.

I thought the remarks of the senior senator from Maine are were especially meaningful, and I appreciate that she was careful to include judicial philosophy among the criteria she considered on this nomination. Of course, she is right. And as the Senate considers the nomination, it's important to have more information, rather than less, about a nominee's approach to the law and about his or her judicial philosophy.

For the American people's lives to be directly and indirectly affected by the decisions of a nominee, it is equally important that the Senate's review process be fair, to be transparent, to be thorough. The hearings we conduct, the debates we hold, are the best and only opportunity for the American people to learn about the person who could have significant influence over their constitutional protections and freedoms. We owe the people we represent a vigorous and open review, including forthright answers to questions.

KAGAN: You've been listening in to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. He is one of 18 Senate Democrats that are on board and on the record that they will be supporting Judge John Roberts as the next chief justice of the United States. We should see that vote within the next hour.

Ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, life as they knew it changed forever. Residents of one south Louisiana town search the debris of their homes for scraps of their former life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: More live pictures from Southern California. As you can see on your screen, you've the Santa Anna Winds fanning the flames of a bunch of out-of-control wildfires, the worst around 9,000 acres in Chatsworth, just north of downtown Los Angeles, has consumed at least one house and another structure. We are monitoring the situation and will bring you more throughout the morning.

Right now we go back to the painful process facing Gulf Coast residents. Many are shocked to find what it is left of their homes. People from the fishing town of Port Sulphur worry about their futures now that so much of their past have been destroyed.

Keith Oppenheim explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sign by the road is one of the few things still standing. Port Sulphur, a fishing village of about 3,000 people that was already struggling economically, was washed away by 20 feet of water. Now the main highway is covered with a sea of contamination. Nearly every home is in pieces.

(on camera): What are you trying to do here today? What are you trying to accomplish?

JIMMY CAPIELLO, RESIDENT OF PORT SULPHUR, LOUISIANA: All I'm trying to do is collect some memories.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Jimmy Capiello memories are scattered. He's lived in Port Sulphur all his life.

CAPIELLO: This is the garage entrance to my house. I just remodeled that house, spent $27,000 in the kitchen.

OPPENHEIM: Jimmy took me through the remains of the three- bedroom home he built himself, the place where he and his wife, Paula (ph), raised two children.

CAPIELLO: I don't even know what this is.

OPPENHEIM: It's hard to know what, if anything, he can salvage.

(on camera): What you got in there?

CAPIELLO: My little boy's cars. I will be damned.

OPPENHEIM: Along with the toy cars, some old records.

CAPIELLO: Had a bunch of old joke records, (INAUDIBLE) Maybelline (ph).

OPPENHEIM: Things of sentimental value.

CAPIELLO: This was my workshop, my pride and joy right here. This is where I did all my woodworking.

OPPENHEIM: Things he spent years creating. But, today, all Jimmy can really do is say farewell. CAPIELLO: I have already had my cry. You know, when I saw the aerial view of this area down here, I knew it was nothing to come back to.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): But you spent your whole life, 62 years...

CAPIELLO: Right.

OPPENHEIM: ... living in this area.

CAPIELLO: Oh, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

OPPENHEIM: It's got to be so hard to say goodbye.

CAPIELLO: Right. I know all the people. And, yes, that's the hard part.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) my house and sat right back on the block, one inch from the ceiling.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Down the road, neighbors are mourning an entire town. In the face of this much destruction, few of them are talking about rebuilding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) is dead, and it's going to be deader.

OPPENHEIM: Some used boats to recover what they could. Gayle Bryan rescued a few of her antique dolls, grasping for something from her past.

GAYLE BRYAN, RESIDENT OF PORT SULPHUR, LOUISIANA: It's not just my house. It's the whole parish. All of South Plaquemines is gone. And I just can't imagine people rebuilding here. I just don't see it, you know?

CAPIELLO: Man, we had so many parties back here with all our friends and family.

OPPENHEIM: As Jimmy Capiello reminisced, he told us he realized, before the storm, his life here was going to end.

CAPIELLO: I was standing, well, about right here. My truck was parked right there. And I just went, see you another life. I'm gone.

OPPENHEIM: And that, in a few words, represents the tragedy of Port Sulphur. Even if it is rebuilt someday, many of its residents who spent a lifetime making memories will no longer live here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: From Louisiana east to Mississippi, author John Grisham returns to his roots to check out the damage in Biloxi. Ahead, how he's trying to help victims of Katrina pick up the pieces.

Also raising wildfires in the West, will the weather provide firefighters any relief. Bonnie Schneider's forecast, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Looking at live pictures from our affiliate KCAL. Looking at the skies over southern California. A lot of smoke because there's a lot of fire. As many as eight brush fires burning out of control. It was a very wet winter out there in southern California, and that is one of the reasons they're saying there's so much fuel to keep and encourage these fires as they burn out of control. One house has been lost so far, also one firefighter has been injured.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's check the time right now. It is 10:51 on the East Coast, and 7:51 on the West Coast. Just ahead, bestselling author John Grisham takes us on a tour of Biloxi, Mississippi, a place that is near and dear to his heart. How Grisham and his wife plan to help their long-time friends rebuild.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Best-selling author John Grisham has close ties to Biloxi, Mississippi. And for a man who makes his living as a writer, Grisham was nearly at a loss for words at the level of destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.

CNN's Anderson Cooper went with Grisham as he and his wife walked through what's left of that town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN GRISHAM, AUTHOR: Is it open?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When John Grisham walked into Biloxi's library today ...

GRISHAM: Oh my goodness.

COOPER: ... the best-selling author was at a loss for words.

GRISHAM: What a mess.

COOPER: The clock remains frozen, a silent reminder of the moment Katrina came ashore here one month ago. The floor is littered by books and debris brought in by the storm. The shelves that once held John Grisham's many best-selling books are empty. Only a few mildewed copies of his work remain.

GRISHAM: I'm in bad shape. I was on the bottom shelf.

COOPER: Grisham first came to this library in 1989. He was a lawyer and a struggling author then trying to sell his first book, "A Time To Kill."

GRISHAM: I went to 35 libraries all over the state of Mississippi and we'd have little punch and cookie parties and a good day was like, you know, nine or ten books would sell.

COOPER: Charlene Longino (ph) remembers it well. She's been the librarian here for more than 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, this was a collection of about 45 to 47,000 just regular books and we probably lost more than half of it. You can see at least the first two or three shelves are wet and just not fixable. And we're hoping the top two and possibly three shelves we can salvage.

COOPER: Charlene is optimistic, but says it will be years before this library can reopen.

GRISHAM: You know, the sad part, Anderson, when it comes to rebuilding, you know, your libraries and museums and places like this, you know, homes and schools will get a priority to get people, you know, back in decent housing but libraries and museums are always kind of on the tail end of the funding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot this from the third floor.

GRISHAM: I heard about that. Someone told me you were the wild man up there.

COOPER: A city official stops by to show Grisham the video he made when the storm came ashore. Grisham and his wife, Renee, live in Mississippi and have started a campaign to raise money to help rebuild the Gulf.

RENEE GRISHAM, JOHN'S WIFE: You know, we realize that there would be people who would come in early and do things, but we want to be here after those folks are gone because I know with hurricanes in Florida, there's still people trying to get roofs on their house and we want to make sure those people get their roof on their house.

COOPER: The Grishams have donated $5 million of their own money and have already saved many million more. Walking around Biloxi, it's easy to see the needs are enormous.

GRISHAM: Every law firm has the southern report and federal report. This is southern report. All Mississippi cases are in the southern reporter from the Supreme Court. Mississippi, Louisiana and this is what's left of the guys -- the guy's law office.

COOPER: Just down the block, we meet the Grisham's friend, Bob Mahoney. He's determined to rebuild his family's restaurant.

BOB MAHONEY, RESTAURANT OWNER: This is the bar right here.

COOPER: Bob's restaurant, Mary Mahoney's, has been serving southern delicacies for 41 years now. When I was just eight in 1976 I came here with my dad, a Mississippi native. Bob Mahoney was here then.

MAHONEY: I still remember you walking up here. You just came from the water park and you had your bathing suit on and your towel around you.

COOPER (on camera): I remember that.

MAHONEY: And your daddy was sitting in here having dinner.

COOPER: This is the room we ate in.

MAHONEY: This is the room you ate in, yes back in 19, I guess, 76. I want to say when Wyatt Cooper came into establishment, especially down in Biloxi, Mississippi, in the '70s, you know, it kind of got your attention.

COOPER (voice-over): John Grisham has been eating at Mahoney's for the past 15 years. Grisham even wrote about Mahoney's in his book, "The Runaway Jury." Bob has memorized every passage.

MAHONEY: They dine on crab cakes, grilled snapper, fresh oysters, and Mahoney's famous gumbo, and all went back to tell about the lovely lunch.

GRISHAM: That's was brilliant. That was good.

(CROSSTALK)

MAHONEY: That's good writing.

COOPER: Bob Mahoney survived Camille and despite the damage, he says the restaurant will survive Katrina as well. He hopes to be open for business by Thanksgiving.

MAHONEY: Long-term, you know, I just see the, you know, the casino industry coming back and employing people. That's the biggest thing. You know, people can't come back and rebuild their homes if they don't have jobs. And right now, that's basically our number one economic engine, is getting these people back to work and rebuilding their homes and just getting back to normal.

COOPER: John Grisham and his wife Renee hope to help in that comeback, two public yet private people just trying to lend a hand.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Biloxi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And the Grisham Fund is set up through a bank in Tupelo, Mississippi. It's called the Rebuild the Coast Fund Organization. And you can more about it at rebuildthecoastfund.org.

Let me give you a heads up at what we're looking at for the next hour. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard admiral who took over when Michael Brown was let go from FEMA -- well, that's not him, that's Judge John Roberts. I'll get to him in just a moment. But Thad Allen is holding a news conference very soon. You'll be seeing that live here on CNN.

And, the other man of the hour, Judge John Roberts. We expect within the next hour the Senate to vote on his confirmation as the next chief justice of the United States. You will see that vote live here on CNN.

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