tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN September 21, 2011 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT
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we're expecting word any moment now that troy davis has been executed. we have not received that word yet. a short time ago, the u.s. supreme court denied a last-minute appeal by davis' team of attorneys. he was set to die by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. eastern. then about 30 minutes ago we got the decision, final decision from the highest court in the land, his appeals have run out. large crowd that's gathered in support of davis outside the prison still there. we have heard some chants of "we are troy davis." we have heard some singing, many of them praying now for him and holding signs of support. this case goes back to 1989, when davis was arrested for the shooting death of an offduty savannah police officer named mark macphail, a husband, son and father of two who was providing security for the burger king when a fight broke out in the parking lot.
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officer macphail rushed to the scene to investigate, was shot and killed n two years later in 1991, troy davis was convicted for that murder based on eyewitness testimony but since davis' trial, seven of the nine witnesses against him either recanted or changed their testimony raising doubts that have gone global. we have the scene outside the supreme court that we've been watching, where protesters have also gathered. joining us now is senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin and b.j. bernstein. in terms of the lethal injection, the process, that itself is a process filled with controversy? >> that's right. lethal injection was developed as a supposedly more humane alternative to electrocution and the gas chamber. but in recent years, lethal injection itself has become very
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controversial. it is not as simple a thing as many people assume to put someone to death intravenously. many of the states use what's known as the three judge cocktail that has been problematic. some of the drugs that have been used are not readily available in sufficient quantities. this three-drug cocktail has been challenged as inhumane. in fact, the united states supreme court in a very controversial case in 2009 called bays v reese addressed the issue of whether lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. and the court said, no, but it was a 5-3 decision, as i recall, and it is just -- it's -- it's in and of itself, controversial and sometimes not so simple. sometimes, it takes a couple of minutes. sometimes it can take half an hour. sometimes it can take longer. so, you know, the fact that the execution may be beginning now,
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i hate to be sort of macabre about this, but we don't know how long it's gonna take. >> b.j., have you ever witnessed an execution? >> i have not and i pray i never have to. i just think there's so many emotions going on right now where you see officer macphail's mother, the interview you just did for her. and you feel for her and her loss, and yet at the same time, we're about to take another person's life. and there's been -- part of the controversy that people have talked about, again who shall live and who shall die so to speak. why is someone like the manson alive for life in california and yet troy davis is about to be put to death? there's -- there was another execution tonight in the state of texas of the white supremacist who drug the man down the street and we didn't have that same outrage. so it brings up a lot of issues that i think this case is at the
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national forefront and may reopen the conversation about the death penalty and the appropriateness of it and what are we really trying to accomplish? other countries, our canadian friends, they don't have the death penalty. a lot of countries are scratching their head wondering why we are the land of the free and ruled by justice, and have extraordinary protections and yet our government can still put someone to death. >> i want to show you a picture of the location where reporters started to gather where there will be a press conference to announce when troy davis has been executed. prison officials will come out and will make a statement, obviously, we will bring that to you live. jeff toobin, do you really believe, though -- this has certainly ignited a die badebat about the death penalty, but these debates have been going on now in this country for decades.
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is this some sort of watershed event or change something? >> i don't think so support for the death penalty today is 60%. according to most polls. about ten or fist even years ago it was about 70%. now that's down and a lot of change in the altitudes about the death penalty those do with the fact there is just less crime in the united states than there used to be. in the early '90s, there were about 300 death sentences every year. last year 112. in the early '90s, one year, 98 people are were executed, last year, 46 people were executed. all the numbers are heading in that direction, but the movement for the absolute abolition of the death penalty is not really that strong in this country. barack obama is for the death penalty, most major political figurers are for the death penalty.
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it's not as big a political issue as it once was, but it doesn't look like it's disappearing any time soon. >> it does say a lot, jeff, that this has taken 22 years since -- since the officer was killed, 1989 he was killed. two years later troy davis was convicted of the crime. but this debate has been going on over troy davis ever since he was convicted 20 years ago. >> that's right. and i think one subject we haven't talked about too much tonight, but is inseparable from the subject of the death penalty is the subject of race. that has about a human theme of the death penalty in the united states. you know, a lot of people think that african-americans are sentenced to death more often
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than people who murder black people. blacks who murder whites are statistically sentenced to death most of all. that's a significant fact about the death penalty. >> roland martin joins us outside the u.s. supreme court. are there still a lot of people out there? >> well, absolutely. you have about 100 or so people here. they're gathered around listening to broadcasts on their cell phones. they are, of course, standing here waiting for the word when troy davis actually is put to death. you have had a number of people who have come and gone and folks, you know, lighting candles, they have been praying, it is extremely quiet out here. not much noise at all. also, you look over my left shoulder, you got about seven supreme court security guards who are standing of out here as well. you don't have a significant police presence along this street but again, folks carrying signs, wearing "i'm troy davis" t-shirts, again, expressing their viewpoint.
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anderson, if i could talk on a couple of thing also jeff said, i think it is important there is no doubt that people have conflicting feelings when it comes to the death penalty, when they see a case, anger with the casey anthony, people say how dare she get away with that but you look at this particular case. but also, i think what's important, it's also generational issue and what we have seen consistently is that when you have seen these individuals, especially in texas, being let out of prison after serving 20, 25 years, it begins to raise a lot of questions in people's minds as to how folks are convicted. and so i do believe that we are in a situation where one or two cases could certainly be the tipping point to cause a different generation's reaction when it comes to the death penalty. and so i don't think any one case can do it. but as bonnie said earlier, this generation has never really had that strong, visceral reaction
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when it comes to these types of cases. but i do think that there's a lot more awareness and people are making some serious -- you know, raising some serious concerns. at one point, i tweeted earlier, anderson, that's this. if you care about this case, if you care about justice why do we, as americans, try to get out of jury duty, because we say, oh, no, i don't want to have do that but we question a jury's decision. this should tell any american, if you care about justice, don't try to run out on jury duty. you need to say, hey, i'm following serve because i might be the difference maker. a dozen or some people deciding whether a person is innocent or guilty or should be put to death. >> bj, at what point will we know -- how soon after the execution does word come out? >> pretty -- right afterwards. i mean, someone from the department of corrections will come out and making the
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announcement. we will know shortly after ter occurs. >> david mattingly, you are standing by waiting the final word from the prison. where are you in location in -- where is that scene which we see which is a podium in relation to where the protesters and those keeping vigil have been? >> all those shots you have seen the heavily armed prison, the riot gear outside the gates, we are just on the other side of the gates now, setting up a podium, expecting the inevitable announcement from a prison official once the execution is complete. i have been walking around on the ground here looking at groups of demonstrators in the areas that they have been designated here by the prison officials and i have to say that everyone appears to be emotionally and physically weary at this point. everyone very quiet, not nearly the spirited group that we saw several hours ago. they know the cause that they were fighting for, to have troy
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davis' sentence commuted, or perhaps have him exonerated. they know now they have failed. there's no other recourse for them to take. they all seem to be just waiting for the inevitable word here. >> we are going to take a short break. our coverage continues in just a moment. [ indistinct talking on radio ] [ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster.
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the court ordered execution of troy anthony davis has been carried out. the time of death is 11:08 p.m. ap at this time the media witnesses will be coming out to give their firsthand account of what happened. media will be able to move up to get video of the black van. at this time we may have some people who are at the actual execution who will come out to do interviews. we will wait for them to come out and be sitting in the same area if they chose to do interviews. the time of death is 11:08. >> and there you have it, troy
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davis has been executed. he's dead. time of execution was 11:08, four minutes ago. joining us again on the phone, david mattingly, outside the prison where the execution took place, in washington, senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. jeff, i'm not sure really what to say. >> it's somber, you know, there's a tradition in american prisons that on days of executions, the prisoners don't speak much to each other. it is a very subdued, very mournful day in the whole day. everybody knows what's happening. and you know, you can see why. you hear this news and it's just somber and scary business. and -- >> just look at a picture outside the supreme court and no sound, not talking or anything, let's just listen to the sound from the supreme court.
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>> that is the scene outside the supreme court where a number of people have gathered. just standing in silence, most likely praying, thinking about what has just occurred. we don't know if the family of troy davis was actually if the room at the time of the execution, we anticipate hearing from some of the media witnesses, five members of the media are allowed to witness these executions and they often will come afterward to talk about it. but again, for a case that has been followed now for many years, for many people around the world, it has come to an end with the execution of troy davis. we will take a short break. our coverage continues in a moment. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys.
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let's listen in. these are media witnesses to the execution of troy davis, just approaching the podium where they will report what they saw and what occurred. troy davis was killed at 11:08. let's listen in. >> it is john lewis, wsuv radio, basically it went very quietly. the macphail family and friends sat in the first row. the warden read the order, asked if troy davis had anything to say. and davis lifted his head up, looked at that first row, and made a statement in which he said he wanted to talk to the macphail family. he said despite the situation you're in, he was not the one who did it. he said that he was not personally responsible for what happened that night, that he did
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not have a gun. he said to the family that he was sorry for their loss but also said that he did not take their son, father, brother. he said to them to dig deeper into this case, to find out the truth. he asked his family and friends to keep praying, to keep working and keep the faith and then he said to the prison staff, the ones he said who were going to take my life, he said to them, "may god have mercy on your souls," his last words were to them, "may god bless your souls." then he put his head back down, the procedure began, and about 15 minutes later it was over. pretty much, pick me. we will all do it but any
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questions? >> if you want more exact quotes, we can give them to you. >> that would be great. >> i'm rhonda cook with the atlanta journal constitution. he said the incident that night was not my fault. i did not have a gun. and that's when he told his friends to continue to fight and look deeper into this case, so you can really find the truth. for those about to take my life, may god have mercy on your souls. may god bless your souls. and to the macphail family, he said, of course, i did not personally kill your son, father and brother. i am innocent. >> you have been to an execution. you have been to a few before. how, if at all, was this different? >> there was more security than usual at this execution. >> speak up. >> there was more security than
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usual at this execution but otherwise, it went as other executions have gone here. there was tight security, but the prison folks here are professionals, and they've done this before. and it went pretty much as planned. i have the execution starting at around 10:53 and he was declared dead at 11:08. >> how does he look? was he talking -- >> he was talking very quickly. as my colleagues said, he was defiant until the very end, maintaining his innocence until the very end. he spoke quickly. he looked at one of his attorneys sit october second row. he appeared to glance at the attorney, who nodded at him. mark macphail was sitting in the front row and he was looking at -- mark was looking at mr. davis the entire time, it seemed. and once he was declared dead, we were ushered out. >> how would you describe the mood? >> somber. how else?
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it was just a somber, somber, somber event. we were all waiting for about four, four and a half hours in the prison with no -- no details on what was happening. and then when we were ushered into the the prison itself, we knew that -- we assumed at least that the supreme court had rejected his final appeal. >> [ inaudible ]. >> were there any family members present? >> we saw two. one named mark macphail. >> he maintained his innocence until the very end? >> no mark macphail leaned forward through the whole process and his uncle, william macphail, sat back and neither seemed to move at all. >> they spent the entire time just staring at troy davis, never turned their heads, never did anything but stare ahead. then when it was over, as they were leaving, they hugged somebody and they seemed to smile about it. so for the macphail family, at
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least, they seemed to get some satisfaction from what happened. >> who was there from the macphail family? >> pardon? >> who was there again? >> mark macphail jr., his son, and his brother -- and the officer's brother, william macphail. >> can you talk about what troy davis was saying, to the end? >> he was saying he was innocent. he said to the macphail family, again, that he was not the one responsible for what -- he was not personally responsible for what happened that night. he said that he did not have a gun. he said that he was not the one who took their son, father, brother and he said he was innocent. and that was to the end. he lifted his head up. he was strapped to gurney when we walked in. and when the warden asked if he had a statement to make, he lifted his head up and looked
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directly at the front row, he said he wanted to speak to the macphail family. he said he was not responsible for what happened that night in 1989. he did not have a gun, he was directly responsible for what happened to officer macphail. then he addressed his family telling them to keep working, keep praying, keep digging into the case. and then he said to the staff, may god have mercy on your souls and may god bless your souls. and that was it. >> [ inaudible ] >> we couldn't see their faces, they were seeing in the first row, we did not see how they reacted to it. all i can say is, while this was going on, they never turned their heads. they never waivered. the entire time they stared at him through the glass as the execution was taking place. [ inaudible ]. >> i have no idea.
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we weren't there. [ inaudible ] >> i didn't see anybody. just the attorney for him. >> which attorney was there? >> uards. [ inaudible ] >> i don't believe did he have a last meal and i don't believe he made a final statement when he was going to be given the opportunity to record one, you but he did make the statement, as we said, while he was strapped to the chair, strapped to the gurney and again, addressed it had right to the macphail family first to let them know he said he was innocent. >> he did not eat his dinner. and he did not take the ativan. did he take part in prayer, i know that's something they offer. >> he did not.
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they started the execution, he blinked rapidly for some beard of time and then he went out. they checked him for consciousness. warden came back into the death chamber, went back out again. then they started the lethal mixture and again, whole thing took about 15 minutes, 11:08, the warden came in and pronounced him dead. >> did he make the final statement on the couch -- >> he was already strapped to the gurney when we came in. so everything in a happened, he was already strapped to the gurney when we came in. we came in, the warden was in the room. another prison official, medical attendant plus one that was off to the side and then troy davis was strapped to the gurney. the warden read while we were there, read the order from the chatham county judge, asked troy davis if he had any statement.
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davis made his statement. they ordered the procedure to go on the he asked if he had a prayer first. once the procedure was over, two doctors came in, both used stethoscopes, one checked vital signs, eyes, pulse and the like. and they nodded in agreement, and that's when the warden pronounced him dead. >> this is a highly publicized case. what was it like to be a witness for this execution in particular? >> it was somber. i mean, none of these are easy. it was very quiet. much more so. the only sound where we were sitting was the sound of the air conditioner. people weren't moving. i mean, it was not even some casual movement. i think everybody in there understood the enormity of what was going on and acted accordingly. it was very, very quiet, very respectful and very somber.
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>> did he make any physical gestures? >> the lethal injection started at 10:53. he turned his head very slightly to his left the same minute that the lethal injection started. the next minute, i have him blinking his eyes, a little more -- a little more rapidly for a very brief few seconds. i have him squeezing his eyes shut for maybe a second and then opening them again. and then at 10:54, about two minutes -- a minute after lethal injection started, i have him appearing to yawn. and then around 10:55 it started slowing down. and 10:58 they did a consciousness check to make sure he was unconscious before they start the next two lethal injection drugs that paralyze his body and stop his heart. after that, there was very little -- there was no movement, except for slower breathing. >> what do you understand is
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going to happen to mr. davis' body now? >> we saw a butts county coroner truck pull up to the death chamber minutes before we walked in. so, i'm assuming it is going to go out to the coroner. thank you. >> and there you have the word from a number of media observers who traditionally are allowed in to witness these executions and report back to other members of the media. troy davis executed tonight by lethal injection, declared dead 20 minutes ago, 11:08 p.m. eastern standard time. when asked if he had anything to say davis lifted his head up off the gurney, addressed the macphail family, said he was sorry for their loss, but he was innocent and asked his friends and family to keep working on the case. according to the media members, his family members were not present, only his attorney was.
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the entire lethal injection process took 15 minutes. the warden pronounced him dead at 11:08. 29th inmate put to death by lethal injection in the state of georgia. we are going to have continuing coverage 37 we're going to take a short break. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] the road is not exactly a place of intelligence. ♪ across the nation over 100,000 miles of highways and bridges are in disrepair. add to that, countless distractions every mile...
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high stakes talks at the u.n. tonight to avoid a potential crisis in the middle east peace process. the obama administration is trying to avoid a showdown over palestinian state hood. here in new york tonight, secretary of state clinton is meeting with mahmoud abbas and israeli president benjamin netanyahu. a short time ago mr. obama wrapped up his talks with abbas. this morning in a speech at the u.n., president obama explained why the u.s. is threatening a veto on the palestinians request
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for statehood, a goal which the president himself laid out at the u.n. this time last year. >> one year ago, i stood at this podium and i called for an independent palestine. i believed then and i believe now that the palestinian people deserve a state of their own. but what i also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the israelis and the palestinians themselves. >> well, the president is calling on both sides to get back to the negotiating table. let's talk about what's at stake here. joining me is political analyst david gergen. the palestinians say they're going to submit a letter formally requesting this from the u.s. on friday. at this point, is there anything the u.s. can do to prevent that? >> not much. it can pressure and trying to do that. the president is making appeals to the palestinians. there are threats coming from the congress, especially from republicans, if the palestinians
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go forward with this, they'll cut off aide to the palestinians. we're trying to round up european votes. although the french leader, sarkozy, came out sharply against what the president is trying to do. but anderson, the likelihood is they're going to go forward. i mean, all the indications are that the palestinians are going to ask for statehood recognition from the security council this friday. >> and what for -- why is the u.s. so opposed to that if president obama is saying a year ago he's for palestinian statehood? >> that's a great question. it's what the arabs are asking. if you say you're for statehood for the palestinians and now they ask for it, isn't it hypocritical to vote against it? but the president's argument is look, if they do this, if they get the statehood through the u.n. and not through the direct negotiations, it's actually going to make the peace talks much more difficult. in fact, it could destroy all hopes for peace talks. we could see more violence there. it puts the u.s., which has promised to veto this in security council, in a difficult position.
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this is actually -- almost could be a game changer in the middle east. different to go from the anguish of troy davis to this, long-standing feud. but we could be on the edge of a game changer that would really be profound if the palestinians have in the past been recognized as something -- they've been an observer entity. now they could be called an observer state. it would be the first time they would be legally recognized by the u.n. as a state and could go through the general assembly. and that gives them membership in a variety of u.n. organizations. and they can begin to put pressure -- if we're a state, you're occupying us under the u.n., you've got to get the heck out of here. >> right, you could argue it strengthens their hand at the bargaining table. >> absolutely. it does strengthen their hand at the bargaining table. the israelis and americans the only way to bring true peace is
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to gather a real understanding between the two peoples. if the israelis are cut out of this effect, it's going to guarantee it's going to make it much more difficult. but president obama, what was interesting today is how frustrated he is. a year ago, two years ago when he first came into office, he had these grand visions. he went to cairo and talked about this transformative change that was going to come between the u.s. and the arab nation. more than a year ago, he promised he'd have a deal by now between the israelis and the palestinians. he had these grand hopes. today, we heard a very, very frustrated president obama, saying peace is a really hard thing to get done. >> so it seems like, i mean, unless the u.s. does something to change the palestinians' mind, this is going to go forward. >> it does. and from the u.s. point of view now, they've been trying for days and days in fact weeks to stop this. and abbas has been harder and harder saying i'm going to do it. again saying today, we're going to do this. so the play may well be, look, if you file and ask for this we'll actually delay the process of getting the vote in the
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security council for a few weeks to see if we can get direct talks started again. see if you can actual when i get concessions on both sides and we can achieve this through the negotiating process instead of this. more from anderson coming up. the tropical storm pummelled same area earlier this year struck by an earthquake. four people died. no word on how the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant weathered the storm. a police officer was charged with second-degree murder and another in manslaughter in the death of a mentally ill homeless man. 37-year-old kelly thomas was beaten and shocked with a taser in july and died five days later. jury selection in the michael jackson death trial is expected to wrap up friday. defense lawyers and prosecute hes argued today over which potential jurors should be
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dismissed because of possible bias. dr. conrad murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in jackson's death. the power of no, the beatles would not perform before a segregated audience has been auctioned off for $23,000. the contract was for a 1965 concert in daly city, california during the fab four's third major u.s. tour. up next, new details about what drove 14-year-old jamey rodemeyer to kill himself just days ago. his family says he was bull floyd death because of had his sexuality. anderson's interview is straight ahead. n't ba falcon. sure, you did. you saved us a lot of money on auto insurance. i used that money to buy a falcon. ergo, you bought me a falcon. i should've got a falcon. most people who switch to state farm save on average about $480. what they do with it, well, that's their business. oh, that explains a lot, actually. [ chuckles ] [ male announcer ] another reason people switch to state farm. aw, i could've gotten a falcon. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. [ falcon screeches ]
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up close tonight, the tragic story of yet another teen whose family says he was bullied and bullied until it was too late. we told you about him last night. jamey rodemeyer, he was just 14 years old when he killed himself this weekend. he was mature enough to reach out and talk about his pain. sadly, that wasn't enough. this past sunday, he committed suicide. he was a freshman at williamsville high school in buffalo, new york.
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his parents say he was targeted by school bullies because he was gay. just four months ago, he posted a video on youtube part of the it gets better project. here's jamey's message of hope. >> and i just want to tell you that it does get better. when i came out for being bi i got so much support from my friends. and it made me feel so secure. and then if your friends or family isn't even there for you, i look up to one of the most supporting people of the gay community that i think of that i know. lady gaga. she makes me so happy. she lets me know i was born this way. that's my advice to you from her. you were born this way. now all you have to do is just hold your head up and you'll go far, because that's all you have to do. just love yourself and you're
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set. >> jamey went on to say he has so much support from people online. people were so nice and caring. people who didn't ever want him to die. earlier i spoke with the rodemeyer family, jamey's sister alyssa, and his parents tim and tracy. first of all, tracy, how are you holding up? >> pretty good considering. i think considering all the attention that we are getting for my son's message, it's really keeping us occupied. and it's making it a little bit easier to handle this situation. >> what was your son like? what was jamey like? >> for a 14-year-old, he had the biggest heart in that little body. he was well loved by everybody, which included friends, teachers, and, of course, family.
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>> you say he was well loved, but you are also say bullying was a problem for him, yes? >> right. i mean, it just seems like it was either end of the spectrum. he was either loved so sincerely or he was bullied. there wasn't much in between. >> tim, were you aware of the bullying? >> yes, we were. it started in middle school, which is fifth grade. in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, it always got -- it got progressively worse through those grades. and we went to the school and we got some help from them. he was seeing a social worker and saw some counselling. and eighth grade seemed to be a little bit better for him, but it was still continuing in eighth grade. >> tim, what do you want people to know? i mean, what do you want people to take away from what happened
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to jamey? >> we're basically -- there's a twofold message here. one is the message of jamey. and his message was that people should be treated the same no matter how different they are, no matter if they're black, white, gay, bisexual, disabled, fat, skinny. that was his big thing. he treated everyone equally. and he was a big fan of lady gaga. and that just emphasized it more to him, that people are born that way and there's no reason to pick on people. and there's no reason to make fun of people. you should just accept people for who they are. the other part of this is the message of bullying. and we need to get a better
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system in our school districts, in our school systems, to get rid of these bullies, because it's a rampant problem, not just here in western new york, but all over the country and all over the world. and the bullying needs to stop. >> alyssa, i guess in your own school, in your own career in school, you've probably seen bullying as well. what's your message to other kids out there? >> i just want kids to know that if you are being bullied, you should go to a teacher, you should go to a parent, you should go to a counsellor. and you should go to friends. you should find someone. and kids who are seeing bullying need to stop it and they need to get involved and help those kids out, because if -- there's strength in numbers. and if one person stands up to a bully, maybe they can't do much, but if a bunch of kids are standing up to that bully, he or she is powerless. and if you stand up to them,
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then they can't hurt anyone anymore. >> tracey, i guess one of the things that has struck so many people is to see that video of jamey and to hear his voice and that he took the time to make a video telling others that it gets better. i mean, it just seems, you know, such a tragedy that in those terrible hours before his death that that message maybe was lost on him. >> i mean, that is one of the reasons. i mean, if you look into his life, he did that in may, and from may to june, at the end of school there, everything seemed fine. and if we didn't have all these social networks out there, the facebook, you know, the internet in general, that is where a lot of the bullying occurs. so he wasn't in school for the months of july and august.
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and 20 years ago, that would have meant you didn't have to worry about bullying. but because people can access each other in numbers so readily, it just made it still accessible for people to do their bullying. so, when we looked at jamey's video, it's like -- it seemed like he was able to cope with it. in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, he was so much more fragile and we had to watch him a lot more. and it seemed as time was going, he was learning how to deal with it. and anyone that would watch that video would show, you know, it seemed he was over the hump and wanted to send the message to everybody else because he knows how he felt. and he didn't want one more single person in this world to feel like him, worthless, not worthy of being on this planet. and that's just how he's been all the way up until the end. you know, that it seemed like everything was fine. >> tracey and tim and alissa, again, i'm just so sorry for your loss.
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and i appreciate you coming on and talking about jamey and sharing him with us. thank you. >> yes, and i just hope this does a lot of good. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> i hope so, too. i wish you strength and peace in the days ahead. >> thanks. >> jamey's parents also told me that he seemed fine the night before he died. and the one thing that caused him to take his own life remains the biggest mystery. what actually happened in those final minutes? we'll continue to follow this. we recently teamed up with cartoon network and facebook to look at this from all angles. there's now an app on facebook where you can pledge to do what you can do stop the bullying. to find the app, go to facebook.com/stopbullyingspeak up. also, we'll have a series of special reports, "bullying, it stops here" starting october 9th here on cnn. we really analyze bullying in one school and break it down and look at why it happens.
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tilikum last year. wasn't the first time it showed aggression to people. joining us, david care business author of "death at seaworld." they showed video of the attack same whale from 2006, you say it was gruesome, violent and shocking. >> it was very shocking it it wasn't the same way. it was a wail in san diego with a trainer named ken peters. this video has never been shown to the public before, seaworld has had it since 2006. and in the video, you see casaka grab peter's leg, hold onto it for several minutes and then take him underwater two or three times for up to a minute or two or three minutes at a time this whole event takes place over a ten-minute period of time. it is very frightening there is no audio, which makes it even more surreal and you sit and watch this diver, trainer, being dragged underwater by this whale it is quite shocking. >> and what is the message of that video? essentially that these are dangerous animals and seaworld knew that? >> well, yes. seaworld does know that, that's why they film all these events, this was an actual seaworld
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video. what happened after this event is that california osha issued a citation of violation against seaworld and seaworld went ahead and contested that violation and applied political pressure to get it withdrawn and cal osha actually apologized to seaworld. now the interesting thing is what they withdrew was the conclusion that if things don't change, eventually, somebody is going to die in the killer whale pool at sea world. and sea world reacted very strongly to that and said, you don't know what you're talking about. you know nothing about safety issues concerning marine mammals in captivity. we are the experts. we are safe. then of course, four years later, dawn brancheau died. >> and video of her death has not been played it court yet. do osha's attorneys still intend to show it? >> they won't say whether they are going to show it or not. my guess is that they will, but i don't know.
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once that video does get shown if it is shown it is then available for distribution by foya. i hope that anybody who shows the video on the air will edit it and blur out many parts of it, because from what i am told, it is quite brutal and from reading the autopsy report and other accounts of dawn's death, this whale really rammed her very hard. >> the other night on this program, you said this incident was either dawn's fault or sea world's fault. from what you have seep and heard in court so far, what -- who do you think is to blame? >> i don't know yet, but i will say this, that john black, the attorney for osha, is doing a very, very powerful job of picking apart seaworld's credibility. today, he had on the stand a curator for all animals, the corporate curator at seaworld, chuck thompkins, who testified that seaworld pays close attention to safety issues and walks each trainer through all of the incidents that the whales
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have been involved with previously. he was very powerful in his testimony. however, john black pointed to out that a loft incidents that happen have not been included in the incident report. seaworld said there have been 98 incidents since 1988, but as john black showed, there are many, many other attacks that were never included in those incident reports. >> wow. david kirby, thanks. i'm isha sesay with a 360 news and business bulletin. we begin with a sweet taste of freedom for two american hikers released from prison after more than two years. josh fattal and shane bauer bounded down the steps of the plane that took them to oman and into the arms of their families, they were arrested while hiking near iran's bored we are iraq and convicted of spying. their sentences have been commuted. mexican authorities say a
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video may hold new clues why 35 bodies and two trucks were abandoned yesterday on a highway will authorities say most of the death have been identified and had criminal records. tonight there's new video of an arkansas courthouse shooting. it shows the man on tuesday who police say opened fire after demanding to see a judge and being told that the jim wasn't in. the gunman was shot and killed. and a day after u.s. inspector general reported that the justice department served $16 muffins at a 2009 conference, a response from the white house, the obama administration has ordered the heads of federal agencies to review their spending on conferences. more news coming up. [ junior ] i played professional basketball for 12 years.
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