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CNN Live Event/Special
Press Conference on Boys Accused of Killing Father
Aired November 14, 2002 - 09:59 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you now to a live event right now. We want to go down to Pensacola, Florida.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BILL EDDINS, MEDIATOR: ... and Judge Bale (ph) instructed me to have a press conference this morning on behalf of myself and the other attorneys to announce that a resolution had occurred. He instructed us to have a discussion with the family members, as long as they would agree to, as long as they would agree to keep the resolution confidential, which we have done. The family members, with one possible exception, have asked that they not be contacted by the media, until the 1:00 resolution. When it amounts. We anticipate that that will occur in courtroom 407 in front of judge Bail. And, until then, I will not be able to answer any questions. I would like to say that the media has been very cooperative and has been very respectful of the procedure that is we put in place, and I'd request that you'd continue to honor those procedures, and wait until 1:00 until we have the hearing in open court.
Thank you very much.
HARRIS: Explain what we shot down to Pensacola Florida for. We were expecting to get an announcement of a resolution reached on this perplexing case there, where two boys had been convicted of murdering their father, and the judge threw that verdict out, and did not sentence them, and ordered the parties to go back to court -- sorry, to go back to negotiations, to try to come up with some sort of a resolution to work this deal out.
Let's go to Mark Potter, who's there as you just saw moments ago. He's standing by now with more on this.
Mark, you actually were there at the beginning of all this. What did we hear, or what did we not hear this morning?
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard that this is not going to be retried. That's the most important announcement that comes here, and we're going to go before the -- we the public will go into the courtroom. The defendants will go before the judge, and it will be laid out in open court. The presumption we make is there is, in effect, a plea deal that's been reached, and the boys will have a plea and receive a sentence, or some sort of a pronouncement from the court on their fate.
So, our assumption is, that this is now over, at least in terms of any concern about this needing to be retried. The trial of this was so complicated and so controversial, the judge was hopeful that he would not have to bring this case before another jury, and it appears that that indeed is the case now.
The mediation was ordered by the court after the judge threw out the verdict in the boys' case. It began with the two sides coming together last week here in this courthouse behind me in downtown Pensacola. The lawyers, the defense attorneys, the prosecutor and the boys that are in custody met last week. They met again all day yesterday into the early evening, and now we have this announcement that a resolution has been made.
The judge has agreed to it, and will formalize all this at 1:00 local time. That's central time here in Pensacola, 2:00 Eastern Time.
Now, there is an interesting complication here. The boys' mother, Kelly Marino (ph), appears to be quite upset with the prospect of a negotiated plea, if indeed that's what we have here. There are two lawyers from Miami who have gotten involved in this case. They have made an appearance here today, as well. The mother let it be known that her preference would be for the boys not to plead to something they could taint them for the rest of their lives. It's believed that her hope is that this would be retried, and she has said publicly, that if that were to be the case, she would like the Miami lawyers to take over the case and retry it in a way that she claims was not done by the attorneys here in Pensacola, but that's getting a little ahead of the story.
Now it appears a deal has been reached between the prosecutor, the defense attorneys, the boys, and the judge, Frank Bail, and this will come to a resolution early this afternoon in his courtroom here in Pensacola.
Leon, back to you.
HARRIS: Thanks, Mark.
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 November 14, 2002 - 09:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you now to a live event right now. We want to go down to Pensacola, Florida.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BILL EDDINS, MEDIATOR: ... and Judge Bale (ph) instructed me to have a press conference this morning on behalf of myself and the other attorneys to announce that a resolution had occurred. He instructed us to have a discussion with the family members, as long as they would agree to, as long as they would agree to keep the resolution confidential, which we have done. The family members, with one possible exception, have asked that they not be contacted by the media, until the 1:00 resolution. When it amounts. We anticipate that that will occur in courtroom 407 in front of judge Bail. And, until then, I will not be able to answer any questions. I would like to say that the media has been very cooperative and has been very respectful of the procedure that is we put in place, and I'd request that you'd continue to honor those procedures, and wait until 1:00 until we have the hearing in open court.
Thank you very much.
HARRIS: Explain what we shot down to Pensacola Florida for. We were expecting to get an announcement of a resolution reached on this perplexing case there, where two boys had been convicted of murdering their father, and the judge threw that verdict out, and did not sentence them, and ordered the parties to go back to court -- sorry, to go back to negotiations, to try to come up with some sort of a resolution to work this deal out.
Let's go to Mark Potter, who's there as you just saw moments ago. He's standing by now with more on this.
Mark, you actually were there at the beginning of all this. What did we hear, or what did we not hear this morning?
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard that this is not going to be retried. That's the most important announcement that comes here, and we're going to go before the -- we the public will go into the courtroom. The defendants will go before the judge, and it will be laid out in open court. The presumption we make is there is, in effect, a plea deal that's been reached, and the boys will have a plea and receive a sentence, or some sort of a pronouncement from the court on their fate.
So, our assumption is, that this is now over, at least in terms of any concern about this needing to be retried. The trial of this was so complicated and so controversial, the judge was hopeful that he would not have to bring this case before another jury, and it appears that that indeed is the case now.
The mediation was ordered by the court after the judge threw out the verdict in the boys' case. It began with the two sides coming together last week here in this courthouse behind me in downtown Pensacola. The lawyers, the defense attorneys, the prosecutor and the boys that are in custody met last week. They met again all day yesterday into the early evening, and now we have this announcement that a resolution has been made.
The judge has agreed to it, and will formalize all this at 1:00 local time. That's central time here in Pensacola, 2:00 Eastern Time.
Now, there is an interesting complication here. The boys' mother, Kelly Marino (ph), appears to be quite upset with the prospect of a negotiated plea, if indeed that's what we have here. There are two lawyers from Miami who have gotten involved in this case. They have made an appearance here today, as well. The mother let it be known that her preference would be for the boys not to plead to something they could taint them for the rest of their lives. It's believed that her hope is that this would be retried, and she has said publicly, that if that were to be the case, she would like the Miami lawyers to take over the case and retry it in a way that she claims was not done by the attorneys here in Pensacola, but that's getting a little ahead of the story.
Now it appears a deal has been reached between the prosecutor, the defense attorneys, the boys, and the judge, Frank Bail, and this will come to a resolution early this afternoon in his courtroom here in Pensacola.
Leon, back to you.
HARRIS: Thanks, Mark.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
