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American Morning
Casey Anthony: Not Guilty of Murder; Breaking the Debt Ceiling Stalemate; Obama To Hold Debt Talks; DSK Attorneys to Meet with Prosecutors; Oil Spill In Yellowstone River
Aired July 06, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Kiran Chetry.
Let's get you caught up on what's happening.
The jury says Casey Anthony is a liar, but not a murderer. We'll have reaction this morning to the stunning verdict from lawyers on both sides, our legal experts, as well as an alternate juror who says his colleagues got it right.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans.
New developments in another high-profile case attorneys for Dominique Strauss-Kahn preparing to meet with prosecutors today. We're live with new details.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Ali Velshi.
Twenty-seven days until D-Day. And D stands for "default." With the debt ceiling looming, President Obama is taking new steps to try and broker a deal. We're live at the White House on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: Welcome. Glad you're with us this morning. It is Wednesday, July 6th.
And I'm sure like you all, like the rest of the country, we were riveted yesterday -- 2:15 was the time that verdict came in, not guilty in the Casey Anthony trial.
VELSHI: I heard that there were people in the streets who don't even follow the stuff and stopped and went to the first place for TV.
ROMANS: I was at the dentist and the place stopped business, literally stopped business.
You know, a liar but not a murderer. And that's the bottom line.
First, the verdict few people expected -- Casey Anthony acquitted of capital murder, manslaughter and child abuse in the death of her 2- year-old daughter Caylee. A Florida jury deliberating for just under 11 hours, convicted her only on four misdemeanor counts of lying to police. VELSHI: Casey Anthony will be sentenced tomorrow, and because of the time that she's already spent behind bars, Anthony could be released as early as that.
We've got reaction to the stunning verdict beginning with CNN's David Mattingly live in Orlando.
Good morning, David.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ali.
In less than 24 hours, Casey Anthony went from being a pathological liar to a woman who may soon be set free.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury find the defendant not guilty.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Tears of joy from a young woman on trial for her life, Casey Anthony, the mother so many saw as a child murderer, avoids the death penalty and may soon walk free.
Also vindicated, her much criticized attorney, Jose Baez.
JOSE BAEZ, CASEY ANTHONY'S LAWYER: While we're happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case. Caylee has passed on, far, far too soon. And what my driving force has been for the last three years has been always to make sure that there has been justice for Caylee and Casey, because Casey did not murder Caylee. It's that simple.
MATTINGLY: But how the jury rejected the prosecution's claim that Casey killed her child Caylee with chloroform and duct tape and dumped her body in a swamp is a mystery. Afterward, not one of the 12 jurors would speak. Prosecutors appeared stunned.
LAWSON LAMAR, STATE ATTORNEY FOR ORANGE COUNTY: We're disappointed with the verdict today and surprised because we know the facts and we put in absolutely every piece of evidence that existed.
MATTINGLY: But it wasn't enough. Casey Anthony's parents, enduring accusations on the stand of lying and her father accused by Casey of molesting her, left quietly, showing no emotion.
Their attorney released a statement: "Despite the baseless defense chosen by Casey Anthony, the family believes that the jury made a fair decision."
Deputies patrolled the neighborhood where the Anthonys live.
The Orange County sheriff appealed for calm.
ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF: We ask for your continued peaceful acknowledgement of that verdict.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MATTINGLY: And Casey Anthony back in court tomorrow where she would be sentence for those four counts of lying to investigators. Those are misdemeanors. She could very easily walk out of there after a free woman after time she's already served.
VELSHI: David, thank you for that. We'll stay on top of the new developments, and certainly more to talk about in this case.
CHETRY: Yes. And in another surreal scene of those 12 chairs that were open and a microphone -- that were empty and a microphone sitting up front waiting for the jury to talk if they wanted to.
VELSHI: And they didn't.
CHETRY: And they all chose not to, unanimously. The Casey Anthony jurors are not talking.
One of the five alternates, though, did agree to talk. He sat through the deliberations, did not take part in the deliberation part but sat through the entire trial in case somebody couldn't be there for the deliberations. And he agrees with the verdict. He says the case raised many questions about how Casey Anthony and her family behaved but evidence of murder was not there.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSSELL HUEKLER, ALTERNATE JUROR: This was a very dysfunctional family, and they did not handle things well at all. Yes, we all believe and I'm pretty sure I can say this for all 17 of us, there was some type of horrific accident, (INAUDIBLE). But overall I think the family knows a lot more than what they're -- what came out at the trial, but they didn't prove that there was a murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A little bit of insight into what was going on in the minds of the jurors. Of course, he was not part of the deliberations, but heard all of the same evidence that the others did.
Following the defense team's dramatic victory, one of Casey Anthony's lawyers, Cheney Mason took direct aim at those he claims tried and convicted Anthony in the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY MASON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I hope that this is a lesson to those of you who have been indulged in media assassination for three years, biased and prejudiced, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be. I'm disgusted by some of the lawyers that have done this. And I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border, have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a damn thing about and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. Now, you've learned a lesson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Very interesting choice of first comments.
CHETRY: I thought it was odd, too, because je used it to sort of say --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: -- as opposed to a two and a half year old still dead.
VELSHI: When Jose Baez who came in to speak that that came up. But the question does remain, was this case lost by the prosecution or won by a good defense? How did this defense prevail?
Joining us now, Sunny Hostin, former federal prosecutor and legal contributor for "In Session" on truTV, and Linda Kenney-Baden, criminal defense attorney and former member of Casey Anthony's legal team.
Linda, let's start with you. Was this won by the defense or lost by the prosecution?
LINDA KENNEY-BADEN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Both. The prosecution overreached. They didn't have the forensics. They went out and got fantasy forensics as Jose said, forensics never used on this planet certainly -- maybe in Mars, but certainly not here.
CHETRY: And you're referring to the smell test.
KENNEY-BADEN: The smell of death, the hair banding -- the fact they didn't tell the jury that Mr. Kronk had actually moved the bag and the contents had fallen out. They tried to sell the jury on a prosecution construct -- and jurors aren't stupid. They want to figure things out themselves. They don't want to be force-fed.
VELSHI: Now, here -- this is an interesting issue, Sunny. We heard a lot more than that jury heard.
ROMANS: That's right.
SUNNY HOSTIN, "IN SESSION" LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know that we heard that much more, actually. I mean, I think this case was really transparent because of the cameras in the courtroom, because there was a good judge -- a very good judge, a good prosecution team, a good defense team.
And I don't think that we heard so much more. I mean, a lot of this evidence came in and Linda just said, I was actually surprised at some of the forensic evidence that came in that hadn't really been tested in a court of law. So, I don't know that we heard --
CHETRY: They said the same thing about DNA 20 years ago and now it's --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: But this is my question about it. How is public opinion so wildly different than what this jury saw?
KENNEY-BADEN: I think you heard Cheney Mason talk about it. And I think that she's been tried in the media. The local media started three years ago, she's a killer, she's a killer, she's a killer. You saw signs yesterday "irresponsible baby killer" that were promoted on TV. It's outrageous.
This is a jury who heard the evidence and we should be embracing them.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Sunny, from the very beginning you were saying that this is a circumstantial case, and it's always difficult to try a circumstantial case. So, I would say that the two of you are competent to talk.
HOSTIN: Thank you very much. I would say we have the experience to --
ROMANS: You have the experience to back it up and you were very clear from the very beginning that this was a circumstantial case and that's difficult to prove.
HOSTIN: They're very difficult to prove. I've said from the very beginning, there was no direct evidence tying Casey Anthony to this crime. No one was going to get up on the witness stand and say Casey Anthony I saw killed Caylee Anthony. And the burden of proof is very high in a criminal case. It's beyond a reasonable doubt. Not any doubt, but beyond a reasonable doubt.
And if you have a defense team that's putting forth other plausible theories or if a jury thinks there are other plausible theories, this kind of case typically crumbles.
CHETRY: The bottom line, obviously, an immense amount of work went into the defense. I know that you consulted on the defense team --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I know that the prosecution -- I mean, people were saying they put together a meticulous closing argument, that they ran through everything. I mean, all of this, they were getting -- they were getting accolades, and then, boom, 10 hours later, they come back with a verdict. I mean, that was shocking to a lot of people that after months -- I mean, they were sequestered for two months. Within ten hours.
Did they have their minds made up before this --
KENNEY-BADEN: No. It was very, very clear that prosecution didn't prove the case. It was also very clear they overreached. They went for the death penalty on this case. The death penalty is for people like Osama bin Laden and Ted Bundy, serial killers. Not a 25-year-old girl who's lost a child, who clearly was -- if you look at the pictures, a wonderful mother.
HOSTIN: But let me say this about the 10 hours. We're talking about a jury that was sequestered for several weeks, six weeks. So, this is a jury that already knew each other, already knew each other's families, about each other's families, already knew about each other's bents, likes and dislikes.
So, when they got in there, they didn't have to do any of that. They just needed to talk about the case. So, you've got 10 hours. That's a long time to talk about one issue. We're only talking about this issue, what, a couple of minutes? Think about it that way.
VELSHI: Let me ask you about this, Jose Baez, nobody knew who this guy was before this started. And frankly, I went through and read everything again about what people have been saying about him through the course of the trial, and most people thought he was bungling and he wasn't particularly experienced -- all of a sudden, this guy is a bit of a hero.
KENNEY-BADEN: He's absolutely a hero. Look, I started with Jose and I said that he is F. Lee Bailey. He's a young F. Lee Bailey. Look, he knew what he didn't know, he called in people with great expert opinions. I was on the case, had been practicing 30 years, I hate to say that because that dates me a little bit, you know, and, really, he had his heart and soul and passion. He represented --
VELSHI: But he did make mistakes and a lot of people said they were rookie mistakes in court.
KENNEY-BADEN: He made some mistakes but everybody makes some mistakes. He's been bashed and I think if his name were John Doe, quite frankly, you wouldn't see that bashing.
VELSHI: What do you think of Jose Baez?
HOSTIN: I thought he did a great job.
ROMANS: I love his opening argument
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: You can't in with -- you can't put -- write a check you can't cash which he did and it worked.
HOSTIN: And yesterday, I said, but perhaps he's crazy like a fox, right? Perhaps there's a method to his madness. His sweet spot is speaking to people, speaking to the jury. This jury, every time he went in and said, "Good morning," they all said, "Good morning." That's what you do as a good attorney. You relate to people. And they liked him.
KENNEY-BADEN: They respected him more.
HOSTIN: They respected him and they believed him and they liked him.
ROMANS: You can't file a motion right away to get her out? HOSTIN: I don't think so. I thought it was sort of odd because she is looking at four years and she served about three. But if she gets convicted -- not convicted, sentenced to all four years consecutively, I think, Linda, am I right, she would still have to perhaps serve a couple months?
KENNEY-BADEN: I don't know what is left on her check charges that she's doing time for. So, I think there's a little bit of time. I think they need some time to figure out where to place her also.
VELSHI: Truly a remarkable saga. Thank you to both of you, Linda Kenney-Baden and Sunny Hostin.
CHETRY: So, our question of the day that we want to ask you as well: What's next for Casey Anthony? Her immediate future as we have been talking about will be determined tomorrow and her sentencing 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning on those four misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators.
Brings us to the question of the day: do you believe Casey Anthony's acquittal was the result of a good defense or a poor prosecution?
VELSHI: We've already had the answer both. So you got to choose one or the other.
CHETRY: Yes. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, or tell us on Facebook and we will read your thoughts later in the morning.
VELSHI: All right. An important developments this morning in the case surrounding Dominique Strauss-Kahn. A source tells CNN that attorneys for the former IMF chief will meet the prosecutors today. The meeting comes after prosecutors disclosed that they had uncovered credibility issues with the maid accusing Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her inside his Manhattan hotel suite in May.
Now, she is suing "The New York Post" for accusing her of being a prostitute.
CHETRY: A Somali terror suspect being secretly held on a Navy ship now for two months in the Persian Gulf. He was now in a New York courtroom yesterday. He's accused of being a middle man between a Somali terror group and the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen. Prosecutors say that he brokered weapons deals and that he received explosives training from al Qaeda. He pleaded not guilty at that hearing.
ROMANS: There's a state of emergency this morning in seven Montana counties after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured, causing tens of thousands of gallons of oil to gush into the Yellowstone River. Governor Brian Schweitzer is blasting the oil giant for what he calls a slow response. Schweitzer says oil has been defected up to 90 miles from the leak site. ExxonMobil says 350 workers are involved in the cleanup and more resources will be added until the river is restored.
But, you know, just this weekend when this was all talking about -- they were downplaying the significance -- once again downplaying the significance of oil.
VELSHI: We -- meaning the media -- largely, needs to not fall for that, because the first thing that these oil companies say is, no damage to anybody, it's contained and no wildlife. Why don't we just forget that part?
ROMANS: The initial read, the river was high and running fast was going to break up the oil. But now, you got an emergency in seven counties.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: But you know what? The initial reads have never been right in these things. That's the things. Oil leaks --
ROMANS: It's frustrating.
VELSHI: It gets places. That's the kind of bottom line about this.
CHETRY: A top aide to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is back on the job six months after she was shot in the same shooting outside the supermarket in Tucson. District director Ron Barber was standing right next to Giffords when accused gunman Jared Loughner opened fire during a public event in Tucson.
Barber was shot in the cheek and in the thigh. He's still having a little trouble walking but returned to work yesterday on a part-time basis and told co-workers that the only thing that could make his return better would be to see Congresswoman Giffords walk through the door.
ROMANS: All right. Up next on AMERICAN MORNING: President Obama putting new pressure now on lawmakers to get moving on negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. We're live at the White House with this.
VELSHI: And flights delayed as day turned to night over the Phoenix area. Check this out. Incredible pictures of a massive wall of dust. We'll show it to you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eighteen minutes past the hour.
A new move by President Obama to try to break the stalemate over the rising - over raising the nation's debt ceiling and preventing what could turn into a new crisis for the economy. He invited Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss it tomorrow.
VELSHI: Brianna Keilar is live at the White House. Brianna, I'm not sure what the change of setting does or what this is supposed to achieve. At this point, everybody involved in discussion should know what the consequences are. So what is it the president is trying to do?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president is really trying to just get people here and talking. And I think the thing to keep note of is a lot of what's going on is going on behind the scenes. And you have Democrats and Republicans being very quiet about it.
But yesterday, what we saw was President Obama making a rare appearance in the briefing room. This is the second time in a week that he came and spoke to reporters and he said, after days now of talking with Congressional leaders, Democrats and Republicans, he said they've made real progress, but also that there are real differences and he announced this meeting tomorrow. And here's what he said he hopes for it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's my hope that everybody is going to leave their ultimatums at the door. That we'll all leave our political rhetoric at the door and that we're going to do what's best for our economy and do what's best for our people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So publicly, though, it seems like not much has changed, Ali, and I sense that when you asked me what is he really trying to achieve with this, because we saw him come out last Wednesday in this press conference. We saw Democrats and Republicans over past days. They've been trading barbs. We know that they continue to have this impasse over tax increases. Democrats want some. They don't just want to go along with the spending cuts that Republicans want.
But it's important to note, behind the scenes there are a lot of discussions. In fact, late last night right before going to bed, I found out that the president had met in person with Speaker Boehner over the weekend.
So there are meetings going on. They're kind of back channel meetings, and details are very, very slim at this point.
CHETRY: All right. Brianna Keilar, I would say we'll keep our fingers crossed, but I don't know if that helps at this point.
VELSHI: We'll watch closely. How about that?
ROMANS: We're running out of walls to bang our head against as we try to -
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- figure out when we're going to bump our head against the debt ceiling.
VELSHI: It's like we are lost in a mighty haboob.
ROMANS: That brings in Jacqui Jeras from the Extreme Weather Center. "Haboob" is the word of the day.
VELSHI: Yes. ROMANS: Hi, Jacqui.
CHETRY: What's the difference between a haboob and a regular sandstorm?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's pretty much the same thing. Haboob is a really severe event. I mean, this one was huge, guys. Take a look at this video. Here, this reached up to 10,000 feet in the air and at one point, was as much as 50 miles wide. So it's created by strong winds associated with a thunderstorm and just caused extreme conditions, almost zero visibility.
Lots of trees down, too, by the way. About 8,000 people in the Phoenix area without power. And, of course, it grounded flights for several hours. In fact, there were delays throughout much of the night.
Take a look here, too, as the radar, just to put this in perspective for you, here's Tucson that's where the storm started and then moved its ways towards Phoenix and continued to push on off towards the east. So more of those monsoonal thunderstorms are going to be possible in the southwest today as that moisture streams into the area.
We'll also watch for thunderstorms in parts of the Midwest, into the southeast and even in the northeast. Places like Boston could have some isolated severe thunderstorms. It's going to be a hot, sticky day for a whole lot of people. Nineties up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Still looking at those triple digits in the Southern Plain States. So hot and sticky weather with thunderstorms east and west all across the U.S. today, guys. It's going to be another rough one.
Say it again, Ali. I know you love to say it.
VELSHI: Haboob! It's a great word. It's way better than sand wall or sandstorm.
JERAS: It is, absolutely. And you know, a lot of people learn something new today.
VELSHI: I certainly did. I did not know what that word meant. Jacqui, great to see you. Thank you.
JERAS: Thank you.
VELSHI: Did you guys know that word? Had you heard that word before?
ROMANS: I have not.
CHETRY: No, but - but how much money do you make for saying it? $5?
VELSHI: No. That was just - not on camera. I'm not giving everybody $5 for saying it. I'm saying if it works itself into stories that had nothing to do with the sandstorms -
CHETRY: Yes. Then there's - then there's $5. ROMANS: That would be very difficult. That's more worth than $5.
VELSHI: Right. So some executives are going to catch on to it - some CNN executives will say, why do you keep saying haboob?
ROMANS: Please, no one tell a CNN executive. Please.
CHETRY: You can get away with it in the 6:00 hour. I don't know instead (ph) when people start to wake up.
Up next on AMERICAN MORNING, the days of getting all your video on the Internet, the video, the downloads that you want on your cell phone are going away.
VELSHI: Find out which carrier is eliminating the unlimited data plan.
ROMANS: Also cheating, test results too good to be true. A stunning investigation into system-wide cheating in a major city's school system.
VELSHI: And who's doing the cheating that will surprise you.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: Twenty-two minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Investors on edge about financial instability in Europe. Stock futures trading lower this morning after Moody's downgraded Portugal's credit rating to junk and markets closed almost flat yesterday.
President Obama inviting Democratic and Republican leaders to a meeting at the White House Thursday. Thursday, to discuss raising the debt ceiling. If lawmakers can't come to an agreement by August 2nd, the Treasury Department says it will not be able to pay all of its bills on time.
A Facebook about to unveil what it calls something awesome. So far, the social network wouldn't say exactly what it has in store for today's announcement, but the buzz is it's some sort of partnership with Skype allowing you to video chat with multiple friends at the same time.
Twitter meanwhile shopping around for another round of private financing. This is according to the "Wall Street Journal" this morning. The new funds could value the company as high as $7 billion.
Verizon Wireless customers say good-bye to unlimited data - data plans. Starting Thursday, the company joins its competitors T-Mobile and AT&T in eliminating that option. But Verizon says existing customers with that plan get to keep it. This will only apply to new customers. And Netflix is expanding internationally to 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Members will have access to movies and shows in Spanish, Portuguese and English.
AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after this break with new developments in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case right here in New York.
It's 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Thirty minutes after the hour. Time to check your top stories.
Casey Anthony could be released from jail as early as tomorrow. She was convicted of lying to police but could be sentenced to time already served. The jury acquitted Anthony of murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
An oil spill in Montana's Yellowstone River has forced the state's governor to declare a state of emergency in seven counties. Forty-two thousands of gallons of oil leaked Friday night from an ExxonMobil pipeline. Governor Brian Schweitzer is blasting the oil giant for what he calls a lackluster response.
ExxonMobil says 350 workers are involved in the cleanup and more resources will be added until the oil is gone.
And tomorrow, President Obama invites leaders from both parties to the White House to try to hammer out a deal on raising the debt ceiling. The White House telling lawmakers that neither side will get everything they want and the president says he's opposed to a short- term increase in the debt ceiling.
CHETRY: The U.S. case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn continues to fall apart.
Today, CNN is learning that Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are set to have a meeting with prosecutors -- a sit-down comes after questions surfaced last week about whether the accuser was completely truthful with investigators. All of this happening as another woman, this time in France, comes forward with claims that she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn eight years ago.
Joining us now from Paris is Christopher Dickey, Paris bureau chief for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast." Good to see you this morning, Christopher.
CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, NEWSWEEK: Always a pleasure, Kiran.
CHETRY: Let's first talk about this meeting that Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are set to have with prosecutors today about the case. There was some talk that, perhaps, the D.A. would be preparing to drop this case against him. They indicated they're not prepared to do that at this stage.
What may become of today's meeting?
DICKEY: A plea bargain might be what's coming. Certainly the district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has been very embarrassed by this case. He doesn't want to give it up altogether so he may allow Strauss-Kahn or encourage Strauss-Kahn to plead guilty to some misdemeanor which would not involve any kind of jail time and probably involve some kind of minimal fine.
But I don't think that Strauss-Kahn's lawyers are going to go for that. I mean, certainly, the friends of Strauss-Kahn that I've talked to say that he wants some kind of arrangement that he can portray as a complete vindication. And we just don't know if that's going to happen or not.
CHETRY: That's the interesting thing. He was somebody viewed as a potential presidential candidate in France, even if he pleas to a misdemeanor that certainly hurts him in terms of his reputation.
DICKEY: Well, it does. But you know, the French press today is full of stories saying that the district attorney is just going to drop the charges. I don't think that's true, or at least not yet. That certainly is what Strauss-Kahn's people want.
But, you know, we haven't even heard from Strauss-Kahn, his version of what happened in that room. We've heard all kinds of speculation. We've heard hints and sort of face (ph) and nods from his attorneys, that maybe there was some kind of consensual sexual contact, but we don't know what his version of events is.
So, he's trying to have a where he never tells us and everything is based on the lack of credibility of the victim or the alleged victim.
CHETRY: Right. And you --
DICKEY: That's that seems to be the direction they're headed in.
CHETRY: And you wrote an article for "The Daily Beast" that there was a rush to judgment against Strauss-Kahn. People are judging, as you said, the D.A.'s office pretty harshly
But the interesting thing when you read about what sources are saying, that this accuser's story was so compelling harden investigators were brought to tears, that this story, that she kept that story very straight and that she kept along the same lines for several days and then, all of a sudden, we hear it falling apart because of the jailhouse phone call.
Where did things go wrong here?
DICKEY: Well, I think there are two things that are really, really disturbing to the prosecutors and to the police in what they found out over the last couple of weeks. One certainly was a jailhouse conversation, a call that she had with a friend, maybe a boyfriend, or a relative in Arizona who's there in prison on drug charges and they were talking in some way -- we don't have the exact transcript, we don't have the exact translation, but they are alleged to have been talking about the possibility that she could make money off of this incident, a day after it's supposedly happened. That was certainly a problem.
But the other thing that really disturbed prosecutors is that in her asylum claim in 2004, she had claimed to have been raped and she had rehearsed that story so that she was able to tell it over and over again and bring people to tears then. You put her on the stand, and you introduce that fact and then you say, OK, how is that different from your account of what happened in room 2806 of the Sofitel with Dominique Strauss-Kahn and you basically don't have a case anymore.
CHETRY: Right. Because you're saying it as it turns out, she was falsifying that claim in 2004 about being the victim of rape?
DICKEY: It's not -- it's not just that it was -- Kiran, not just that it was falsified. It's that she was able to give a dramatic account of it again and again, very much as she gave a dramatic account of Strauss-Kahn's encounter again and again. That was hugely damaging to the case.
CHETRY: And you mentioned not being able to hear -- getting a chance to hear the recorded conversation, her attorney, the accuser's attorney, is also complaining about that, saying the D.A. is: (a), refusing to meet with him, and he will not allow the client or the lawyer to hear for themselves this recorded conversation.
What is the obligation of the D.A. to let her attorneys in on that?
DICKEY: Well, I'm not a lawyer. But I don't think that there is the same kind of obligation there that the D.A. has vis-a-vis the defense attorneys for Strauss-Kahn because the defendant -- I'm sorry, the victim is not a defendant in this case.
CHETRY: Right.
DICKEY: She is the witness. She's the victim. So, this will come up. This will go into the courts and other fashions. You've seen already that she has filed through her attorney a lawsuit against "The New York Post" for calling her a prostitute. There's all of that is going to be in play.
Eventually this will surface and we may see that it doesn't really sound exactly the way it's being portrayed in the press. Right now, we're going on what one unnamed source says this conversation was sort of like. We don't have the exact transcript of the conversation at all.
CHETRY: Right.
DICKEY: And it was in a language that's very hard to translate.
CHETRY: All right. So, obviously much more to this. This will continue. As we said, there's a meeting today with the -- with DSK's attorneys, as well as the D.A. Christopher Dickey, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
ROMANS: The Obama administration reversing a White House policy of not sending condolence letters to families of troops who commit suicide in a war zone. It comes after a bipartisan group of senators asked the president to change this long-standing policy.
A White House statement says, quote, "The president feels strongly that we need to de-stigmatize the mental health costs of war to prevent these tragic deaths and changing this policy is part of that process."
It's a scandal that may have kept 12,000 kids from getting the extra help they need. Investigators say 80 percent of Atlanta's schools cheated on state standardized tests, faking scores and changing wrong answers to show fake improvement. Investigators said 178 teachers and principals -- 178 teachers and principals were involved in the cheating scandal, 80 have already confessed.
VELSHI: Back in my day, you had -- you had to cheat to get them to give you higher grades. Now, these ones are giving kids higher grades.
All right. Day seven of their Canadian tour, the duke and duchess of Cambridge will visit Slave Lake, a central Alberta town you may recall was devastated by a wildfire in May. It sort of burned up the entire town. Prince William and his bride Catherine spent yesterday in the Northwest Territories where they meet with aboriginal leaders and elders. The prince even tried his hand at street hockey.
The newlywed royals will head to Los Angeles Friday for a weekend visit to the United States.
You know, Christine made the point yesterday that it's all been about Kate and her fashion sense, this and that. This guy has been landing a helicopter in the water and playing hockey.
ROMANS: Speaking French.
VELSHI: Speaking French. It sort of the -- hey, I can do stuff, too, trip.
CHETRY: Exactly. She was dropping the puck and getting out of dodge.
Well, the countdown's begun. The final shuttle launch is set for Friday morning. Up next: NASA's next move. How the space agency is planning to keep an eye on the past to transition into the future.
It's 39 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-two minutes past the hour now.
A new study finds in a non-emergency situation, nearly half of all procedures to widen a blocked or partially blocked artery may be unnecessary. Researchers say that reducing the number of unneeded angioplasties would not only save hundreds if not billions of dollars, but it would also help patients avoid potentially serious side effects, including blood clots, as well as post-operative bleeding.
VELSHI: All right. What a golf ball, a dust buster and curling iron all have in common? Well, they've all benefitted from space technology. Over the years, the team at NASA has performed amazing feats in outer space and the technology they've discovered to use out there has improved our lives on earth.
NASA calls them spinoff, commercial products that came about because of space research.
One early NASA invention was memory foam used to lessen impact during landing in aircraft seats. Now it's used in sports and protective padding like helmets, shin guards and baseball chest protectors.
OK. So, NASA also inspired inventions in medical science. For instance, devices like the artificial heart and the artificial hip joint. One that many parents are thankful for is the in ear thermometer, based off infrared technology used to measure the temperature of stars.
Space science has given us better eyesight, straighter teeth, better hair -- hasn't really helped me on that front -- a special coating to protect equipment, LED to scratch resistant eyeglasses.
Research into ceramics helped create invisible praises and hair style tools like curling irons and flat irons.
And, finally, golf balls and dust busters -- what I started with. Back in the '90s a former NASA researcher used aerodynamic technology to design a new golf ball that optimizes both distance and accuracy. A portable tool to collect samples from the moon surface inspired the cordless miniature vacuum -- Christine.
ROMANS: That -- you talking about flat irons and curling irons, Ali, something I never thought I would see on morning television. Thanks, Ali.
Up to a million spectators are expected to attend the final launch of the space shuttle Friday morning. And as the program heads into retirement, NASA plans to transition to the future by keeping an eye on the past. The space agency will be developing a new capsule to take humans into deep space.
John Zarrella live from the Kennedy Space Center this morning.
John, what's the plan when this mission is over in a little two weeks from now?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.
Well, the plan is, for NASA to go outward, you know, maybe to an asteroid, maybe to Mars, but the problem is, when are they going to go, how much is it going to cost, are they going to go ever? (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Surrounded by the blackness of deep space, 117 million miles from earth, is the asteroid Vesta. Images captured by NASA probe. In the not t-too-distant future, U.S. astronauts could be looking out their window at a sight just like this.
MIKE GERNHARDT, SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT: I can either float along it or I can have it tethered to me and then I can sample rocks, I can chip a rock.
ZARRELLA: Astronaut, Mike Gernhardt, and his team are working on the kinds of equipment and techniques they'll need for human exploration of an asteroid as early as 2025 before either the moon or Mars.
GERNHARDT: What we're doing is building a simulated asteroid under water.
ZARRELLA: And this is not some high-tech laboratory. It's Key Largo, Florida. Beneath the surface at the site of an undersea habitat called Aquarius, they have created an asteroid proving ground in the near weightless environment of water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We work there, we live there, we can put anchors, we built a rock wall like a climbing wall. We can climb up that wall in zero gravity.
ZARRELLA: With the shuttle era over, NASA is going back to going outward. What most everyone agrees it does best. And asteroid could be the first stop, a baby step, because there's no gravity and an asteroid will be much closer, it's simply an easier first mission than Mars.
ZARRELLA (on-camera): So, once you get to Mars or the moon or an asteroid, how are you going to get around? How about this? A multi- mission space exploration vehicle.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): In five years, Gernhardt hopes to see his vehicle attached to the space station's robotic arm with astronauts living in it and spacewalking from it. A good test. But before it can go any further out like to an asteroid, there's one big problem. Getting it there. Jeff Greason was a member of President Obama's Blue Ribbon Committee on the future of exploration. Greason worries it may never go anywhere.
JEFF GREASON, SPACEFLIGHT COMMITTEE MEMBER: It's a very expensive thing for NASA to maintain. And the result of that as I see it is that if NASA does successfully develop this launch vehicle, there will be no budget to do anything with it.
ZARRELLA: The man commanding the last shuttle flight worries too, talk of trips back to the moon and on to Mars have always been, well, just talk.
CHRISTOPHER FERGUSON, SHUTTLE ATLANTIC COMMANDER: Mars is always 20 years in the future. It's been 20 years in the future for the last 30 years. I'd like to see how committed we are this time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (on-camera): Now, the real concern right now is that because there may not be a national will down the road to do these things, that ultimately the United States is going to get left behind. NASA insists that's not going to happen, but people like Greason told us, look, you know, the real worry is that China is going gangbusters with their space program, and they could ultimately end up sending humans back to the moon, perhaps to the asteroid, before NASA ever does it.
And some people say, that might not be a bad thing because just like what happened with sputnik, that could finally be the inspiration to get the United States back, really back, into the space business if somebody else does something really grand before the United States does it -- Christine.
ROMANS: You know, John, you don't want to fall behind because you get in competition. That's the concern of people who are proponents of space.
VELSHI: In this case, if you fall behind, John, you could really fall behind. If you're five years behind or ten years behind, you could lose all the advantage.
ZARRELLA: Oh, absolutely. There's no question about it. But it is a genuine concern that the American public won't have the resolve, that politicians won't have the resolve, to do these big-picture missions to go outward, and that we will, ultimately, get left behind if we're not careful.
CHETRY: All right. John Zarrella --
ROMANS: All right. John Zarrella --
CHETRY: Thank you.
VELSHI: I'm going to be with John, you know that, right?
CHETRY: Hey, you're heading down there, right? Down to the launch.
ROMANS: I can't wait.
CHETRY: Take lots of pictures.
VELSHI: Thirty years after the space shuttle program began, "Atlantis's" flight to the International Space Station will be mission -- look at that. I love that.
ROMANS: I love that thing, too.
VELSHI: See that rocket, what do you think of that? It's great.
CHETRY: I wasn't looking for the rocket.
VELSHI: Do that one more time. CHETRY: I was listening to your words.
VELSHI: Look over here in a second and you'll see it. OK. Here it comes. Look at that. Watch.
ROMANS: Watch, Kiran.
VELSHI: Oh, man.
ROMANS: Love it.
VELSHI: Love that. This is going to be mission 135, by the way. That's mission 135, NASA's final mission. Special coverage begins Friday morning right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: All right. We have to show you something else really cool ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. This guy has the edge, certainly, a fan who was pulled on the stage to play with U2 --
VELSHI: This is cool.
CHETRY: And has an incredible back story as well. It's 50 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-one minutes past the hour. Here's a look at your headlines this morning.
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CHETRY (voice-over): Freedom could be just a day away for Casey Anthony. A jury finding her not guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee. Anthony was convicted of four counts, misdemeanor counts of lying to investigators. She could be released on time already served at her sentencing tomorrow.
CNN is learning that attorneys for Dominique Strauss-Kahn will meet with prosecutors today in New York City. We'll have more on that.
Meantime, the president inviting Congressional leaders from both parties to the White House tomorrow to try to kick start talks to increase the nation's debt ceiling. The house -- the White House warning that the limits have to be increased by August 2nd to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its loans.
Montana's governor declaring a state of emergency in seven counties after an Exxon Mobil pipeline ruptured last week spilling 42,000 of gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River. The Environmental Protection Agency and the coast guard is now trying to figure out what caused that pipeline to rupture as well as assessing the damage.
Jury selection begins today in the perjury trial for pitching great, Roger Clemens. He's accused of lying to Congress when he said he never used performance enhancing drugs. Near hurricane-force winds kicking up in the desert. A massive sandstorm grounding flights in the Phoenix area last night. The cloud rising thousands of feet in the air, stretched over 30 miles.
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CHETRY (on-camera): You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back after a quick break.
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ROMANS: The chance of a lifetime for one fan of the U2 show. They pull somebody up usually every show, somebody on stage, and this time, a blind man in the crowd was holding up a sign saying he wanted to play a song for his wife.
VELSHI: You're going to love this. So, during U2's encore, Bono said, get this guy a guitar. He guided him up on stage and grabbed the mic, and the rest is rock and roll history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING) You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness, a river in a time of dryness, a harbor in the tempest, all the promises we made --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That's amazing. I mean, he played along perfectly with Bono.
ROMANS: What are the lines? Lyrics there where the light in the world of blindness.
VELSHI: Guy in better (ph), by the way. Bono let him keep the guitar which is a rare green Irish falcon.
ROMANS: Nice.
VELSHI: It was made specifically for him.
CHETRY: He's a great guy.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: What a great guy.
ROMANS: Must be the thrill of a lifetime to go up on stage.
VELSHI: I wouldn't know how great a guy he was, because the only time I was ever around him was right here with you guys, and you guys didn't let me get within 50 feet of him.
CHETRY: You were here that day?
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Bono wouldn't let you get within 50 feet of us.
CHETRY: Bono wanted to be around us.
VELSHI: You guys all got great pictures with him. I got a picture saying this was the day bono was at CNN.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: You're going to the shuttle launch, come on.
VELSHI: I'm not going on the shuttle.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Like a million people at the shuttle launch. I'll be there.
CHETRY: The not guilty verdict, by the way, stunned just about everyone who's watching yesterday when it came down at 2:15 p.m. eastern time. Was Casey Anthony's defense team that good or did prosecutors give jurors a reason to doubt her guilt?
ROMANS: And that's our question of the day this morning. Do you believe Casey Anthony's acquittal was a result of a good defense or poor prosecution?
CHETRY: We start with Melody Collins on Facebook who writes, "I believe the jury's decision was the result of a lack of solid evidence which made the prosecution's case weak and left too much room for doubt. The jury made the only decision possible according to the law. The defense was very good at creating even more doubt but was not any better than the prosecution."
VELSHI: And on Facebook as well, Hoke says, "I believe Casey Anthony's acquittal was a result of a good defense. I thought the prosecution did an amazing job and personally thought they had it, but the defense did prove there was a reasonable doubt so the jury had to find her not guilty on three of the seven charges."
You know what I like about Hoke, he admits that he thought it was going the other way, because this morning, on Twitter, everybody knew it was going to happen this way.
CHETRY: I know.
ROMANS: I know.
VELSHI: Yesterday, I had nobody telling me she was getting off without conviction on a major charges.
ROMANS: Would she get the death penalty or would she go down to manslaughter?
VELSHI: Right. Nobody said she's walking out.
ROMANS: All right. Jason Stansel on the blogs said, "Casey Anthony's Aquital was based on a poor prosecution. Emotions aside, there was not enough hard science to prove that Casey murdered her daughter. Immaturity like entering a hot body contest and getting a tattoo just isn't good enough reason to convict someone with murder."
VELSHI: Keep your comments coming. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, tell us on Facebook. We'll read more of your thoughts throughout the show.
CHETRY: All right. Your top stories coming up after a quick break. It's three minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
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