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Paula Zahn Now

Women Battling Hip-Hop; Martha Stewart Leaving

Aired March 03, 2005 - 20:00   ET

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

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


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
After a long and lonely winter, the country's most famous female inmate is finally packing her bags.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: After five months in prison, she's still in the spotlight, richer than ever and all set to start over -- Martha Stewart leaving.

And hip-hop, a $10 billion business. Too much sex, violence and mistreatment of women? Tonight, fighting back. Some women say enough is enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: So, we are told that some time after midnight Eastern time tonight, a thinner, richer, maybe even more famous Martha Stewart will emerge from Alderson federal women's prison in West Virginia. You're looking at a live picture of one of the signs at its perimeter right now. She won't quite be a free woman, but close. She's going to spend the next five months in home detention at her 153-acre estate. That's about 40 miles north of New York City.

And, tonight, we have extensive coverage looking ahead to Stewart's release, including a one-hour "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" special coming up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. We are going to see what's in store for Stewart as a prisoner in her own home. And we are going to have exclusive video of her behind bars, look at what life has been like for inmate number 55170054.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): It had been an agonizing two years for Martha Stewart. Now, after a guilty verdict, the American icon of impeccable style and taste was a convicted felon. Determined to put the ordeal behind her and her struggling company, Martha insisted on beginning her sentence early.

MARTHA STEWART, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: Here's Walter Dellinger.

WALTER DELLINGER, ATTORNEY FOR STEWART: I was deeply impressed with her decision to make this sacrifice for the company.

I told her and others told her that, if she would just wait for the appeal, it may well be the case that she would never have to serve the sentence. She would never have to go to prison.

ZAHN: In her last public statement before prison, she detailed the things she'd miss the most.

STEWART: And I will miss all of my pets.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: She enumerated all sorts of animals.

STEWART: My canaries.

SERWER: Chickens and ducks, dogs.

STEWART: My seven lively cats.

SERWER: She didn't mention family members. She didn't mention her own daughter, which struck a lot of people as kind of bizarre, but a lot of what she does is, frankly, a little different. She's a very singular person.

ZAHN: Martha asked to serve her time at the women's prison in Danbury, Connecticut, to be closer to her 90-year-old mother, but Martha wouldn't get her way.

Instead, she would be tucked away in the Appalachian town of Alderson, West Virginia. The Alderson federal prison camp has been home to other famous inmates, singer Billie Holiday, who was serving time for drug possession, Manson follower Squeaky Fromme, and World War II collaborator Tokyo Rose.

The prison is a campus-like facility modeled after Bucknell University.

SHARON COTLIAR, "PEOPLE": It's not a cell. It's not really a traditional idea of what people think a prison is, but it is like a barracks-like setting. Martha had said that her job is to the clean administration buildings, which means lots of sweeping and cleaning and emptying garbage cans and possibly even cleaning toilets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her daughter visits offense, Alexis.

ZAHN: Jose Figuroa (ph) traveled more than 30 miles to Alderson prison several times a month to see his girlfriend, Vicky (ph). Frequently, he saw Martha there with prisoners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what I've seen in the prison, I think that she's a very outgoing person. She talks to everyone. Her mom visited around Thanksgiving time. And she came over and introduced her mom to me and several other people in the visiting center. So, you know, she's a very nice person.

ZAHN: Even Jose's 7-year-old son, Manny (ph), saw Martha's softer side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were outside and I was swinging. And Martha was in the chair. And I was swinging real high. And Martha asked me, can you swing any higher? And I told her I can swing a little bit higher.

RICHARD FEIGEN, FRIEND: She's told me she's learned a lot about how things are on the other side of the tracks. She knows a lot about these families, cares about them. She's gotten sort of mellow.

ZAHN: Martha has taken up prison causes while serving time. In a Christmas letter posted on her Web site, Martha writes about her fellow inmates, encouraging America to think about these women, devoid of care, devoid of love.

DELLINGER: She's really learned a lot about the lives of women who are in prison. She has learned a lot about what she thinks are often about mandatory sentences that are overly harsh, particularly for their women with young children.

ZAHN: Visitors say this newfound passion for prison reform is just part of an overall Martha Stewart transformation. DELLINGER: I think she's been more reflective than she's really had an opportunity to be, given the intensity of building up that company.

ZAHN: In this exclusive footage, a revealing look at Martha inside prison. Here's Martha cheerfully welcoming friends upon their arrival, here again, chatting it up with visitor after visitor. Friends say gone is the aloof, high-strung Martha they used to know.

FEIGEN: She's achieved a certain kind of serenity. She didn't use to listen much. She knew what she should do and went about it. I mean, now she listens.

ZAHN: And does this video show a trimmer, toned Martha? This, visitors say, thanks to yoga classes, daily chores and avoiding the -- quote, unquote -- "bad food."

DELLINGER: She likes the fact that she's getting really buff.

COTLIAR: Friends who visit her say it looks like she spent a few months at the Golden Door Spa and that they're amazed that she looks like she really is relaxed, that she's lost about 10 pounds.

ZAHN: But, apparently, there's one prison snack that isn't off limits for Martha.

DELLINGER: She talk about the vending machine and she says some of the items are really good. For $1.50, you can get chicken wings out of the vending machine cold and put them in a microwave. And she says, they're actually really, really good. I'm eating these chicken wings and I'm thinking saying, gee, her standards have you're changed. She's really...

ZAHN: And while serving time, Martha's finances changed. Halfway through her sentence, her company stock soared. Much of the gain came when rumors first surfaced that Martha had a new friend in the television business, reality TV king Mark Burnett.

MARK BURNETT, REALITY TV MOGUL: I've seen Martha once a month and I was there last week, and she's looking great, you know? She took the punishment on the chin, quite frankly, in the best way possible and has dealt with it.

ZAHN: In his new book, "Jump In," Burnett devotes the entire last chapter to Martha.

BURNETT: It's about taking risk. And a big risk I clearly took was to approach Martha Stewart in the worst of her legal troubles. I just felt I liked her. I liked her brand. I didn't get why everyone was so down. She made a mistake. Pay the price. Move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And we should point out that some of the fellow prisoners that Stewart once lived with are already out and they're talking, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA BOST, FORMER ALDERSON INMATE: They served rolls at dinner, and so she came up with the idea of making cucumber sandwiches. And so we all tried it, and it was very tasty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Cucumber sandwiches in prison? Prison living from one of her newfound friends. And a little bit later on, why spending house arrest here won't be as nice as you might think, considering this is a $40 million estate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: As a member of the general public, this is as close as you can get to the entrance to Alderson federal prison. That's the prison where Martha Stewart should be leaving from in just about four hours or so.

And if you really want to know what she's been like as an inmate, you have to ask someone who actually did time with her. And that's exactly what we did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Nicknamed Camp Cupcake, Alderson federal prison houses about 1,000 women.

SARA BOST, FORMER ALDERSON INMATE: It certainly is a different way to serve time, because, of course, there are no bars. There are no locks. There are no cell gates.

ZAHN: Sara Bost is the ex-mayor of Irvington, New Jersey. She met Martha Stewart while serving 11 months for witness tampering.

BOST: There was all the rumors going around that she was stiff and would be to herself. And she was not that way at all.

ZAHN: The two first spoke in the prison's visiting room when Martha offered snacks to Sara's 6-month-old granddaughter.

BOST: We've had dinner together and we've walked together and we've talked and we became friendly.

ZAHN: Right from the start, Martha demonstrated her trademark talent, turned ordinary into extraordinary.

BOST: I believe the menu that night was chicken potpie. And a cucumber salad was on the salad bar, and we had rolls. They served rolls at dinner. And so she came up with the idea of making cucumber sandwiches. And so we all tried it, and it was very tasty.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: Not everyone, though, at Alderson was excited about the arrival of the domestic diva.

BOST: You saw a tightening of security, and they just resented a celebrity being there.

ZAHN: But, when Martha finally arrived, opinions within the prison changed.

BOST: They found her to be just a regular person, that she would carry her own bags, that she would make her own bed, that she would wait in the line like everyone else.

ZAHN: Martha has reportedly lost 20 pounds at Alderson.

BOST: Food certainly left a lot to be desired.

ZAHN: But she also suffered a setback. The woman who fashioned a lifestyle empire based on do-it-yourself decor lost the prison's contest for best holiday decorations.

BOST: But I'm not surprised, because some of the women who were there longer had other resources. For instance, if they participated in some sort of craft activity or an art activity, they would have leftover materials, so they would have more resources to put into a holiday scene.

ZAHN: For the most part, Sara says, Martha's attitude at Alderson was upbeat and optimistic.

BOST: Well, I didn't ever see a side where she was depressed or pitying herself, having a pity party.

ZAHN: Sara says there are some important lessons to be learned from the time she served. Perhaps her fellow inmate will feel the same way.

BOST: It teaches you that you can make it and be tough through tough situations. You can be as tough as the situation and keep walking with your head high.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: And Sara said, in spite of the closeness of her relationship that she felt with Martha during the time of her imprisonment, she's not expecting to hear from Martha Stewart any time soon. As a condition of probation, felons are not allowed to contact each other.

As we've mentioned, Martha Stewart still has five months of house arrest to serve, and what that means, wearing the dreaded bracelet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALT PAVLO, FORMER INMATE: Even when you're in shower, even when you go to sleep, you have to learn to kind of sleep with a big bulge on the inside of your leg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Coming up next, you're going to meet this man, someone who knows an awful lot about what Martha Stewart will be going through.

And a little bit later on, if there's one thing that fascinates us as much as anything these days, it seems to be the fall from grace. This time, it could be the great comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: If you weren't with us at the top of the hour, we want to remind you, it's been confirmed that Martha Stewart will be released from prison, we expect, some time within the next four hours or so.

And for the next five months, Martha Stewart will be confined to her 153-acre estate about an hour north of Manhattan. Now, here is what this means for her. She's actually going to have to stay inside her house most of the time, allowed out to only buy food or to work. And then, that's only for only 48 hours each week. She'll also have to wear an electronic leash, an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts by radio.

Here's Gerri Willis now on what that might be like, living in home detention.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former white- collar criminal Walt Pavlo spent three months under house arrest in Savannah, Georgia. The memory of that experience remains fresh in his mind. The two-year anniversary of his release is tomorrow.

(on camera): So, Walt, we're sitting in an apartment here in New York City that's about 450 square feet of space.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: It's pretty tiny.

PAVLO: Right. WILLIS: When you were under house arrest, were you in a size house like this or was it far bigger?

PAVLO: Well, incidentally, I was a little larger condominium. It was about 1,500 square feet. But it is still, you know, very small. There's not a lot of room that you can roam while you're under home confinement.

WILLIS: Pavlo, 42, was convicted of money laundering and wire fraud, as he says, basically cooking the books of MCI Telecom. He went to prison in March 2001 for two years. Afterwards, he went home, but remained under confinement.

(on camera): Well, let's talk about that ankle bracelet. What leg did you have it on? Show me.

PAVLO: It was on my left ankle, and what it does, it's like about the size of, I guess, an iPod. And it kind of has a band that goes on, and it's tethered to you 24/7. And it never leaves you.

WILLIS: Even when you're in the shower?

PAVLO: Even when you're in shower, even when you go to sleep, you have to learn to kind of sleep with a big bulge on the inside of your leg. And you can't tamper with it too much, too, because that tends to set off alarms, too.

WILLIS: Now, is it made of plastic or metal? I would think it would chafe. I would think that, after a while, you would have enough of that.

PAVLO: It definitely does. It wears on you. And the more that you try to just make yourself comfortable with it, sometimes the tighter that it gets. It rubs against you in a certain way. But you have to learn to kind of ignore it. It's like when you were a kid, if you had a cast, you wanted to scratch and you can't get to it, because you just don't want to be messing with it for risk of setting it off. So you just tried to avoid touching it at all cost, which is hard.

WILLIS (voice-over): Even worse, says Walt:

PAVLO: You're ashamed of it. It's another feeling of shame that you carry around with you. So, it's difficult. So, the only people I really invited in were ones that were understanding, that didn't mind the phone call that might come from your probation officer.

WILLIS (on camera): You have told me a lot about how it's really influenced your life and how you're trying to come back from that. And you feel like you're paying your debt.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: It's almost as if that bracelet sort of doesn't go away. Do you know what I mean?

PAVLO: It's true. It's true. The whole stigma for a white-collar felon -- and I'm not looking for any sympathy or anything -- but people need to understand that it, indeed, in the social circle that most white-collar felons come from, it's a life sentence. People look at you much differently than they ever did before. You were in a position of trust. You were in a position of authority, and you abused that. And there's no way to really identify what it was that made you do that. And that's frightening to a lot of people.

WILLIS: The day that you got this ankle bracelet off.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: What was that like?

PAVLO: It was an unbelievable feeling. It was truly the first feeling of freedom that I had, to be able to -- to not care where I was, you know, where I was. And when I lived in Savannah, I can tell you exactly what I did. I drove to the beach, because it was as far away from anybody. I didn't want to be near anyone. For just a moment, I wanted someone not to know where I was and, just for a minute, experience what a little bit of freedom tasted like.

And I didn't stay very long because I had to get back to work, but I did take my time, and it was a quick feeling to say, it's over with. It's done. That part of that confinement is over with for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now it's time for Gerri's show-and-tell routine tonight. You actually brought one of those ankle bracelets...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIS: I brought you an ankle bracelet. Look at this.

ZAHN: Hope I never have to wear it.

WILLIS: You bet. Well, if you do...

ZAHN: Whether it's three months or five months.

WILLIS: You can only pick black. There's black, black and black to choose from if you get one of these things.

But here's how it works. This is really a radio transmitter. And it talks to a device you put on your telephone. If you wander out of range with that on your ankle, it automatically calls the police, authorities. And pretty soon, you've got a cop car or maybe a sheriff's deputy car siting in your front lawn.

ZAHN: And she has to wear this at all times, as per her terms of probation.

WILLIS: Five months, in the shower, you name it, in bed. It never comes off. And if you try to take it off, there's an anti- tamper device on this thing, so very difficult to do.

ZAHN: So, she's going to have to figure out a way to shave her legs around this thing. It's actually pretty cumbersome.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: And as your guest just said, it's not so easy to truck around with this thing on you.

WILLIS: Not heavy, but annoying, I think, after a while. That's certainly what Walt told us. After a while, it starts to wear on you.

ZAHN: I think it's pretty predictable where the radio is going to show she is going. She's going to working on her new book, her prime-time reality show.

Gerri Willis, thank you.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

ZAHN: For a preview of what life might look like for Martha down the road.

CNN prime time has much more tonight on Martha Stewart's release. Later on in this hour, comeback lessons. We'll look at a few folks who got it right -- yes, Hugh got it right -- and some who didn't. And then, at 9:00 Eastern, Larry King takes us live to the West Virginia prison Stewart will be leaving. And then, once again, at 10:00, I'll be hosting a special edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" focused on Martha Stewart. And that is about an hour and a half from now. We hope you join us then.

But, first, a word of warning about our next subject. Many people consider the language you'll be hearing and the pictures you'll be seeing as a filthy portrayal of black women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now there's a legislative process. And so I just thought it was interesting how the whole reason that CNN is here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Next, a campus rebellion to make hip-hop clean up its act.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We have a warning for you now. You're about to see and hear explicit music videos that may offend some of you. We hope they also enlighten you about some of the controversy surrounding hip-hop and rap, wildly popular with black and white young people.

Here's Maria Hinojosa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hip-hop, the soundtrack of every everyday life for millions of Americans, the tough, in your-face-beat that sets the tone of what's in. But today's hip-hop video cool has gone somewhere else.

Take a look. This is Nelly, one of the most popular hip-hop singers, throwing money at women's crotches on his video "Tip Drill," sliding a credit card in a woman's bottom, and the lyrics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELLY, MUSICIAN (singing): Baby girl, bring it over. Let me spit my pimp juice. I need a tip drill. I need a tip drill. Now, baby girl, bring it over. Let me spit my pimp juice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: Shocked? You're not the only one.

Meet Asha Jennings, a tiny one-woman powerhouse who is taking on $10 billion hip-hop industry.

ASHA JENNINGS, HIP-HOP PROTESTER: I want people to start critically thinking about how these images affect black women today. We're telling people they're bitches and hos and sluts and not worthy of respect. And that's exactly how society is treating us.

HINOJOSA: Asha is getting in people's faces.

JENNINGS: Can you read the lyrics, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is a ho? What...

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: Can you be a little louder? Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) get in them guts. Cut you up like you ain't been cut.

HINOJOSA: Forcing the point.

JENNINGS: We're questioning both the men and the women.

HINOJOSA: And dealing with the pushback. These young men go to prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young black men, they're easy to target. You know what I'm saying? We've been the target forever. So, it's not like it's nothing new. It's like, oh, there's the black man. Get him. He's making bad lyrics off women.

HINOJOSA: It's not easy for young black women to attack black men, but this is a family affair. It started when Asha invited Nelly to a cancer fund-raiser at her alma mater, Spelman College, also in Atlanta. She thought it was a good idea because Nelly's sister has leukemia. But then she saw the Tip Drill video.

JENNINGS: It's the worse video I've ever seen. It shows men fully dressed throwing money at women who are in bikinis and the men are touching their body parts. And it's complete exploitation in its rarest form.

HINOJOSA: Angered by the video, Spellman women plan to protest. Nelly canceled his appearance.

But it didn't stop there, "Essence" magazine, an influential monthly for African-American women started a campaign called take back the music. Michaela Davis is an editor at Essence.

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, ESSENCE MAGAZINE: It's not an attack. This is an act of love. We love the music and we love the culture. That's why we have to step in.

HINOJOSA: The magazine got an unprecedented million hits in just one month on its take "back the Music" Web site. And the movement spread from there to newspapers. One African-American writer saying what these black women are doing is the most important cultural movement in the new century.

DAVIS: The crux of it is that we have become out of balance. It's really slating towards one image of women, which tends to be objectified, degrading, very stripper-like. It's not that that in itself is wrong, but it becomes wrong when there's no other quality or no other image that we have to choose from.

HINOJOSA: Asha Jennings believe that these images and lyrics have a direct impact on the lives of all African-American women.

JENNINGS: I'm in law school. I have to sit in front of these young men and women every day who buy these CDs, who don't look at me as competent, who don't look at me as good as them, they look at me as a tip drill. So, I have to stand up and I have to over exert myself to prove myself. And that's not fair.

HINOJOSA: Because the largest number of consumers of hip hop aren't black women or even black men.

DAVIS: We have found that in very, very recent research that the main consumer of this music is still fluent young, white men, 18-34 are buying most of this music. So, it is big. It's like rock 'n' roll was, and bigger.

HINOJOSA: So big that Asha fears these images will become mainstream.

JENNINGS: We're not asking for a complete removal of all images. But we are asking for respect. 40 years ago, the way of being was that African-Americans couldn't vote and African-Americans had to sit in the back of the bus. If we had sat back and said, well, this is just the way it is, where would we be today? And I think it's the same thing with these images. Just because that's the way it is doesn't mean we have to accept it. HINOJOSA: Nelly told Essence magazine in the past that he respects women and is exercising all his artistic freedom. He defends his videos as entertainment. And insists the women are in them by choice.

At a recent town hall meeting in Atlanta, Michael Lewellen of BET, the Black Entertainment Network said this is about artists and their freedom of expression. But he also said it's about money.

MICHAEL LEWELLEN, BET: If people don't buy the CDs, if people won't watch the shows, we won't show them and the artists won't make them and the record labels won't produce them if there is a movement afoot that basically says we will no longer spend our money this way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave the guns and the crack and the knives alone..

HINOJOSA: And this is what it's really about, the money. It's supply and demand. As long as people continue to buy it, producers will continue to make it and BET will continue will continue to air it and Asha and the other young black women say they'll continue to protest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Well, we made a couple references to Essence magazine in the story. And we should point that it is partly owned by Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. And that we invited hip-hop star Nelly to respond to Maria Hinojosa piece, he declined.

One more note, Nelly is also drawing fire from a group of black ministers in Arkansas. They're protesting a Nelly concert scheduled for March 12 in Jonesborough. They say his lyrics are demeaning to women and also glorify drugs and violence.

Coming up in a minute, we change our focus to the CNN security watch and a local police chief with an urgent warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a major loophole, a major, major, major hole that is being created by this particular policy in the national security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: We alert you to a problem that's walking around in broad day light.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Welcome back. Tonight on our "Security Watch," I don't know about you, but I was shocked the first time I saw some of this newly released video of a secret tunnel beneath the California/Mexico border, likely used for drug smuggling. That is the third tunnel found in 15 months. And our lack of border security is a problem that actually brought Democrats and Republicans together today in Washington. And as our Ed Lavandera shows us, it's a crisis at almost every border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On a South Texas day in early July some 30 Brazilian men were wandering through the border of Del Rio. They were looking for cashing checks, some were looking for ways to get to Boston just days before the start of the Democratic convention.

When Sheriff Dwayne Jernigan found out the men had just been released from border patrol custody and that $7,000 had been wired to three of them, he started sounding the alarm, calling anyone who would listen.

DWAYNE JERNIGAN, DEL RIO SHERIFF: What is their purpose for going to Boston just before the convention? Now why somebody from Boston is sending them such large amounts of cash?

LAVANDERA: The men were held for a couple of days and checked out. But these illegal immigrants were eventually released and the sheriff has no idea where they went or where they are now.

From Texas to California, this kind of incident is frustrating local law enforcement officers and border patrol agents.

JERNIGAN: I don't think the public understands what's happening, no. I don't think they would put up with it for a minute if they were aware of what was happening.

LAVANDERA: The police chief of Eagle Pass, Texas knows all too well of what is happening. as Tony Castaniera drives (ph) us around town, he sees as many as 50 illegal immigrants every day sometimes casually walking through a gold course, like we found. But usually they're around the bus station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donde esta Muchacho? (ph)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guatemala.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say they're from Guatemala.

LAVANDERA: Rudi Benissio is from Guatemala and is on his way to Rhodes Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you cross?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Manyana, si.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning about 5 hours ago. You can still see his shoes and his jeans are muddy.

LAVANDERA: The U.S. government calls Rudi an OTM which means he comes from a country other than Mexico. OTM's are often handled differently from illegal immigrants from Mexico.

If Rudy Benicio (ph) were Mexican, he would have been sent right back across the border. But instead, following a background check, he's given what's called a notice to appear, an order instructing him to meet with an immigration judge at a date to be determined later. But the majority never show up. That's why these forms are often called notices to disappear.

CHIEF TONY CASTANEDA, EAGLE PASS, TEXAS, POLICE: It's a major loophole, a major, major, major hole. And that it's being created by this particular policy and the national security.

LAVANDERA: In Eagle Pass, it's easy to spot OTM's. They usually walk right out of the border patrol station, carrying that white piece of paper, and start looking for the fastest way out of town.

Castaneda thinks it would be easy for a terrorist to blend in here.

CASTANEDA: If you could go to a university and learn how to speak Spanish and you're -- you're, you know, from the Middle East or you're a terrorist and you master the language. And then just come across and say, "Hey, I'm from Honduras or I'm from Colombia." But you're still, nevertheless, a Middle Easterner. I mean, you could very easily pass. Light colored complexion, you know, fair skin.

LAVANDERA: Homeland security officials say this year alone almost 50,000 OTM's have crossed the southern border. About 22,000 of those were released into the United States.

Budget shortfalls and lack of bed space make it impossible to hold all illegal immigrants who are captured. So each immigrant is handled on an individual basis.

Victor Certa oversees the homeland security division responsible for deciding who is detained and who is released.

VICTOR CERTA, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: You know, the concern that we are releasing terrorists, I would say that the system is out there to absolutely prevent that from happening. And I feel confident that it is working.

SHERIFF DWAYNE JERNIGAN, VAL VERDE COUNTY, TEXAS: Welcome to the Val Verde County jail.

LAVANDERA: Back in Del Rio, Texas, Sheriff Jernigan says he doesn't just see Hispanic immigrants coming through here anymore. In the last three months, records show illegal immigrants from Somalia, Kenya and Macedonia, to name a few countries, also have been caught.

JERNIGAN: In fact there's more. He'll bring some people in now.

How are you all doing?

LAVANDERA: A year ago, his jail housed 300 OTM's a day. That number is down to five a day now. He says in a post-9/11 atmosphere, immigrants are being captured and released too quickly.

JERNIGAN: Are they terrorists? We don't know. Do you know? Does he know; does he know? Who knows? We're not really checking them out. We're not even holding them long enough to really make a determination. That's frustrating.

I keep it here all the time.

LAVANDERA: Sheriff Jernigan keeps reminders of 9/11 around the office. He knows the vast majority of immigrants who come across the board are simply looking for a better life. But it's the fear of that one villain who might sneak through the border in his town that makes him sound the alarm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Sheriff, that's one of the toughest jobs in the country.

We return to our top story tonight. We are focusing on Martha Stewart's release from prison, which is expected to happen just about four hours from now.

Let's go to Alderson, West Virginia, where Martha Stewart has lived for the last five months. That's where we find Deborah Feyerick.

So Deborah, how is this supposed to play out tonight? What will we see?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very interesting. We're not going to see a lot, really, until she leaves Alderson Prison and gets to the airport. And that's because she's going to be leaving the way she came in, under the cover of darkness.

Right now she's inside saying good-bye to prisoners and the guards who she's come to know over the last five months. She's going handing in her prison khakis, closing out her commissary account and then changing back into regular clothes.

And then she's not planning on spending a second more than she has to here at Alderson. Some time after midnight she will be leaving for the 30-minute drive to the airport. Once she gets there, she'll be taken to her private jet that's going to be waiting there.

And also with her will be dozens of television cameras, all of them hoping for a smile, or a wave, some sign of a new beginning -- Paula.

ZAHN: That's the picture everybody's looking for tonight. Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much for the update.

We're going to check in with Larry King now, who has a preview of what he has for us coming up tonight.

Hi, Larry.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Hi, Paula. So nice being bracketed by you tonight.

ZAHN: Thank you.

KING: Before me and after me, your special, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," going to be terrific.

ZAHN: Yes. It's an interesting special. We show exclusive video for the first time of Martha in prison.

KING: I know. How did we get that?

ZAHN: I can't tell you. It's a secret.

KING: I only work here. Anyway, we're going to do the same thing. Or we'll cover three hours to Martha. That's what we're calling our show tonight. Three hours to Martha. We'll have a whole panel of people, including Susan McDougal, who you will remember -- who you will remember did some prison time herself.

That's all ahead at 9, and then Paula will be back at 10 with a special Paula Zahn "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS." There will even be a live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" at midnight with Nancy Grace and others.

ZAHN: Martha...

KING: They're following it around the clock: Martha comes home.

ZAHN: Larry King, thanks so much. See you at the top of the hour.

And coming up next, we're going to turn to another big story this week, the arrest in the BTK murders, emotional and exhausting for the people of Wichita and, particularly, those in the media spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We hear all the time about how friendly people in Kansas are, and I'm here to tell you that is absolutely true, because we have given them every reason to be rude to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Our David Mattingly behind the scenes with the story you haven't seen yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We come back to a story that we've been following all week long. The capture of a suspect in the BTK serial killings made headlines, of course, around the world. And our David Mattingly has been on the story in Wichita all week long and filed this reporter's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF NORMAN WILLIAMS, WICHITA POLICE: The bottom line, BTK is arrested.

MATTINGLY: What you probably didn't see when that press conference was going on was all of the hugs and all the congratulations and all the handshakes that were going on as all the key players walked into the room one at a time.

The chief of police walked over to where all the city council members were sitting. He shook all of their hands, and you could see how gratified they were that this arrest had been made and the heartfelt thanks that he was offering to them for their continued support through all of this.

A lot of emotion in that room, but it just did not come through the camera in many cases.

The news conference was on Saturday. By Tuesday, we're seeing what I call media burnout among people here in Wichita. Everyone who had even the most remote connection to Dennis Rader was being tracked down and asked all those annoying questions about what he was like, what they knew about him. And they were being asked that over and over and over by every reporter that would come knocking on the door, that would come calling.

And you know, we hear all the time about how friendly people in Kansas are, and I'm here to tell you that is absolutely true, because we have given them every reason to be rude to us. We have given them every reason to want us out of their state permanently, but they have been very nice through it all and very polite, even when you're, like, the 50th reporter knocking on their door.

What a lot of people don't know outside the state of Kansas, and something that really surprised me, was that there was a citizen's group here that was just days away at the time of the arrest from launching a petition drive, asking for a grand jury investigation into how the police department was handling this case, because they were tired of not hearing anything from police about this case.

When I sat down with the police chief and was able to ask him questions about this investigation, he says very little about what's going on, because they're very tight with the information here.

But he did let us know that they were working toward creating a one-on-one conversation with this killer, which I just found fascinating. He wouldn't say if it was verbal. He wouldn't say if it was written, but he said it was satisfied that they were actually making one-on-one contact with this killer.

And it was just a couple of weeks ago, he told me, that they felt like momentum was starting to build and this communication was leading them to an arrest.

I think the most enjoyment that I've had, if it's possible to enjoy covering a situation like this, it's the -- talking to former police chief, Richard LaMunyon, who was the police chief back in the '70s when the case first came up, to see the relief and happiness on his face, knowing that this case was finally closed.

You look back at some old news footage, and you see him talking to the public then, trying to reassure him, saying that he believes that BTK will be caught. I asked him again 30 years later that same question. He still believed that BTK was going to be caught. And last weekend, he was right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That optimism paid off. We're going to be right back with the art of the comeback.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBIE VORHAUS, MEDIA STRATEGIST: Well, it's not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: From Martha Stewart, some tips on polishing a tarnished image.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: If you want to be honest about it, in some ways, prison's actually been pretty good to Martha Stewart. Her stock shot way up. We hear she's lost about 20 pounds, and she's got a new lucrative TV deal.

But her image clearly needs some work if you buy into this poll. A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll finds that, while 57 percent of women feel sympathetic to Stewart, just 37 percent of men do. So as you can see, there is room for improvement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART, FOUNDER, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: I would like to be back as early in March as possible in order to plant the new spring garden and to truly get things growing again.

ZAHN (voice-over): After her release from prison, Martha Stewart has some pruning to do, not just in her garden. She has an image to repair. Martha is just the latest celebrity who has fumbled and is trying to make a make a recovery.

ASHLEIGH SIMPSON, ENTERTAINER: I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song.

ZAHN: Over the year, there have been many big gaffes, bad behavior. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any further argument and/or statements on behalf of the defendant?

ZAHN: And embarrassing indiscretions.

JIMMY SWAGGART, TELEVANGELIST: I have sinned against you, my lord.

ZAHN: Handling the fallout can make the difference between a bump in the road and a career dead end.

Hugh Grant's arrest in 1995 for soliciting sex from Divine Brown could have been the kiss of death for his career.

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": What the hell were you thinking?

VORHAUS: What worked for Hugh Grant is he went on national television. He literally ate crow. I mean, he said, "Look, I messed up. Forgive me," and now he's gone on. And he was able to connect with the audience that he wanted to connect with.

ZAHN: Without a hitch, Hugh Grant's gone on to make more movies. Janet Jackson could have learned something from him. Jackson's encounter with David Letterman after her so-called "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl didn't go as smoothly.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": That's almost malfunctioning, isn't it?

VORHAUS: What she tried to do was she tried to manipulate the viewing audience into a stunt to create attention, which she did. The problem is it backfired, and she didn't want to admit it when she went on Letterman or anyone else. And it was tough for her to really connect to anyone outside of her fan base.

ZAHN: Defiance also doesn't win you any brownie points.

PETE ROSE, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER: Well, regardless of what the commissioner said today, I did not bet on baseball.

ZAHN: After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose finally admitted that he bet on baseball. Rose, who was banned from the game for his behavior, hopes to one day be reinstated. He talked about second chances when I interviewed him last year.

ROSE: I know there are some people who will never forgive me. I understand that. I understand that, because I was wrong.

JEFFREY SONNENFELD, YALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: It was the delay in coming clean that really hurt him. Pete Rose needed to move a lot faster and crisper. And instead, by giving false explanations, it only confused people more and made them trust him less.

ZAHN: Like Martha, a number of the rich and famous have faced big trials, even jail time. It's made some of them even stronger, like Michael Milken, the Wall Street wizard who fell from grace in the late '80s. After serving his time, Milken earned kudos for his work with prostate cancer research.

But for hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley, jailed for tax evasion, the outcome was different.

SONNENFELD: There never was that sense of contrition, that sense of candor and authenticity about her. She seemed to come out just as angry as she went in.

ZAHN: But Martha can learn from many others who've successfully picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From time to time, I have been called the comeback kid.

ZAHN: Even former president, Bill Clinton.

VORHAUS: Here's a guy who got himself in trouble, apologized and didn't look back. He said, "I made my mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. And I'm going to go on and do great things."

What Martha has to do, she has to be willing to go out and tell the story from this new chapter. There has to be a sense that we all believe that she's in some way changed, that she's going to continue to contribute and that she really has learned a lesson in some way.

ZAHN: A recipe for a good comeback.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And if the comeback happens at all, we're expecting to see it get under way some time between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday. That's according to a spokeswoman for Stewart's company. That's when she'll be released from Alderson Prison.

That's it for all of us here tonight. Thanks so much for joining us. Please join me later tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern for a special primetime edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" on Martha Stewart and her five months behind bars.

"LARRY KING LIVE" is next, again. Thanks for joining us tonight.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired March 3, 2005 - 20:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
After a long and lonely winter, the country's most famous female inmate is finally packing her bags.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: After five months in prison, she's still in the spotlight, richer than ever and all set to start over -- Martha Stewart leaving.

And hip-hop, a $10 billion business. Too much sex, violence and mistreatment of women? Tonight, fighting back. Some women say enough is enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: So, we are told that some time after midnight Eastern time tonight, a thinner, richer, maybe even more famous Martha Stewart will emerge from Alderson federal women's prison in West Virginia. You're looking at a live picture of one of the signs at its perimeter right now. She won't quite be a free woman, but close. She's going to spend the next five months in home detention at her 153-acre estate. That's about 40 miles north of New York City.

And, tonight, we have extensive coverage looking ahead to Stewart's release, including a one-hour "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" special coming up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. We are going to see what's in store for Stewart as a prisoner in her own home. And we are going to have exclusive video of her behind bars, look at what life has been like for inmate number 55170054.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): It had been an agonizing two years for Martha Stewart. Now, after a guilty verdict, the American icon of impeccable style and taste was a convicted felon. Determined to put the ordeal behind her and her struggling company, Martha insisted on beginning her sentence early.

MARTHA STEWART, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: Here's Walter Dellinger.

WALTER DELLINGER, ATTORNEY FOR STEWART: I was deeply impressed with her decision to make this sacrifice for the company.

I told her and others told her that, if she would just wait for the appeal, it may well be the case that she would never have to serve the sentence. She would never have to go to prison.

ZAHN: In her last public statement before prison, she detailed the things she'd miss the most.

STEWART: And I will miss all of my pets.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: She enumerated all sorts of animals.

STEWART: My canaries.

SERWER: Chickens and ducks, dogs.

STEWART: My seven lively cats.

SERWER: She didn't mention family members. She didn't mention her own daughter, which struck a lot of people as kind of bizarre, but a lot of what she does is, frankly, a little different. She's a very singular person.

ZAHN: Martha asked to serve her time at the women's prison in Danbury, Connecticut, to be closer to her 90-year-old mother, but Martha wouldn't get her way.

Instead, she would be tucked away in the Appalachian town of Alderson, West Virginia. The Alderson federal prison camp has been home to other famous inmates, singer Billie Holiday, who was serving time for drug possession, Manson follower Squeaky Fromme, and World War II collaborator Tokyo Rose.

The prison is a campus-like facility modeled after Bucknell University.

SHARON COTLIAR, "PEOPLE": It's not a cell. It's not really a traditional idea of what people think a prison is, but it is like a barracks-like setting. Martha had said that her job is to the clean administration buildings, which means lots of sweeping and cleaning and emptying garbage cans and possibly even cleaning toilets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her daughter visits offense, Alexis.

ZAHN: Jose Figuroa (ph) traveled more than 30 miles to Alderson prison several times a month to see his girlfriend, Vicky (ph). Frequently, he saw Martha there with prisoners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what I've seen in the prison, I think that she's a very outgoing person. She talks to everyone. Her mom visited around Thanksgiving time. And she came over and introduced her mom to me and several other people in the visiting center. So, you know, she's a very nice person.

ZAHN: Even Jose's 7-year-old son, Manny (ph), saw Martha's softer side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were outside and I was swinging. And Martha was in the chair. And I was swinging real high. And Martha asked me, can you swing any higher? And I told her I can swing a little bit higher.

RICHARD FEIGEN, FRIEND: She's told me she's learned a lot about how things are on the other side of the tracks. She knows a lot about these families, cares about them. She's gotten sort of mellow.

ZAHN: Martha has taken up prison causes while serving time. In a Christmas letter posted on her Web site, Martha writes about her fellow inmates, encouraging America to think about these women, devoid of care, devoid of love.

DELLINGER: She's really learned a lot about the lives of women who are in prison. She has learned a lot about what she thinks are often about mandatory sentences that are overly harsh, particularly for their women with young children.

ZAHN: Visitors say this newfound passion for prison reform is just part of an overall Martha Stewart transformation. DELLINGER: I think she's been more reflective than she's really had an opportunity to be, given the intensity of building up that company.

ZAHN: In this exclusive footage, a revealing look at Martha inside prison. Here's Martha cheerfully welcoming friends upon their arrival, here again, chatting it up with visitor after visitor. Friends say gone is the aloof, high-strung Martha they used to know.

FEIGEN: She's achieved a certain kind of serenity. She didn't use to listen much. She knew what she should do and went about it. I mean, now she listens.

ZAHN: And does this video show a trimmer, toned Martha? This, visitors say, thanks to yoga classes, daily chores and avoiding the -- quote, unquote -- "bad food."

DELLINGER: She likes the fact that she's getting really buff.

COTLIAR: Friends who visit her say it looks like she spent a few months at the Golden Door Spa and that they're amazed that she looks like she really is relaxed, that she's lost about 10 pounds.

ZAHN: But, apparently, there's one prison snack that isn't off limits for Martha.

DELLINGER: She talk about the vending machine and she says some of the items are really good. For $1.50, you can get chicken wings out of the vending machine cold and put them in a microwave. And she says, they're actually really, really good. I'm eating these chicken wings and I'm thinking saying, gee, her standards have you're changed. She's really...

ZAHN: And while serving time, Martha's finances changed. Halfway through her sentence, her company stock soared. Much of the gain came when rumors first surfaced that Martha had a new friend in the television business, reality TV king Mark Burnett.

MARK BURNETT, REALITY TV MOGUL: I've seen Martha once a month and I was there last week, and she's looking great, you know? She took the punishment on the chin, quite frankly, in the best way possible and has dealt with it.

ZAHN: In his new book, "Jump In," Burnett devotes the entire last chapter to Martha.

BURNETT: It's about taking risk. And a big risk I clearly took was to approach Martha Stewart in the worst of her legal troubles. I just felt I liked her. I liked her brand. I didn't get why everyone was so down. She made a mistake. Pay the price. Move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And we should point out that some of the fellow prisoners that Stewart once lived with are already out and they're talking, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA BOST, FORMER ALDERSON INMATE: They served rolls at dinner, and so she came up with the idea of making cucumber sandwiches. And so we all tried it, and it was very tasty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Cucumber sandwiches in prison? Prison living from one of her newfound friends. And a little bit later on, why spending house arrest here won't be as nice as you might think, considering this is a $40 million estate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: As a member of the general public, this is as close as you can get to the entrance to Alderson federal prison. That's the prison where Martha Stewart should be leaving from in just about four hours or so.

And if you really want to know what she's been like as an inmate, you have to ask someone who actually did time with her. And that's exactly what we did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Nicknamed Camp Cupcake, Alderson federal prison houses about 1,000 women.

SARA BOST, FORMER ALDERSON INMATE: It certainly is a different way to serve time, because, of course, there are no bars. There are no locks. There are no cell gates.

ZAHN: Sara Bost is the ex-mayor of Irvington, New Jersey. She met Martha Stewart while serving 11 months for witness tampering.

BOST: There was all the rumors going around that she was stiff and would be to herself. And she was not that way at all.

ZAHN: The two first spoke in the prison's visiting room when Martha offered snacks to Sara's 6-month-old granddaughter.

BOST: We've had dinner together and we've walked together and we've talked and we became friendly.

ZAHN: Right from the start, Martha demonstrated her trademark talent, turned ordinary into extraordinary.

BOST: I believe the menu that night was chicken potpie. And a cucumber salad was on the salad bar, and we had rolls. They served rolls at dinner. And so she came up with the idea of making cucumber sandwiches. And so we all tried it, and it was very tasty.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: Not everyone, though, at Alderson was excited about the arrival of the domestic diva.

BOST: You saw a tightening of security, and they just resented a celebrity being there.

ZAHN: But, when Martha finally arrived, opinions within the prison changed.

BOST: They found her to be just a regular person, that she would carry her own bags, that she would make her own bed, that she would wait in the line like everyone else.

ZAHN: Martha has reportedly lost 20 pounds at Alderson.

BOST: Food certainly left a lot to be desired.

ZAHN: But she also suffered a setback. The woman who fashioned a lifestyle empire based on do-it-yourself decor lost the prison's contest for best holiday decorations.

BOST: But I'm not surprised, because some of the women who were there longer had other resources. For instance, if they participated in some sort of craft activity or an art activity, they would have leftover materials, so they would have more resources to put into a holiday scene.

ZAHN: For the most part, Sara says, Martha's attitude at Alderson was upbeat and optimistic.

BOST: Well, I didn't ever see a side where she was depressed or pitying herself, having a pity party.

ZAHN: Sara says there are some important lessons to be learned from the time she served. Perhaps her fellow inmate will feel the same way.

BOST: It teaches you that you can make it and be tough through tough situations. You can be as tough as the situation and keep walking with your head high.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: And Sara said, in spite of the closeness of her relationship that she felt with Martha during the time of her imprisonment, she's not expecting to hear from Martha Stewart any time soon. As a condition of probation, felons are not allowed to contact each other.

As we've mentioned, Martha Stewart still has five months of house arrest to serve, and what that means, wearing the dreaded bracelet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALT PAVLO, FORMER INMATE: Even when you're in shower, even when you go to sleep, you have to learn to kind of sleep with a big bulge on the inside of your leg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Coming up next, you're going to meet this man, someone who knows an awful lot about what Martha Stewart will be going through.

And a little bit later on, if there's one thing that fascinates us as much as anything these days, it seems to be the fall from grace. This time, it could be the great comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: If you weren't with us at the top of the hour, we want to remind you, it's been confirmed that Martha Stewart will be released from prison, we expect, some time within the next four hours or so.

And for the next five months, Martha Stewart will be confined to her 153-acre estate about an hour north of Manhattan. Now, here is what this means for her. She's actually going to have to stay inside her house most of the time, allowed out to only buy food or to work. And then, that's only for only 48 hours each week. She'll also have to wear an electronic leash, an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts by radio.

Here's Gerri Willis now on what that might be like, living in home detention.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former white- collar criminal Walt Pavlo spent three months under house arrest in Savannah, Georgia. The memory of that experience remains fresh in his mind. The two-year anniversary of his release is tomorrow.

(on camera): So, Walt, we're sitting in an apartment here in New York City that's about 450 square feet of space.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: It's pretty tiny.

PAVLO: Right. WILLIS: When you were under house arrest, were you in a size house like this or was it far bigger?

PAVLO: Well, incidentally, I was a little larger condominium. It was about 1,500 square feet. But it is still, you know, very small. There's not a lot of room that you can roam while you're under home confinement.

WILLIS: Pavlo, 42, was convicted of money laundering and wire fraud, as he says, basically cooking the books of MCI Telecom. He went to prison in March 2001 for two years. Afterwards, he went home, but remained under confinement.

(on camera): Well, let's talk about that ankle bracelet. What leg did you have it on? Show me.

PAVLO: It was on my left ankle, and what it does, it's like about the size of, I guess, an iPod. And it kind of has a band that goes on, and it's tethered to you 24/7. And it never leaves you.

WILLIS: Even when you're in the shower?

PAVLO: Even when you're in shower, even when you go to sleep, you have to learn to kind of sleep with a big bulge on the inside of your leg. And you can't tamper with it too much, too, because that tends to set off alarms, too.

WILLIS: Now, is it made of plastic or metal? I would think it would chafe. I would think that, after a while, you would have enough of that.

PAVLO: It definitely does. It wears on you. And the more that you try to just make yourself comfortable with it, sometimes the tighter that it gets. It rubs against you in a certain way. But you have to learn to kind of ignore it. It's like when you were a kid, if you had a cast, you wanted to scratch and you can't get to it, because you just don't want to be messing with it for risk of setting it off. So you just tried to avoid touching it at all cost, which is hard.

WILLIS (voice-over): Even worse, says Walt:

PAVLO: You're ashamed of it. It's another feeling of shame that you carry around with you. So, it's difficult. So, the only people I really invited in were ones that were understanding, that didn't mind the phone call that might come from your probation officer.

WILLIS (on camera): You have told me a lot about how it's really influenced your life and how you're trying to come back from that. And you feel like you're paying your debt.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: It's almost as if that bracelet sort of doesn't go away. Do you know what I mean?

PAVLO: It's true. It's true. The whole stigma for a white-collar felon -- and I'm not looking for any sympathy or anything -- but people need to understand that it, indeed, in the social circle that most white-collar felons come from, it's a life sentence. People look at you much differently than they ever did before. You were in a position of trust. You were in a position of authority, and you abused that. And there's no way to really identify what it was that made you do that. And that's frightening to a lot of people.

WILLIS: The day that you got this ankle bracelet off.

PAVLO: Right.

WILLIS: What was that like?

PAVLO: It was an unbelievable feeling. It was truly the first feeling of freedom that I had, to be able to -- to not care where I was, you know, where I was. And when I lived in Savannah, I can tell you exactly what I did. I drove to the beach, because it was as far away from anybody. I didn't want to be near anyone. For just a moment, I wanted someone not to know where I was and, just for a minute, experience what a little bit of freedom tasted like.

And I didn't stay very long because I had to get back to work, but I did take my time, and it was a quick feeling to say, it's over with. It's done. That part of that confinement is over with for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now it's time for Gerri's show-and-tell routine tonight. You actually brought one of those ankle bracelets...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIS: I brought you an ankle bracelet. Look at this.

ZAHN: Hope I never have to wear it.

WILLIS: You bet. Well, if you do...

ZAHN: Whether it's three months or five months.

WILLIS: You can only pick black. There's black, black and black to choose from if you get one of these things.

But here's how it works. This is really a radio transmitter. And it talks to a device you put on your telephone. If you wander out of range with that on your ankle, it automatically calls the police, authorities. And pretty soon, you've got a cop car or maybe a sheriff's deputy car siting in your front lawn.

ZAHN: And she has to wear this at all times, as per her terms of probation.

WILLIS: Five months, in the shower, you name it, in bed. It never comes off. And if you try to take it off, there's an anti- tamper device on this thing, so very difficult to do.

ZAHN: So, she's going to have to figure out a way to shave her legs around this thing. It's actually pretty cumbersome.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: And as your guest just said, it's not so easy to truck around with this thing on you.

WILLIS: Not heavy, but annoying, I think, after a while. That's certainly what Walt told us. After a while, it starts to wear on you.

ZAHN: I think it's pretty predictable where the radio is going to show she is going. She's going to working on her new book, her prime-time reality show.

Gerri Willis, thank you.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

ZAHN: For a preview of what life might look like for Martha down the road.

CNN prime time has much more tonight on Martha Stewart's release. Later on in this hour, comeback lessons. We'll look at a few folks who got it right -- yes, Hugh got it right -- and some who didn't. And then, at 9:00 Eastern, Larry King takes us live to the West Virginia prison Stewart will be leaving. And then, once again, at 10:00, I'll be hosting a special edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" focused on Martha Stewart. And that is about an hour and a half from now. We hope you join us then.

But, first, a word of warning about our next subject. Many people consider the language you'll be hearing and the pictures you'll be seeing as a filthy portrayal of black women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now there's a legislative process. And so I just thought it was interesting how the whole reason that CNN is here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Next, a campus rebellion to make hip-hop clean up its act.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We have a warning for you now. You're about to see and hear explicit music videos that may offend some of you. We hope they also enlighten you about some of the controversy surrounding hip-hop and rap, wildly popular with black and white young people.

Here's Maria Hinojosa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hip-hop, the soundtrack of every everyday life for millions of Americans, the tough, in your-face-beat that sets the tone of what's in. But today's hip-hop video cool has gone somewhere else.

Take a look. This is Nelly, one of the most popular hip-hop singers, throwing money at women's crotches on his video "Tip Drill," sliding a credit card in a woman's bottom, and the lyrics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELLY, MUSICIAN (singing): Baby girl, bring it over. Let me spit my pimp juice. I need a tip drill. I need a tip drill. Now, baby girl, bring it over. Let me spit my pimp juice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: Shocked? You're not the only one.

Meet Asha Jennings, a tiny one-woman powerhouse who is taking on $10 billion hip-hop industry.

ASHA JENNINGS, HIP-HOP PROTESTER: I want people to start critically thinking about how these images affect black women today. We're telling people they're bitches and hos and sluts and not worthy of respect. And that's exactly how society is treating us.

HINOJOSA: Asha is getting in people's faces.

JENNINGS: Can you read the lyrics, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is a ho? What...

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: Can you be a little louder? Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) get in them guts. Cut you up like you ain't been cut.

HINOJOSA: Forcing the point.

JENNINGS: We're questioning both the men and the women.

HINOJOSA: And dealing with the pushback. These young men go to prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young black men, they're easy to target. You know what I'm saying? We've been the target forever. So, it's not like it's nothing new. It's like, oh, there's the black man. Get him. He's making bad lyrics off women.

HINOJOSA: It's not easy for young black women to attack black men, but this is a family affair. It started when Asha invited Nelly to a cancer fund-raiser at her alma mater, Spelman College, also in Atlanta. She thought it was a good idea because Nelly's sister has leukemia. But then she saw the Tip Drill video.

JENNINGS: It's the worse video I've ever seen. It shows men fully dressed throwing money at women who are in bikinis and the men are touching their body parts. And it's complete exploitation in its rarest form.

HINOJOSA: Angered by the video, Spellman women plan to protest. Nelly canceled his appearance.

But it didn't stop there, "Essence" magazine, an influential monthly for African-American women started a campaign called take back the music. Michaela Davis is an editor at Essence.

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, ESSENCE MAGAZINE: It's not an attack. This is an act of love. We love the music and we love the culture. That's why we have to step in.

HINOJOSA: The magazine got an unprecedented million hits in just one month on its take "back the Music" Web site. And the movement spread from there to newspapers. One African-American writer saying what these black women are doing is the most important cultural movement in the new century.

DAVIS: The crux of it is that we have become out of balance. It's really slating towards one image of women, which tends to be objectified, degrading, very stripper-like. It's not that that in itself is wrong, but it becomes wrong when there's no other quality or no other image that we have to choose from.

HINOJOSA: Asha Jennings believe that these images and lyrics have a direct impact on the lives of all African-American women.

JENNINGS: I'm in law school. I have to sit in front of these young men and women every day who buy these CDs, who don't look at me as competent, who don't look at me as good as them, they look at me as a tip drill. So, I have to stand up and I have to over exert myself to prove myself. And that's not fair.

HINOJOSA: Because the largest number of consumers of hip hop aren't black women or even black men.

DAVIS: We have found that in very, very recent research that the main consumer of this music is still fluent young, white men, 18-34 are buying most of this music. So, it is big. It's like rock 'n' roll was, and bigger.

HINOJOSA: So big that Asha fears these images will become mainstream.

JENNINGS: We're not asking for a complete removal of all images. But we are asking for respect. 40 years ago, the way of being was that African-Americans couldn't vote and African-Americans had to sit in the back of the bus. If we had sat back and said, well, this is just the way it is, where would we be today? And I think it's the same thing with these images. Just because that's the way it is doesn't mean we have to accept it. HINOJOSA: Nelly told Essence magazine in the past that he respects women and is exercising all his artistic freedom. He defends his videos as entertainment. And insists the women are in them by choice.

At a recent town hall meeting in Atlanta, Michael Lewellen of BET, the Black Entertainment Network said this is about artists and their freedom of expression. But he also said it's about money.

MICHAEL LEWELLEN, BET: If people don't buy the CDs, if people won't watch the shows, we won't show them and the artists won't make them and the record labels won't produce them if there is a movement afoot that basically says we will no longer spend our money this way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave the guns and the crack and the knives alone..

HINOJOSA: And this is what it's really about, the money. It's supply and demand. As long as people continue to buy it, producers will continue to make it and BET will continue will continue to air it and Asha and the other young black women say they'll continue to protest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Well, we made a couple references to Essence magazine in the story. And we should point that it is partly owned by Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. And that we invited hip-hop star Nelly to respond to Maria Hinojosa piece, he declined.

One more note, Nelly is also drawing fire from a group of black ministers in Arkansas. They're protesting a Nelly concert scheduled for March 12 in Jonesborough. They say his lyrics are demeaning to women and also glorify drugs and violence.

Coming up in a minute, we change our focus to the CNN security watch and a local police chief with an urgent warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a major loophole, a major, major, major hole that is being created by this particular policy in the national security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: We alert you to a problem that's walking around in broad day light.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Welcome back. Tonight on our "Security Watch," I don't know about you, but I was shocked the first time I saw some of this newly released video of a secret tunnel beneath the California/Mexico border, likely used for drug smuggling. That is the third tunnel found in 15 months. And our lack of border security is a problem that actually brought Democrats and Republicans together today in Washington. And as our Ed Lavandera shows us, it's a crisis at almost every border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On a South Texas day in early July some 30 Brazilian men were wandering through the border of Del Rio. They were looking for cashing checks, some were looking for ways to get to Boston just days before the start of the Democratic convention.

When Sheriff Dwayne Jernigan found out the men had just been released from border patrol custody and that $7,000 had been wired to three of them, he started sounding the alarm, calling anyone who would listen.

DWAYNE JERNIGAN, DEL RIO SHERIFF: What is their purpose for going to Boston just before the convention? Now why somebody from Boston is sending them such large amounts of cash?

LAVANDERA: The men were held for a couple of days and checked out. But these illegal immigrants were eventually released and the sheriff has no idea where they went or where they are now.

From Texas to California, this kind of incident is frustrating local law enforcement officers and border patrol agents.

JERNIGAN: I don't think the public understands what's happening, no. I don't think they would put up with it for a minute if they were aware of what was happening.

LAVANDERA: The police chief of Eagle Pass, Texas knows all too well of what is happening. as Tony Castaniera drives (ph) us around town, he sees as many as 50 illegal immigrants every day sometimes casually walking through a gold course, like we found. But usually they're around the bus station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donde esta Muchacho? (ph)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guatemala.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say they're from Guatemala.

LAVANDERA: Rudi Benissio is from Guatemala and is on his way to Rhodes Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you cross?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Manyana, si.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning about 5 hours ago. You can still see his shoes and his jeans are muddy.

LAVANDERA: The U.S. government calls Rudi an OTM which means he comes from a country other than Mexico. OTM's are often handled differently from illegal immigrants from Mexico.

If Rudy Benicio (ph) were Mexican, he would have been sent right back across the border. But instead, following a background check, he's given what's called a notice to appear, an order instructing him to meet with an immigration judge at a date to be determined later. But the majority never show up. That's why these forms are often called notices to disappear.

CHIEF TONY CASTANEDA, EAGLE PASS, TEXAS, POLICE: It's a major loophole, a major, major, major hole. And that it's being created by this particular policy and the national security.

LAVANDERA: In Eagle Pass, it's easy to spot OTM's. They usually walk right out of the border patrol station, carrying that white piece of paper, and start looking for the fastest way out of town.

Castaneda thinks it would be easy for a terrorist to blend in here.

CASTANEDA: If you could go to a university and learn how to speak Spanish and you're -- you're, you know, from the Middle East or you're a terrorist and you master the language. And then just come across and say, "Hey, I'm from Honduras or I'm from Colombia." But you're still, nevertheless, a Middle Easterner. I mean, you could very easily pass. Light colored complexion, you know, fair skin.

LAVANDERA: Homeland security officials say this year alone almost 50,000 OTM's have crossed the southern border. About 22,000 of those were released into the United States.

Budget shortfalls and lack of bed space make it impossible to hold all illegal immigrants who are captured. So each immigrant is handled on an individual basis.

Victor Certa oversees the homeland security division responsible for deciding who is detained and who is released.

VICTOR CERTA, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: You know, the concern that we are releasing terrorists, I would say that the system is out there to absolutely prevent that from happening. And I feel confident that it is working.

SHERIFF DWAYNE JERNIGAN, VAL VERDE COUNTY, TEXAS: Welcome to the Val Verde County jail.

LAVANDERA: Back in Del Rio, Texas, Sheriff Jernigan says he doesn't just see Hispanic immigrants coming through here anymore. In the last three months, records show illegal immigrants from Somalia, Kenya and Macedonia, to name a few countries, also have been caught.

JERNIGAN: In fact there's more. He'll bring some people in now.

How are you all doing?

LAVANDERA: A year ago, his jail housed 300 OTM's a day. That number is down to five a day now. He says in a post-9/11 atmosphere, immigrants are being captured and released too quickly.

JERNIGAN: Are they terrorists? We don't know. Do you know? Does he know; does he know? Who knows? We're not really checking them out. We're not even holding them long enough to really make a determination. That's frustrating.

I keep it here all the time.

LAVANDERA: Sheriff Jernigan keeps reminders of 9/11 around the office. He knows the vast majority of immigrants who come across the board are simply looking for a better life. But it's the fear of that one villain who might sneak through the border in his town that makes him sound the alarm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Sheriff, that's one of the toughest jobs in the country.

We return to our top story tonight. We are focusing on Martha Stewart's release from prison, which is expected to happen just about four hours from now.

Let's go to Alderson, West Virginia, where Martha Stewart has lived for the last five months. That's where we find Deborah Feyerick.

So Deborah, how is this supposed to play out tonight? What will we see?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very interesting. We're not going to see a lot, really, until she leaves Alderson Prison and gets to the airport. And that's because she's going to be leaving the way she came in, under the cover of darkness.

Right now she's inside saying good-bye to prisoners and the guards who she's come to know over the last five months. She's going handing in her prison khakis, closing out her commissary account and then changing back into regular clothes.

And then she's not planning on spending a second more than she has to here at Alderson. Some time after midnight she will be leaving for the 30-minute drive to the airport. Once she gets there, she'll be taken to her private jet that's going to be waiting there.

And also with her will be dozens of television cameras, all of them hoping for a smile, or a wave, some sign of a new beginning -- Paula.

ZAHN: That's the picture everybody's looking for tonight. Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much for the update.

We're going to check in with Larry King now, who has a preview of what he has for us coming up tonight.

Hi, Larry.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Hi, Paula. So nice being bracketed by you tonight.

ZAHN: Thank you.

KING: Before me and after me, your special, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," going to be terrific.

ZAHN: Yes. It's an interesting special. We show exclusive video for the first time of Martha in prison.

KING: I know. How did we get that?

ZAHN: I can't tell you. It's a secret.

KING: I only work here. Anyway, we're going to do the same thing. Or we'll cover three hours to Martha. That's what we're calling our show tonight. Three hours to Martha. We'll have a whole panel of people, including Susan McDougal, who you will remember -- who you will remember did some prison time herself.

That's all ahead at 9, and then Paula will be back at 10 with a special Paula Zahn "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS." There will even be a live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" at midnight with Nancy Grace and others.

ZAHN: Martha...

KING: They're following it around the clock: Martha comes home.

ZAHN: Larry King, thanks so much. See you at the top of the hour.

And coming up next, we're going to turn to another big story this week, the arrest in the BTK murders, emotional and exhausting for the people of Wichita and, particularly, those in the media spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We hear all the time about how friendly people in Kansas are, and I'm here to tell you that is absolutely true, because we have given them every reason to be rude to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Our David Mattingly behind the scenes with the story you haven't seen yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We come back to a story that we've been following all week long. The capture of a suspect in the BTK serial killings made headlines, of course, around the world. And our David Mattingly has been on the story in Wichita all week long and filed this reporter's notebook.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF NORMAN WILLIAMS, WICHITA POLICE: The bottom line, BTK is arrested.

MATTINGLY: What you probably didn't see when that press conference was going on was all of the hugs and all the congratulations and all the handshakes that were going on as all the key players walked into the room one at a time.

The chief of police walked over to where all the city council members were sitting. He shook all of their hands, and you could see how gratified they were that this arrest had been made and the heartfelt thanks that he was offering to them for their continued support through all of this.

A lot of emotion in that room, but it just did not come through the camera in many cases.

The news conference was on Saturday. By Tuesday, we're seeing what I call media burnout among people here in Wichita. Everyone who had even the most remote connection to Dennis Rader was being tracked down and asked all those annoying questions about what he was like, what they knew about him. And they were being asked that over and over and over by every reporter that would come knocking on the door, that would come calling.

And you know, we hear all the time about how friendly people in Kansas are, and I'm here to tell you that is absolutely true, because we have given them every reason to be rude to us. We have given them every reason to want us out of their state permanently, but they have been very nice through it all and very polite, even when you're, like, the 50th reporter knocking on their door.

What a lot of people don't know outside the state of Kansas, and something that really surprised me, was that there was a citizen's group here that was just days away at the time of the arrest from launching a petition drive, asking for a grand jury investigation into how the police department was handling this case, because they were tired of not hearing anything from police about this case.

When I sat down with the police chief and was able to ask him questions about this investigation, he says very little about what's going on, because they're very tight with the information here.

But he did let us know that they were working toward creating a one-on-one conversation with this killer, which I just found fascinating. He wouldn't say if it was verbal. He wouldn't say if it was written, but he said it was satisfied that they were actually making one-on-one contact with this killer.

And it was just a couple of weeks ago, he told me, that they felt like momentum was starting to build and this communication was leading them to an arrest.

I think the most enjoyment that I've had, if it's possible to enjoy covering a situation like this, it's the -- talking to former police chief, Richard LaMunyon, who was the police chief back in the '70s when the case first came up, to see the relief and happiness on his face, knowing that this case was finally closed.

You look back at some old news footage, and you see him talking to the public then, trying to reassure him, saying that he believes that BTK will be caught. I asked him again 30 years later that same question. He still believed that BTK was going to be caught. And last weekend, he was right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That optimism paid off. We're going to be right back with the art of the comeback.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBIE VORHAUS, MEDIA STRATEGIST: Well, it's not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: From Martha Stewart, some tips on polishing a tarnished image.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: If you want to be honest about it, in some ways, prison's actually been pretty good to Martha Stewart. Her stock shot way up. We hear she's lost about 20 pounds, and she's got a new lucrative TV deal.

But her image clearly needs some work if you buy into this poll. A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll finds that, while 57 percent of women feel sympathetic to Stewart, just 37 percent of men do. So as you can see, there is room for improvement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART, FOUNDER, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: I would like to be back as early in March as possible in order to plant the new spring garden and to truly get things growing again.

ZAHN (voice-over): After her release from prison, Martha Stewart has some pruning to do, not just in her garden. She has an image to repair. Martha is just the latest celebrity who has fumbled and is trying to make a make a recovery.

ASHLEIGH SIMPSON, ENTERTAINER: I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song.

ZAHN: Over the year, there have been many big gaffes, bad behavior. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any further argument and/or statements on behalf of the defendant?

ZAHN: And embarrassing indiscretions.

JIMMY SWAGGART, TELEVANGELIST: I have sinned against you, my lord.

ZAHN: Handling the fallout can make the difference between a bump in the road and a career dead end.

Hugh Grant's arrest in 1995 for soliciting sex from Divine Brown could have been the kiss of death for his career.

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": What the hell were you thinking?

VORHAUS: What worked for Hugh Grant is he went on national television. He literally ate crow. I mean, he said, "Look, I messed up. Forgive me," and now he's gone on. And he was able to connect with the audience that he wanted to connect with.

ZAHN: Without a hitch, Hugh Grant's gone on to make more movies. Janet Jackson could have learned something from him. Jackson's encounter with David Letterman after her so-called "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl didn't go as smoothly.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": That's almost malfunctioning, isn't it?

VORHAUS: What she tried to do was she tried to manipulate the viewing audience into a stunt to create attention, which she did. The problem is it backfired, and she didn't want to admit it when she went on Letterman or anyone else. And it was tough for her to really connect to anyone outside of her fan base.

ZAHN: Defiance also doesn't win you any brownie points.

PETE ROSE, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER: Well, regardless of what the commissioner said today, I did not bet on baseball.

ZAHN: After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose finally admitted that he bet on baseball. Rose, who was banned from the game for his behavior, hopes to one day be reinstated. He talked about second chances when I interviewed him last year.

ROSE: I know there are some people who will never forgive me. I understand that. I understand that, because I was wrong.

JEFFREY SONNENFELD, YALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: It was the delay in coming clean that really hurt him. Pete Rose needed to move a lot faster and crisper. And instead, by giving false explanations, it only confused people more and made them trust him less.

ZAHN: Like Martha, a number of the rich and famous have faced big trials, even jail time. It's made some of them even stronger, like Michael Milken, the Wall Street wizard who fell from grace in the late '80s. After serving his time, Milken earned kudos for his work with prostate cancer research.

But for hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley, jailed for tax evasion, the outcome was different.

SONNENFELD: There never was that sense of contrition, that sense of candor and authenticity about her. She seemed to come out just as angry as she went in.

ZAHN: But Martha can learn from many others who've successfully picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From time to time, I have been called the comeback kid.

ZAHN: Even former president, Bill Clinton.

VORHAUS: Here's a guy who got himself in trouble, apologized and didn't look back. He said, "I made my mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. And I'm going to go on and do great things."

What Martha has to do, she has to be willing to go out and tell the story from this new chapter. There has to be a sense that we all believe that she's in some way changed, that she's going to continue to contribute and that she really has learned a lesson in some way.

ZAHN: A recipe for a good comeback.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And if the comeback happens at all, we're expecting to see it get under way some time between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday. That's according to a spokeswoman for Stewart's company. That's when she'll be released from Alderson Prison.

That's it for all of us here tonight. Thanks so much for joining us. Please join me later tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern for a special primetime edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" on Martha Stewart and her five months behind bars.

"LARRY KING LIVE" is next, again. Thanks for joining us tonight.

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