side. mark, thanks. we'll have our next political update in one hour and a reminder for all the latest political news, you can go to our web site, cnn.com/politics. coming up next, the best part of the day for most folks, suzanne sheer to take over the reins. good to see you. >> good to see you. i'm going to get you up to speed on this tuesday, november 29. we are now just learning that vice president biden has arrived in baghdad, that he will be meeting with iraqi officials including the leader of iraq to talk about the drawdown of u.s. troops that will be taking place by the end of the year. we're going to have more information on that as it becomes available, but we're just getting this information now that the vice president is in baghdad trying to work out the final process of actually removing the remaining u.s. troops. this hour, michael jackson's doctor finds out if he's going to prison for his role in jackson's death. we're carrying the sentencing of dr. conrad murray for you live. that's at 11:30 eastern.

murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for recklessly giving jackson the powerful anesthetic propofol to help him sleep. he faces a maximum of four years in prison. prosecutors also want him to pay more than $100 million to jackson's children. it's another case of he said/she said for herman cain. ginger white, a single mother from atlanta, says she had a 13-year-long affair with the married republican candidate. cain once again shooting it all down, that and all allegations. >> was this an affair? >> no, it was not. >> there was no sex? >> no. >> none? >> no. >> are you sticking with your original story that it was a sexual relationship? >> absolutely, and i can't imagine him actually confirming. it's the name of the game, i guess. >> pittsburgh police will open a second criminal investigation into bernie fine.

else the fired syracuse assistant basketball coach. zach vermicelli claims that fine molested him in a hotel in pittsburgh in 2002. fine's wife lori in a secretly recorded telephone conversation seems to confirm her husband's attraction to young boys. we tried to ask her about that tape. >> i'm sorry to bother you, but i'm hoping i can ask you some questions. your nephew is saying you might make a statement. >> no, i'm not. >> you're not going to make a statement? >> not today. >> how can you not comment? >> police have not filed charges against bernie fine. syracuse plays its first home game tonight without him. tomorrow a court is going to hear why the man who tried to assassinate president reagan should get more time away from the mental hospital where he is staying. that's right, john hinckley, jr. was found not guilty by reason

of insanity back in 1982. he wants more unsupervised visits to see his mother who is aging. prosecutors are fighting that request. angry iranian storms the british embassy in tehran today. protesters broke down the embassy's door, they trashed the place and raised the iranian flag. the crowd wants britain's ambassador to go home. they expelled the am babassador sunday in retaliation for western sanctions. they're saying he escaped through a back door. right now dow jones up. i'm looking at 68 points. mainly that's from hopes that europe is working out the debt crisis. american airlines filed for bankruptcy this morning, but you.nyou don't have to worry. about holiday travel, it's going to be business as usual. they said they could hammer out a deal to cut spending on labor.

for details, we go live to the new york stock exchange. and also a status update for you. facebook reportedly possibly going public. it could happen soon. reporting that the social network hopes to raise $10 billion. facebook is valued at about $100 billion, and so far facebook hasn't post ned any comments. new sexual allegations are threatening to derail the so-called cain train. >> it was pretty simple. it wasn't complicated. and i was aware that he was married, and i was also aware that i was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship. i'm not proud. i didn't want to come out with this. i did not. >> but ginger white, a single mother of two, tells atlanta's waga that she had a 13-year

affair with republican presidential hopeful herman cain. cain denies everything, saying the two were just friends. joe out of washington has more for us. joe, do you think it's the last stop for the so-called cain train or can he recover from this? >> i don't think the campaign thinks it's the last stop. they've been up and down the tree a couple other times on very different subjects, of course. a sexual harassment is very different from an alleged, you know, relationship that was consensual. he's denied all of it. the fact of the matter is they've got an e-mail out today touting his 9-9-9 plan and talking about revising the tax code. that said, you know, it's caused him certainly a bit of problems, and the other half of this, suzanne, as you know, is not just about allegations that have been made by women, you know,

allegedly in his past, it's also about his campaign organization, the fact that he's come up blank or confused on some issues, notably libya. and the whole ball of wax creates a problem for herman cain. but he says he's not getting out of the race. >> joe, how does this campaign try to get back on methods? i know you said they're trying to bring back the 9-9-9 plan. do they have a strategy here? are they addressing this up front or are they putting it aside and saying, no more, this is what we want to talk about? >> it's interesting. you saw a statement from the lawyer that came out yesterday, and the lawyer suggested this is a private matter, essentially none of your business. also, i think it was notable that herman cain, even though he wasn't saying the same thing as his lawyer, actually tried to get ahead of the story rather than behind it or reacting to it. so it looks like they started reading the campaign playbook a little more carefully.

nonetheless, this is sort of an uphill battle for him because women voters in our polls have shown they have gotten very skeptical about herman cain. then you have the social conservatives, particularly in places like iowa and south carolina, and they expect their politician and see their candidates to answer, if you will, to a higher power. so that could make it difficult for him, suzanne. >> thank you, joe. herman cain has had what you could call a rough month. should cain drop out of the presidential race? carol costello with more from new york. hey, carol. >> hi, suzanne. herman cain's final stop will not be 16 pennsylvania avenue, not unless the big guy in the sky can take over the campaign. forget allegations of marital infidelity. herman cain has had a really bad

few months. there was his inability to discuss his own plan of 9-9-9, his boschi ibotching of libya, sexual allegations. j judson phillips said, herman cain has got to go. if he can't run his own campaign, how can he run the country? >> cain was in ohio selling books. he's not even really campaigning now in iowa. as we continue, we see this campaign is really a farce. >> cain's book, "my journey to the white house" is selling. it's number 43 on amazon's ranking on political biographies and memoirs. as for cain, he says he's still in it to win it. after all, clinton fought back against infidelity.

should herman cain drop out of the presidential race is our question? we'll read your comments in the next hour. >> i think it's one of the moments of truth, if you think about it. this month going into next month, he's got almost a year to go on this. how he survives the next four weeks going into next year is going to be really critical. the polls showing his numbers have dropped, yeah? >> the most disturbing thing perhaps is he's sort of sucking all the air out of the room. we're not hearing about economic plans or plans for the wars that are currently going on internationally. we're not hearing that from other candidates. we're hearing all about herman cain and these allegations against him, and some republicans say that's not a good thing. >> all right. looking forward to the responses. thank you, carol. here's a rundown on some of the stories up ahead. first, it is sentencing day in l.a. for michael jackson's doctor. we're going to take you there to court live as soon as that starts. then the alleged molestation case against syracuse coach

bernie fine. we're going to look into why federal authorities are taking over. also, november snow down south. yes, here. we'll tell you which states got hit with the frosty weather. and the popular way of scoring in soccer can actually cause brain injury. we have a formal report at the bottom of the hour. wait a minute...i... [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer. i habe a cohd. and i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] sorry, buddy. truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] you need a more complete cold formula, like alka-seltzer plus liquid gels. it's specially formulated to fight your worst cold symptoms, plus relieve your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels.

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deborah is at the syracuse campus to sort all this out. first of all, why are the feds taking the lead role in this? normally these kind of cases would be handled as a matter of state law, right? >> reporter: normally they are handled by the local investigators, the district attorney's office. federal authorities stepped in in part because they were using the secret service who they've got an expertise in forensic analysis, the ability to go through computers, they've worked with the national center for missing and exploited children, so they know exactly how to get into computers and to look for certain things. for example, they may look for a pattern of downloading child pornography, things like that. that was one of the reasons the secret service executed this search warrant. it's also very interesting because the police took the case to federal investigators. the police just released a new statement, suzanne, and they're trying to clarify what happened back in 2002 when bobby davis, the alleged victim, came forward trying to get somebody to listen

to them. and what the police say in this very latest statement that just came over moments ago. that is, that one of the problems is when bobby davis called police, he was told by detectives that unless he met with a detective or if he could provide the names of other victims, which he could not, he could not provide entire names of victims, then in fact they would not be able to open an investigation. he, in a statement coming from the police department, suzanne, is that the police department never knew that syracuse university had initiated its own investigation based on similar complaints by what appears to be the same alleged victim, bobby davis. so that's clear. so you had a couple of agencies who were notified, and yet because there was no cross-communication, neither of them realized that in fact the same guy, the prominent guy, was being looked into. and police are now saying they're going to change their

protocol so if somebody does call in with allegations, they're going to formally document it, suzanne. >> tell us why the pittsburgh police are now getting involved in this case. why is this becoming even bigger? >> pittsburgh police -- and this is very interesting, because someone ultimately did step forward. someone not even from this area, somebody who met the ex-coach, fine, while efls he was at an a game, and he has accused coach fine of sexual molestation in a pittsburgh motel. and it's his allegation, basically, that this investigation begins. bobby davis' statute of limitations had, in fact, run out, but with this latest allegation it is now within the time frame it can now be investigated, and pittsburgh police said, we know you have the lead on this case, but we're going to see if we can help dig up anything, or to see whether

there are any other people out there. suzanne? >> thanks very much. across country, see what's making headlines. a man dressed as frosty the snowman a arrested, that's right, at a christmas parade in chestertown, maryland. 52-year-old can he haven walsh hit a police officer. walsh denied that. he's been dressing up as frosty for ten years now. look at the huge flames coming out of a tanker truck of crude oil. that truck got into a crash with another truck and caught fire. thankfully, nobody was hurt. people in the south hit by a rare november snowstorm overnight. how rare? reports say this is only the third time snow has fallen in memphis in november since 1875. up to three inches fell in parts of tennessee, missouri, alabama, arkansas and southern illinois.

i guess we got spared. the man responsible for michael jackson's death, he's going to hear how long he's going to have to pay for it. we're live from the sentencing of dr. conrad murray, that's in l.a., and after holding on for years now, another story. american airlines has finally filed for bankruptcy. i'm going to tell you what that means for your holiday travel.

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the big announcement this morning from the airline industry, american airlines files for bankruptcy. allison kosich joins us from the new york stock exchange. what does that mean for those traveling over the holidays? >> keep in mind this does not mean american airlines is going out of business. in fact, it's going to be business as usual, so if you have a reservation, it's still valid. it's going to go ahead and maintain its frequent flyer program. it's also going to keep its flight schedule the same and it's not going to ground any planes. so the next logical question is how is this possible? how can things just sort of operate as normal? the fact is american airlines still have $4 billion in cash. it's going to use that money to continue operating, to pay its

vendors, to pay its suppliers while it works through this whole process. suzanne? >> if they can still operate, why are they filing for bankruptcy today? >> reporter: that's a good question, too, because for american airlines, the end game at this point is really to be more competitive. if you think about it, american airlines is kind of the last man standing. all the other major carriers, major competitors, they've either filed for bankruptcy or merged with other airlines or both, so what this essentially does is allow american airlines to unload its massive debt and cut costs. the new ceo spoke with cnn international's richard quest and here's his reasoning on this. >> virtually all of our big competitors in the u.s. took this step, and as a consequence, they lowered their costs and improved their capital structure in a way that simply made them much more competitive. and, you know, the folks of

american have worked very hard and honorably to avoid that path over the last decade, but it became clear to us that that gap was just too wide now. >> reporter: so american airlines has clearly been at a disadvantage compared to its rivals. you look at the numbers here, it lost $5 billion just since 2007. the stock has plunged 79% just this year. it's now trading today at around 25 cents, 33 cents a share. so the goal here is to go into bankruptcy, unload its massive debt, rework its labor contracts and its cost structure, and essentially emerge a much stronger, leaner, healthier airline. >> what about the markets in general today? they rallied yesterday. how are they doing today? >> reporter: it looks like stocks are building on those gains from yesterday. investors seem to be shrugging off reports that home prices

suffered more than expected. it was the biggest monthly gain in eight years. you can see americans are worried about their employment prospects and about their income prospects. wall street focusing on the positive today, suzanne. >> we like that news. thank you, allison. how much will michael jackson's doctor pay for the death of one of music's biggest icons? dr. conrad murray learns his fate very soon. we're live from the sentencing. nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers? tylenol: me, too. and nasal congestion. nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

in just a few minutes, michael jackson's doctor finds out whether or not he will spend the next four years in a state prison. we are carrying conrad murray's sentencing for you live from los angeles. joining me from l.a. is soom you'll endo, and in las vegas taking us to the sentencing. but first, we look back at the trial's highlights. >> reporter: here, tales of addictions and half truths. just another day in the trial of dr. conrad murray. from day one, michael jackson's

doctor cannot hold back his emotion. prosecutor david walgreen shows little sympathy, hammering home what he calls murray's incompetency. he called to say something was wrong with jackson but never to say he stopped breathing or to call 911. >> were you asked to call 911? >> no, sir. >> reporter: day three, the head of logistics testified that murray was hiding vials in jackson's home before paramedics arrived. >> i was standing at the foot of the bed. he reached over and grabbed a handful of vials and then he reached out to me and said, put these in a bag. >> reporter: day four, this los angeles paramedic told the court that murray never told him that he had given jackson the powerful drug propofol, the drug that killed jackson. >> did conrad murray ever

mention the word propofol to you during the time that you were at the location or in his presence? >> no, he did not. >> reporter: day six, a harem of women, a stripper, a former cocktail waitress and murray's girlfriend all testified they were with murray the day jackson died. >> i said hello, hello, and i didn't hear anything. >> reporter: day seven, a disturbing iphone recording taken by murray was played in court, of michael jackson sounding wasted and slurring his words. >> i love them, i love them because i didn't have a childhood. i had no childhood. i feel their pain. i feel their hurt. >> reporter: also on day seven, alicia fleet, an investigator

f for, found dozens of pill bottles. >> then i needed to go to the bathroom. then i came back to his bedside and was stunned in the sense that he wasn't breathing. >> reporter: day 14. the prosecution's key expert, dr. steven schaefer, testifies the only scenario that fits is that murray hooked jacks son upo a slow propofol i.v. drip and didn't notice he had stopped breathing. day 15, the defense puts murray's former patients on the stand to praise murray. he listens in tears. day 20, the so-called father of propofol, dr. paul white, testified for the defense. he supports the theory jackson gave himself the fatal dose,

unaware it would kill him. >> so you think it was a self-injection of propofol near the hours between 11:30 and 12:00 that did it? >> in my opinion, yes. >> reporter: day 21. murray takes a hit when prosecutors press dr. white about murray's failure to tell paramedics he gave jackson propofol. >> it was obviously overlooked. >> not obviously. it could also be a lie, correct? >> correct, that's another option. >> if you say so, yes. >> it's another option, correct? >> it's an option, yes. >> reporter: that same day, prosecutors get white to admit that he believed murray drew up a syringe of propofol and left it in the bedroom, accessible to jackson. >> randy has been covering the jackson trial and joins us now. you've heard a lot of trials in

the past. what struck you about this one? >> i think just the emotional level, paris jackson when she saw her father struggling to breathe, curled up in a ball on the floor crying, her brother prince in shock. we heard that emotional tape from jackson like we've never heard him before, sounding drugged, which conrad murray recorded on his cell phone and continued to order propofol for him. and just the amount of propofol, that conrad murray had ordered it, and to see the number of drugs laid out in that courtroom, knowing that this was really what killed michael jackson in the end was pretty powerful stuff. >> we kind of grew up on michael jackson, and to hear that tape, it's awful to hear his voice like that and the kind of state he was in. but you and i were talking about the fact you saw him in concert when you were 15. >> i did. >> i still have his albums at

home. what does the celebrity factor play in this? >> this has come full circle. at 15 years old went to see him in concert, and then to be there behind his family sitting in the courtroom, his mother, father, la toya jackson, jermaine, his brothers and sisters, to see that family reaction, to see the impact that they had on the jury and la toya was shaking her head as certain witnesses were on the stand. and only feet away, there you have conrad murray who is crying many times throughout the trial. and then you have the whole scene outside with the crazy doctor who comes every day and was standing with the i.v. stand dressed in a doctor's suit outside. then you have conrad murray supporters, michael jackson supporters, and crazy placards saying, if there's no drip, don't acquit, referring to the o.j. trial. a lot of people saying, would we even be here if it wasn't for

michael jackson? who knows. >> did you have a chance to talk to any of the michael jackson family while you were there? >> you would acknowledge them because they were only a couple feet away from me in court, and we were sitting behind them. they would occasionally acknowledge me, but mostly they kept to themselves. >> sandra is outside the court in l.a. who has actually arrived today? who have you seen? >> we just saw katherine jackson arrive here at the courthouse. also siblings jermaine, randy and la toya. they've all been a mainstay, as ran randi mentioned, throughout the trial. we're going to see it start momentarily. the prosecution and the jackson family, of course, want the maximum. they want four years in prison for dr. conrad murray and they want hefty fines which could

amount to $4 million. the defense is arguing he should just get probation and stay out of jail. obviously, it's going to be tough to keep him in prison. there you're seeing the judge on the bench right now. court has started. the proceedings are about to begin. they are likely going to read some victim statements. we understand the jackson family statement will be read by a family lawyer, and we understand that also the mother of conrad murray -- actually, both mothers made a petition to the judge. one, of course, pleading for mercy, the other, of course, pleading for the max. suzanne? >> and we understand the judge is dealing with that heigright whether or not they're going to be able to broadcast some of those statements. i understand conrad murray's mother wrote a letter to the judge begging for mercy and she also wanted to reach out to

michael jackson's mother, katherine, to say how sorry she was that katherine jackson lost her son, michael jackson. can you tell us a little bit about this, this kind of back and forth between these mothers? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. this petition was very interesting to read because we have heard very little from dr. conrad murray's mother through all of this. and we have seen her inside the courtroom throughout the trial. she keeps to herself, doesn't want any media attention. we understand that she doesn't want the camera shown on her. if the judge allows these proceedings right now to be televis televised. so clearly she wants to stay out of the spotlight, but this is the first letter we've seen and heard in her own voice saying that her son is a compassionate man, that's why he got into all this trouble in the first place, and that she's extremely sorry to katherine jackson for the loss of her son. she understands that as a mother, and she said that throughout the trial, she wanted to go up to her personally to say sorry for her loss, but of

course because of court rules, she didn't want to infringe on those rules, so that was all laid out, obviously showing her compassion as well through this letter. and pleading to the judge for leniency, really, saying that, please show mercy on her son. >> is there any of that kind of circus atmosphere that randi was talking about that's outside the courtroom today? >> very far less than we've seen in normal day-to-day operations outside the courthouse, if you will, throughout the trial. obviously this is sentencing day. a lot of the fans, those very voracious, actually, michael jackson fans who have been a mainstay throughout every day of the trial aren't really here today. as the fancy cars pulled up carrying the jackson family, of course, a little crowd assembled, but there is also security here as well. just a few steps away, there is the occupy l.a. protesters, so clearly a mix of people here in

front of the courthouse. but obviously the main show is inside the courtroom right now, and i can see the defense sitting around a table and conrad murray himself. >> we're going to get back to you, sandra. i want to bring in really quickly criminal defense attorney richard herman. he's out of las vegas. we've been watching this very closely here. what do you suspect the judge is going to do here? do you think he'll slap him with four years in prison, or do you think he'll do community service with probation? >> you can take it to the bank, suzanne, he's getting four years. this is the man who killed michael jackson. this is a judge who has to run for elective office. it's absolutely going to be four years maximum state prison, reduced immediately to two years county prison, and because this is being a non-violent felony under the statute and because dr. conrad murray has no prior criminal history, he is entitled to immediate home confinement

due to prison overcrowding. that's where i see it. maybe a month in county prison and then sent home for home confinement. >> do you think that that's the likely outcome, that's the way he's just going to be confined to home because of the california laws now? >> we saw what happened with lindsay lohan and paris hilton. they get sentenced and all of a sudden they're out in a matter of hours. the overcrowding is enormous. the legislature has acted in california due to the overcrowding. he's actually entitled to home confinement and that's what should be handed out unless he's treated differently than others similarly situated. i hope that's not the case here, suzanne. >> tell us about the defense. they also want him to pay big dollars here. we're talking $100 million to the jackson children that they thought would be the money he would have gotten from his concert tour and other expenses as well. how did they come up with this?

>> lost profits and wages as a result of the tour had he been able to do it. so they're asking the judge to award $100 million to the children of michael jackson for that and another 1.8 million to cover the funeral expenses, et cetera. i don't believe this judge is going to do that. he has the power to do it. i think that's more rightfully set for the civil wrongful death actions that are being brought against dr. murray. i would be a little surprised if the judge made those awards. in any event, there is no way dr. murray can pay these awards and would most likely dismiss them in bankruptcy. >> he's paid enough here. he's not going to be able to practice medicine, he's been disgradi disgraced here. what kind of future does this guy have? >> it's not very bright. i think first he'll be in home confinement for two years. then he has no ability to practice medicine. his license will be stripped not only in california but in nevada as well as texas.

he's never going to be able to get licensed again because of his actions in the case. so unless he can do a book deal or get some sort of celebrity status here from this case, that's going to be his only form of revenue, i believe. >> do you think that this judge and this trial, that they're trying to set an example for some of these other celebrity doctors that prescribe, provide drugs irresponsibly to some of these mega stars? what do we think is going to come out of this particular case? >> what great insight, suzanne. we've been hearing, since the anna nicole case, about doctor shopping and about prescription meds causing the death of people and people getting meds from all different doctors, all kinds of painkillers, et cetera, et cetera. look, it's here, it's here to stay, and california by this case is stepping up and i think setting an example. i think there is a lot of doctors in california who are quivering right now based on their conduct and prescribing prescription meds to various

patients. >> all right. mr. herman, we're going to keep an eye on the sentencing of michael jackson's doctor. we'll bring you more on that just ahead. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones!

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we're watching live pictures out of the courthouse in los angeles. that's where we're waiting to hear the judge's sentencing of conrad murray, michael jackson's doctor, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in his death. we're going to bring that to you as soon as that happens, so we're going to keep a close eye on those pictures out of the courtroom. also want to go to scandal, puts sound bites aside for a sec. the main thing is the economy. crystal in new york is going to break down for to us our economic future. all of them agree that they don't like obama and his plans, but they do have some plans of their own and some of them overlap. how do they distinguish themselves? >> they put themselves together, you're right, by saying the

president is doing a terrible job on the economy and that they would be better, each of them. they all want to cut the corporate tax rate, cut it pretty dramatically. think that would make the united states more competitive around the world. they want to repeal the obamacare victory. the republicans see it as an a bottom nation, and they want to shrink government a lot. depending on who you ask, suzanne, it means eliminating one or two government agencies or eliminating pretty big tactics that would balance the budget and cut workers. that's where they agree right there. >> can you give us some specifics about newt beginning ri -- gingrich's plans? >> he's moving up the polls. he had like to scrap the state and capital gains taxes. he would like to extend the bush

tax cuts, and he proposes an optional flat tax on income of 15%. sort of like rick perry's 20% flat tax, but you could take either a flat tax on your income of 15%. he also wants to balance the budget, and doing that, of course, is difficult. it would be hard to do very quickly but he's promising he could get that done. he wants to break up fannie mae and freddie mac. he wants to fire the least productive workers and really promoting any kind of policies that's going to cut kotcosts. he would say put six sigma to work, you would save billions. >> that's a bold plan. when you say flat tax, what does that mean for a middle-income family? does that benefit them in any way? >> flat tax is supposed to be

simper, but you think about newt gingrich's plan, for example, and they say if you could pick one or the other, you might do your taxes twice to figure out the least expensive for you. newt gingrich says 15%, rick perry says 20% and herman cain says 9%. a flat tax hurts the middle income spectrum more than anything else because if you take a flat tax, a 20% flat tax, 4% tax hurts you more than a $20,000 tax of somebody making $100,000 a year. right now there are a lot of exemptions and tax credits for people who are at the lower end of the income spectrum. if they lost those, a flat tax would hurt them more. >> all right. christine, thank you. i want to go to wolf blitzer who has some new information coming out of the herman cain campaign. wolf, what do we know here?

>> what we know is that the republican presidential candidates, suzanne, had a conference call with senior staff. a lot of people were on that conference call, and during the course of that conference call, he said he was going to reassess his position right now in the republican race for the white house. not necessarily drop out, but wanted to reassess. he gave a couple earlier examples of where he had reassessed in the past. after the iowa straw poll, michele bachmann reassessed her campaign. he has no intention of dropping out. he wants to see how this plays out first and foremost with his family, this cloud now hanging over his campaign. he's going to go forward with a

schedule today from washington to michigan. he's going to give a speech in michigan later tonight. but he's taking a very close and hard look at where he goes from here. a source close to the campaign said he did not expect herman cain would drop out, but he's taking a close look at how all of this is playing out right now. what he said in the conference call today, suzanne, to a senior staff is clearly different than what he said yesterday when i interviewed him in the situation room. he was adamant. he was moving full speed ahead. he was not going to let this latest accusation deter him. today there was a little bit of a pause as a result of the serious allegations that this woman ginger white from atlanta made. he's going to at least in the short term go ahead as scheduled, pretty much. but he wanted to take a close look at what he's doing, especially his media schedule. he's going to be very cautious, apparently, in the aftermath of

what has happened over the past 24 hours. >> wolf, do we think because he's reassessed before that some of this reassessment means he might be firing people, he might change his team or maybe switch and focus on a different message out of the campaign? do we have any idea what this ? >> i don't think it means anything along those lines, like firing staff or anything along those lines. i think what it does mean, he wants to have a real cloer sesee from his wife and family that the latest accusations won't put this enormously sad cloud over the family and whether or not he can go forward as a result of the accusations, which on the knks call today he flatly denied once again as he did yesterday in the situation room, flatly denied this allegation that they had a 13-year sexual affair. he said they were friends and he helped her financially because she was des toout and needed the

money. he flatly denied there was an affair, if you will. he's remaining very firm on that specific point. >> wolf, we've kind of seen his strategy change from time to time, first when the sexual harassment allegations came forward, he seemed to be quite behind the story and the story seemed to change over the course much a day or two. for this case, he was ahead of it when the woman said they had this 13-year affair. do we think he's going to go back to hunkering down and not really speaking out about these things? is he reassessing his media strategy or how he's going to present himself to the public and whether or not he's going to address these accusations? >> yes, he is going to reassess, he's going to refer -- the campaign will refer all media questions on this alleged affair to lin wood, his high profile attorney, who will be speaking on behalf of herman cain when any questions come up as far as

this alleged relationship with ginger white. the campaign bill stop talking about it. if you have more questions, those of us in the media and others, speak to lynne wood and he'll answer the questions. wolf, you spoke to herman cain yesterday and he seems like -- he's very emotional and personal about his own family, his concerns about his wife and how his kids are taking all of this. his wife has not spoken out publicly much at all, she came forward to say this did not sound like her husband, these allegations much sexual harassment. do we expect maybe he's going to try to protect his family more from these more salacious things? >> yes, if you look at the interview he did with me yes, suzanne, near the end there's an exchange that we had and i pressed him hard, are you going to continue with the campaign? do you think you might drop out? he said he's going to fight and continue. but he did raise the possibility of dropping out if it was too

much of a cloud hanging over his family. his family and wife come first. he made that point to a certain degree. if you look at the transcript and look at the videotape of what he said, he did leave open the possibility that if this continues, these accusations, he wants to do what's best for his family and that could open the door to that kind of dramatic decision. but he was pretty firm yesterday and said he wants to fight. he wants to run for the republican presidential nomination. he's not going to drop out, although he did raise that one caveat in the interview yesterday that he could -- today he seemed to go a little further by saying he's reassessing his strategy in the coming days based on the latest allegations. but at least for now he's going to go ahead with the schedule as it's been planned. >> all right, wolf, thank you very much. breaking news on herman cain, reassessing his presidential campaign. we'll have more after the break. early stages of cancer, and it's something that we're extremely proud of.

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we are watching inside the room in los angeles where they are preparing to announce the sentencing of dr. con rads murray, michael jackson's doctor who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in michael jackson's death. understand there is prosecutor david walgren who is speaking now. he could get four years in prison, the maximum sentence, to possibly the least amount, which

would be probation at home. so we're going to find out the fate of michael jackson's doctor. we're also following another story here. this is a breaking news story about herman cain, who is one of the presidential republican candidates and news now that he is reassessing his campaign and where he moves forward. i want to go to gloria borger out of washington to explain what we know about this process. where is he now? what is he doing? what is his future? >> well, suzanne, i just got off the phone with steve grubs, who is herman cain's honorary iowa campaign chairman. he was on this conference call in which the entire national staff for herman cain was invited. and he described it to me saying that, look, again, herman cain reiterated that he had what he called a long-term quote, friendship with this woman.

he was trying to help her out financially. he reiterated that nothing inappropriate occurred and he also said in the court of public opinion, people have to decide who they are going to believe. sometimes the judgment is correct and sometimes it's not correct. mr. grubs said when he heard herman cain say that he was going to reassess his campaign, it was in this context, that herman cain said, just as we reassessed after the straw poll in iowa and after florida, we're going to reassess the campaign in the next few days. what mr. grubs said to me is that he read that to mean that they are going to have to see how their fund raising is going. he didn't take it to mean that herman cain was necessarily going to withdraw from the race at all. but that he was going to have to reassess where he is. now, mr. grubbs is obviously

someone who is very tuned in to what would be happening in the iowa caucuses. as you know, suzanne, the campaign has been losing altitude. he said, looks this certainly makes it more difficult and the hill gets a little steeper and said the good news for us is that we do have a fairly sizable organization in iowa. but he did say, u suzanne, that herman cain said that this has been difficult. that these stories have taken an emotional toll on his family. >> is it possible, gloria, it might be just the opposite what people expect, we're thinking maybe he's going to drop out or he'll pull away from this and they might double down and might actually be trying to reorganize and raise more money and now em boldened by all of this? >> well, steve grubbs made it clear to me that this is his

read on the call, which is essentially that the campaign will continue. i asked him how mr. cain sounded and he said he sounded strong but clearly disappointed. he made the point that he's going to go on and give his foreign policy speech later this afternoon. so i think it was one of knows calls where you can't ask any questions, that the staff was just -- that mr. cain was speaking to his supporters so it wasn't open to a q and a where somebody might have asked the question about whether he was thinking about possibly withdrawing. i think it's one of those situations where the word reassessing, you can take it to mean whatever you want at this point. >> gloria, it seems to me as if it was obvious that in leaking this they wanted us to find out about this, know about this big meeting and the fact he's reassessing. why do you suppose that's the case? >> when you have a conference call with 90 people or so,

chances are we're going to hear about it. someone in the press is going to hear about it. i'm not so sure they wanted us to but i think that the herman cain campaign felt the need to reach out to all of their supporters nationally in key positions to let them know what the campaign was thinking and what the candidate himself was thinking after this story yesterday. but again, the important thing that occurred here in addition to the campaign saying they are reassessing is that herman cain again said that he had only had a long-term friendship with this woman and that it was nothing more than that. >> this might be reading tea leaves a little bit, but do you think he might be using this as an excuse, the fact there's this latest allegation that caused a problem with his family to drop out of the race or reassess now when the poll numbers are low, and fundraising is low and he's not doing as well as a couple of

weeks ago? >> after the first charges of sexual harassment came out, his campaign started raising money like gangbusters, remember that. >> right. >> he did raise an awful lot of money after those charges. i think this is a different situation. this is a situation where it's another he said, she said, no charge of sexual harassment, no charge of sexual assault, just a charge of an illicit affair. but you have a situation where the candidate yesterday said to wolf blitzer, this did not occur and reiterated it again today. and i think that's going to be the real issue going forward for the cain campaign, and we'll have to see if he continues to raise money. as you know he's headed in the wrong direction with the polls. he wasn't doing well with women voters before and this will certainly affect him negativively with women voters

and newt gingrich is taking a lot of those cain supporters. >> gloria, thank you, we'll follow this story as well as many others. top of the hour, let's get you up to speed. the man blamed for michael jackson's death will learn his fate today. these are live pictures of the sentencing of dr. conrad murray. he faces up to four years in prison and $100 million in restitution to be paid to jackson's children. murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter three weeks ago. the syracuse basketball team takes on eastern michigan, happening tonight. it is the first home game for the orange since bernie fine was fired. three men accuse the assistant coach of molesting them when they were kids. fine's wife, lori, seemed do confirm his attraction to young boys in a taped telephone call from 2002. cnn tried to ask her about that. >> i'm gary tuckman, i'm sorry

to borrow you. i was hoping to ask you, saying you might have a statement. >> no statement. >> you're not going to make a statement? >> not today. >> was the tape misinterpreted? >> i have no comment. >> thank you. >> syracuse police are defending their handling of the fine case. the chief concedes an alleged victim did come forward back in 2002, but he says that the case was not open because the statute of limitations had expired. the chief says his department did not know of the taped phone conversation featuring lori fine until just this month. vice president joe biden arrived in baghdad just a short time ago. he's going to meet with iraqi leaders as u.s. troops pack up and pull out by december 31st. biden will also look at areas like defense and trade and as well as building a iraqi

judicial system. airanians stormed the embasy today and raised the flag. the crowd wants britain's ambassador to go home. in retaliation for new western sanctions, the bbc is reporting embassy staffers escaped through a back door. for the first time in decades, some egyptians feel their vote actually matters. it's the second day of parliamentary elections in egypt and it is the first election since the fall of hosni mubarak's regime that collapsed after 30 years. now voters have got thousands of candidates to choose from. right now, prosecutors in a l.a. courtroom arguing that dr. conrad murray should spend four years in prison for the death of michael jackson. sandra has the very latest. bring us up to speed here. what are the prosecutors saying? >> reporter: the prosecutors are painting the picture of dr.

conrad murray as very negligent, saying that he violated the doctor/patient relationship and says to the courtroom, to the judge inside right now, saying that every day dr. conrad murray played russian roulette with michael jackson's life. earlier this morning a statement was read by the jackson family's lawyer from the jackson family saying that they hope that the judge imposes a sentence that will send a message that doctors cannot violate the doctor/patient relationship and sell services to the highest bidder. now, later we'll hear from the defense. murray's lawyers will argue that murray will deserve probation. they say that he will spend the rest of his life with this conviction and ultimately likely lose his medical license. so two sides of the argument here. obviously it's up to the judge to decide but dr. conrad murray faces up to four years in prison. but because of the overcrowding issue in california, that will likely be reduced to two years

maximum. so certainly a long, interesting dau. we know the jackson family members are inside the courtroom this morning. we saw them arrive to the courthouse. they've been a mainstay throughout the trial and this is the culmination. >> i understand we have good sound from the prosecutor. i want to play that for our viewers now, the case they are making. >> the defendant was playing russian roulette with michael jackson's life every single night. every single night they were up in that bedroom and conrad murray was administrating propofol in that reckless, obscene manner, michael jackson's life was put at risk. so the crime when looking at it and looking at whether it's an aggravated crime or not, one needs to look at the full picture. >> we again are awaiting live pictures there, we're awaiting the decision by the judge for dr. conrad murray and the sentencing there.

we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. another big story, herman cain, of course, has had a rough month which brings us to today's talk back question, should cain drop out of the presidential race? carol costello is joining us with more from new york. i can't think of a better more appropriate conversation, carol, in light of the fact that we've just learned that cain is reassessing his campaign now. >> you've got that right, the cain train's final stop will most likely not be 1600 pennsylvania avenue, not unless they can take over the spin machine in camp cain. forget the latest allegations of marital infidelity. he has had a really bad few months. the initial inability to explain his own plan, 9-9-9, botched answer on libya, confusing abortion beliefs and government unionization and the campaign's handling of sexual harassment allegations. herman cain has got to go.

if cain cannot run his own campaign, how is he going to run the country? other republicans are piling on. >> this campaign is a complete disaster. campaign was in ohio yesterday selling books, he's not even really campaigning right now in iowa. i think as we continue, we see this campaign is really a farce. >> cain's book, "my journey to the white house" is number three on amazon's ranking. as for cain, he is now reassessing his campaign. we don't know exactly what that means but remember, bill clinton did survive charges of marital infidelity. so the talk back question for you today, should herman cain drop out of the presidential race? facebook.com/carolcnn. >> we know he's reassessed before as he mentioned so we'll

see whether or not this goes in that direction. he has a lot of work to do with the poll numbers sagging and trying to earn some money and fund raising and now losing support with a lot of female voters with new accusations. >> and also has his family to keep in mind because this stuff is really hurting them right now too. >> all right, carol, thank you. first, american airlines files for bankruptcy. what this will mean for you and of course your holiday plans. then egypt holds its first election since the mubarak era ended. how the tie turnout of women could help the country turn a new page. a mother believe it or not loses her 8-year-old son to child services because he weighs 200 pounds. plus, tired of standing in shopping lines, if you have a tablet or smartphone, ebay has an app tailor made for you. >> i don't want to be a burden to my son. and frankly speaking, hope that i'll be killed in a car accident. that's the best that i can hope

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for the traveling public, this has absolutely no effect. the planes will still be taking off and you'll still pay extra if you put bags on the hold and get champagne if you're sitting at the front. this is about american airlines, maybe longer term there will be changes but frequent flyer miles remain -- i cannot say this often enough. if you look back over the last three or four years us airways has been in bankruptcy twice, united in bankruptcy two teks and delta, northwest itself was in bankruptcy. so american is now playing catchup. all of these other airlines drove down their costs into the bankruptcy protection courts and now american is finding it has to do the same. difficult, they had to do something. these are the sort of phrases -- the group that will be concerned rightly so tonight, american employees, what does it mean for

their wages and benefits. earlier i spoke to tom horton, the new chief executive at american airlines, what does it mean for his thousands of co-workers? >> well, i think the most important thing is that day one, the chapter 11 filing itself, won't cause any changes to wages or benefits. of course, our objective here is to make the company more cost competitive so down the road there may well be changes, but there's a process where in we will sit down with other union leaders and with other nonorganized work groups and work through the best way to reach the best outcome for the greatest number of people. >> the best outcome for the greatest number of people, that just about sums it up, putting that in perspective, americans cost for labor, about 32% of the total expenses of the aircraft, expect of running the airline.

expect that to go down to match those of united and delta. so it's rough news for a lot of folks who could be out of work and lose their jobs. why do you think american airlines waited so long. why is this happening now? >> i mean, layoffs -- i'm not so sure about, it's going to be much more about changing wage agreements and changing pension agreements and those sort of things rather than layoffs. why did american wait now? i think, i've come at american airlines for many years and i know theyspratly hoped to avoid this but the reality is the difference between american's cost and the others was too great to nible at the edges. they couldn't do it a bit here and there. they had to take the whole sale and blow it up and put it together again. the unfortunate thing they waited so long to do it when the

others got there first. >> appreciate it, richard quest. we're watching the conrad murray sentencing phase of all of this. this is michael jackson's doctor who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of michael jackson. we have just heard from his attorney and he says that murray will not speak at this sentencing. now it is important to note that there are statements that come from both sides in terms of how the judge should sentence conrad murray so there are statements on his behalf but we're told he's not actually going to be taking the stand to speak on his behalf in this sentencing phase, to determine whether or not he spends four years in prison or he has probation and serves his term at home. another story we're following, voters in egypt, they are considering thousands -- i'm talking thousands of candidates as they elect a new parliament. for women, the outcome could have a huge impact on the freedoms that they can enjoy every day.

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voters flocked to the polls in egypt for a second day of pair limit tri elections.

it's the first election since hosni mubarak ended. and for women, it could be huge consequences. here's jim clancy with a look at the voting. >> reporter: they stream to the polls with enthusiasm and determination and sense of destiny. for some, this vote would open up the world of possibilities not just for them but for daughters and granddaughters as well. in cairo, long lines formed outside polling stations exclusively for women. some waited from well before dawn despite concerns about where this vote, this era of awakening would take them. there were no illusions. >> it will not change in one month or a year or five years. it will take a long time to change from one system to the other. we've been going with this system for the past 30 years and it's not like a button we push to change everything. >> reporter: what's the sense you get about the women gathered

here and voting today? >> it's an awakening. i'm very happy and i feel that even when i see old ladies hardly walking, it makes me feel that really egypt is reviving. >> reporter: egypt's women are concerned from islamists gain a concern in the house, their hopes for a more liberal life will be smothered. some are voting for first time in their lives. others say while they had cast ballot, this is their first truly free vote. do you feel you're voting for first time? >> yes, i feel this is the first time before i don't care for voting but now i care. >> they care. they are invested in the outcome. for some it seemed casting a ballot this day was more than a civic duty. it was a moral mission. >> it is hardly a surprise that

the women of egypt turned out in force to cast their ballots on the first day of elections. in the words of many, they have felt o pressed for decades and what they want to see more than anything else is a clear separation of church and state in a new egypt. jim clancy, cnn, cairo. we want to go beyond the headlines, we've seen how difficult it is for a nation to re-establish itself after the fall of a dictator or election. how is egypt going to get its footing? joining us, the director of the middle east center at the london school of economics and author of the book "the rise and fall of al qaeda." thank you for being with us. you see what's going on in egypt with the election so far. what do you make of how it's going on the ground? >> i think so far so good. i mean basic by the voting, we're talking 50 and 80% of egyptians are voting.

this is really a historic moment. since 1952, when the military took over from the old regime, egyptians really have not had the chance to freely cast a ballot and elect their representatives. and that's why this is a moment of hope. this is really a moment of empowerment. and that's why many egyptians are trying to really -- it's a moment of self-determination, even though many egyptians are not celebrating the moment in the same way that the tunisians did a few weeks ago. >> help us understand this because they are very optimistic about this. do the votes count if the military stays in power? how do they manage to negotiate who's actually in charge here? >> well, i think this is a very important point because the reason why egyptians are not celebrating this particular moment of hope because there's a great deal of mistrust between egyptians and ruling generals. elections have taken place

overshadowed by huge dark cloud, the last wave of unrest against the military generals. in fact, the military has just made it very clear that the voting, the large number of egyptians turning to vote is a boost for the military. one general said today that basically the new parliament, the military will not see power to the new parliament and this tells you about the complex relationship between the civilian leadership that will emerge out of this parliament and the military. for viewers, the basic mandate of this parliament is to basically select a committee to draft a new constitution. this is the basic mandate in the new parliament because there will be presidential elections by the summer of 2012. >> and the u.s. government here has counted on egypt's military for three deck aades to maintai the status quo, beating back the

terrorist elements in egypt, how does the united states ensure its own interests are protected with a new egyptian government and not with the backing of the military its counted on? >> another great question. since 1979 when egypt signed the camp david peace treaty ending the state of war, the united states has been providing around $2 billion of aid to egypt, most of it goes to the military. i think if there is one particular lesson that the united states really must learn what has happened in the last ten months in the arab world, it must not rely on dictators and aut autocrats. after the awakening and uprisings we have seen, the united states must learn to vest its interest with the social classes and majority of the people, aspirations of young men and women in egypt, the united states must learn to deal with

egyptians, not with just aut autocrats. we have what we have seen in the past ten months, this is not about the external world or united states, this is really about the internal torment of dictators that led our society, including egyptian society since the last 40 or 50 years. >> thank you so much. we appreciate your perspective. we are tracking two developing stories for you at this time. you're taking a look at live pictures here, the sentencing of michael jackson's doctor, dr. conrad murray, they are in the process of determining whether or not he'll get four years in prison or just probation, stay at home, community service type of thing. both sides weighing and making their points and statements to the judge. the judge will make that determination. conrad murray convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of michael jackson. we also have new developments now in the herman

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this is the sentencing phase for dr. conrad murray. let's listen in to what the judge is saying. >> cause the death of michael jackson, it's important to emphasize the standard of criminal negligence found by this jury beyond a reasonable doubt. because some may feel this was a medical malpractice case, it wasn't. it was and is a criminal homicide case. and this jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant with criminal negligence caused the death of michael jackson.

and criminal negligence is defined as follows. criminal negligence involves more than ordinary carelessness, inattention or mistake in judgment. a person acts or fails to perform a legal duty with criminal negligence when one, he or she acts or fails to perform a legal duty in a reckless way that creates a high risk of death or great body injury and, two, a reasonable person would have known that acting or failing to perform a legal duty in that way, would create such a risk. a person acts with criminal

negligence when the way he or she acts is so different from the way an ordinarily careful person would act in the same situation, that his or her act amounts to disregard for human life or indifference to the consequences of that act. it's important to remember the focus on those terms and not to treat them cavalierly as some might, by saying, oh, well, it just happened, and oh, well, if it weren't for dr. murray, someone else may have been involved. i cat gorically disassociate myself from those types of statements. this is not a question about

what might have happened or what if someone else had been involved if not for dr. murray. that is an insult to the medical profession. the fact is that michael jackson died because of the actions of and the failures to perform legal duties on the part of dr. murray. not some other medical doctor and also not exclusively because of michael jackson. i accept mr. chernoff's invitation to read the whole book and i have. i've been impressed by the submissions from family and friends and associates of dr. murray. it is a book of dr. murray's

life. but i've also read of book of michael jackson's life. not isolated chapters from either. regrettably, as far as dr. murray is concerned, the most significant chapter as it relates to this case is the chapter involving the treatment or lack of treatment of michael jackson. and michael jackson died not because of an isolated one off occurrence or incident. he died because of a totality of circumstances which are directly attributable to dr. murray, not some mistake or some accident in the early morning hours of june 25th, 2009, but because of a

series of decisions that dr. murray made which jeopardized his patient, which violated his obligations to his patient and the essence of his hypocritie oath. those overcome the treatment of other patients and good deeds he may have done before that time. dr. murray created a set of circumstances and became involved in a cycle of horrible medicine. the practice of propofol for medicine madness which violated his sworn obligation for money.

fame, prestige and whatever else may have occurred. so i don't look to one isolated incident in terms of the misdeeds of dr. murray or the deeds of dr. murray. but in so far as this case is concerned, dr. murray engaged in a recurring continuous pattern of deceit, of lies, and regrettably, that pattern was to assist dr. murray. it is almost inconceivable that dr. murray would have persisted in this pattern over such an extensive period of time. the lies, the deceit began and

continued as we heard for six weeks worth of testimony, to build up an absolutely as tounding set of circumstances. the lies from the inception of his medical relationship at the holmeby hills residents as far as ordering propofol in staggering qualities, unprecedented quantities. the lies to the pharmacy and to the pharmacist. the sophisticated intentional deception in that regard. the lies and repeated deception to those associated with mr. jackson, whether it be members of the staff and also members of

the production team, aeg, and mr. jackson's personal and professional associates. the continuing series of lies to michael jackson's security and staff personnel at a critical point in time. the unconscionable lies to health care providers, life savers, paramedics and medical personnel at ucla, which were not designed to help his patient, quite the contrary, which were designed to deceive and give dr. murray a way out. the efforts on the part of dr. murray to subvert the process by attempting to destroy evidence, subsequent efforts to cover up by distortions and lies to law

enforcement. if one looks to the crime of involuntary manslaughter in a vacuum, one can say, this may be something that went terribly wrong and it's tragic. but it's so critically important not to have a superficial gut reaction to what happened in this case, but to look at the totality of circumstances in terms of the longstanding failure of character on the part of dr. murray to serve his patient. and when one does that, one can't help but be offended by the circumstances in this case.

of everything i heard and saw during the course of the trial, with one aspect of the evidence stands out the most and that is sertishs recording of michael jackson by his doctor. and i've repeatedly asked myself, why did this happen? and for what reason? and i can speculate and surmise that there might have been some jus fibl reason or benefit to michael jackson. that would be an tirely unreasonable conclusion. that tape recording was dr. murray's insurance policy.

it was designed to record his patient serp tishsly at that patient's most vulnerable point. i can't even imagine that happening to any of us because of the horrific violation of trust. and i can't help but wonder that if there had been some conflict between michael jackson and dr. murray, at a later point in time in their relationship, what value would be placed on that tape recording if the choice were to release that tape recording to a media organization to be used against michael jackson. and regrettably, that failure of character was compounded by

later actions on the part of dr. murray. each of which amounted to a betrayal of trust and confidence and a clear violation of the dr./patient relationship. and an undermining of the phenomenal role and responsibility that health care personnel, doctors, nurses, paramedics, health care aids, perform in our society. we revere medical doctors and we should. because they work diligently and they serve and they make sacrifices to keep us well. and unquestionably dr. murray did that. but at some point, things went terribly wrong for dr. murray and when he had an opportunity, he didn't get out. he stayed in and he got deeper

and deeper in trouble and he betrayed the very oats and tenants of his medical profession. i do look to the totality of circumstances. and when i looked at the totality of circumstances and look to the whole book, the book of dr. murray's life, i also like to the chapter that dist b disturbs me and that's the chapter to which i've referred. i can't say that my opinion changed after i became aware of the production involving dr. murray after the jury verdict in this case. when dr. murray says i don't feel guilty, that's what he says, mr. chernoff acknowledges candidly that there's fault here

but you're not hearing from from dr. murray. you didn't hear it at the time that dr. murray interacted with the security staff and the staff at the holmby hills property or when he encountered members of the paramedics squad, you didn't hear it when dr. murray encountered dr. coopers and nu win who were on a life saving mission or when dr. murray talked to the detectives at lapd and certainly didn't hear it during this faux documentary, faux realty production where in dr. murray says i don't feel guilty. i wasn't reckless and i didn't tell him about propofol because they never asked the question. and it wasn't important.

and where dr. murray at that point says he feels be trayed and entrapped by michael jackson. yipes. talk about blaming the victim. not only isn't there any remorse, there's umbridge and outrage on the part of dr. murray against the deseedant without any, any indication of the slightest involvement in this case. to hear dr. murray say it, dr. murray was just a bystander who came upon a scene and put in this situation because of everybody else's actions other than himself. whether it be members of the family, whether it be members of aeg. whether it be mr. jackson or anybody else, those are factors which cause me tremendous concern.

because the essence of probation is a recognition that someone may have done something wrong, some responsibility, some remorse. why give probation to someone who is offended by the whole idea that that person is even before the court? you can't have probation when there isn't an acknowledgement of rehabilitation and responsibility. and regrettably dr. murray doesn't have any of them. dr. murray certainly is statutory eligible for probation. i looked val yantly for efforts to satisfy myself that while dr. murray was legally eligible for

probation, he was suitable for probation. and i really didn't become convinced i could find any. dr. murray is eligible for probation. the court declines to grant probation in this case for a host of reasons. and in making that decision, i acknowledge that dr. murray has throughout his 58 years provided services to the community and has helped many individuals. but i also acknowledge that he unquestionably violated the trust and confidence of his patient, mr. jackson, on a repeated nightly basis. michael jackson as a patient was vulnerable because dr. murray put mr. jackson in a position where dr. murray was responsible

for the very life of mr. jackson. dr. murray engaged in a sophisticated scheme to obtain propofol through insidious means, by lying to the pharmacist, to concoct a story by not keeping records and by allowing his personal life to interfere with his professional responsibilities. at the very time that people are depending upon dr. murray to be candid with them regarding mr. jackson's medical condition, dr. murray is lying, he's lying to the aeg people and lying to mr. ortega, he's lying to the insurance carrier. and anybody else he can and he's engaged in personal matters

while he should be paying attention to his patient. anybody who takes an objective view has to come to a conclusion that dr. murray abandoned his patient. this is not a simple one-off occurrence. this is an unacceptable, egregious series of departures from the appropriate standard of care, which undermine the physician/patient relationship and which are a disgrace to the medical profession. an honorable profession, which bears the blot, the scourge of what happened here. so again, we're not talking about a single isolated mistake. what we're talking about is a gross continuing deviation.

so for those factors, the court makes a determination that dr. murray is not a suitable candidate for a grant of probation. the request for probation under the rules of court is denied. the question then becomes what is the appropriate period of incarceration. the court has many options. including hybrid type sentences as authorized by the realignment act of 2011 and straight sentencing. this court does not have the legal authority to actually send and imprison dr. murray in state prison. i do not have that legal authority and i certainly am going to follow the law in that

regard. the legislature of this state signed a realignment act that declares certain owe fences while felonies not to be served in state prison and involuntary manslaughter is one of those. i do not have that legal authority. i must determine the appropriate sentence and in making that determination, the court is guided by a triad of possible sentences the court can impose, two, three or four years. the court no longer has to weigh what are called aggravated circumstances or factors versus mitigating factors or circumstances but has to give a statement of reasons. the court has determined that the appropriate term is the high term of four years imprisonment. i do so because once again, i

find that dr. murray abandoned his patient who was trusting him. his patient was vulnerable under those circumstances, having been administered potentially dangerous drugs by his medical provider, dr. murray's course of conduct extended over a period of time. dr. murray repeatedly lied, engaged in deceitful misconduct and endeavored to cover up his transgressions. he violated the trust of the medical community of his colleagues, and of his patient. and he has absolutely no sense of remorse, absolutely no sense of fault and is and remains dangerous. it's easy to say, oh, well, dr.

murray is a medical doctor, a smart sophisticated man. he does not have a criminal history. he may not be licensed to practice medicine in the future although that has nothing to do with me, i have no authority over that. the fact remains, dr. murray is offended by that patient dying. and i don't have any idea what will prompt dr. murray to do or not do something in the future that may be dangerous to a patient. if he does practice medicine in the united states or even elsewhere, i think dr. murray is so reckless based upon the law and the definition of criminal negligence that i read, and everything that i heard and saw in this case, and dr. murray's

subsequent conducts -- conduct that i believe he's a danger to the community. i've taken into account all of the factors. i've stated my reasons. and those reasons, the nature and character of the offense distinguish this charge of involuntary manslaughter in this case and this conviction of involuntary manslaughter in this case from other cases involving involuntary manslaughter. there's a fundamental aspect of the criminal justice system which is involved here. and that is the fundamental aspect of punishment. it should be made very clear that experimental medicine is not going to be tolerated. and mr. jackson was an

experiment. the fact that he participated in it, does not excuse or lessen the blame of dr. murray who simply could have walked away and said no as countless others did. dr. murray was intrigued by the prospect and he engaged in this money for medicine madness that is simply not going to be tolerated by me. so as -- >> you're listening to judge michael pastor delivering the sentence here saying that this was -- that the doctor, dr. conrad murray, had no remorse here. he called this pattern of deceit and lies that was a cycle of horrible medicine, medicine madness. i want to go to richard herman because he did make the point here, he does not have the

authority despite the fact that he says four years in prison would be the law of the land under california law, that was amended recently, this year, he doesn't have the authority to actually send him to prison for four years. what actually happens under california law to conrad murray now? >> suzanne, under california law, the four years that he just sentenced the doctor to is reduced immediately to two years in county prison. those two years in county prison now are subject to the bureau of prisons or the exact name for that group in california, federally it's bureau of prisons. under their guidelines and this has nothing to do with the judge, under those guidelines suzanne, because dr. murray has no criminal history and because the crime that he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter is listed and ee num rated as one

of the nonviolent crimes by the state of california, he is entitled to immediate home confinement due to prison overcrowding. and that's going to be a determination made by the county prison officials. >> i want to bring in quickly sandra who is there at the courthouse. any reaction so far? are you seeing? are people cheering? are they upset? what is going on where you are? >> reporter: suzanne, there were a few cheers outside the courthouse. there were a couple of fans gathered but a large media presence. everyone wanting to know the sentencing for dr. conrad murray. but you heard it, the judge imposing the maximum sentence, four years in prison as you mentioned saying that he practiced and engaged in a pattern of lies and deceit, creating a sophisticated scene obtaining propofol and using it, medical madness, calling this a longstanding failure of character between patient and doctor.

what really did it according to judge michael pastor is this recording, the creepy audio recording we heard throughout the trial of michael jackson clearly drugged upd and conrad murray not giving a reason why he recorded that recording on his iphone. and all the judge could say was okay, look that was his insurance policy so clearly the judge very upset over that. >> thank you, sandra. we want to bring in randi kay. he talked about how he was offended that there was no remorse here coming from conrad murray. you spent many days in that courtroom watching his demeanor. what did you make of that? >> it's hard to say, of course, how he felt truly about michael jacks jackson. a lot of people say, he was making $150,000 a month and maybe he wasn't paying as much attention to the patient as he could have. many times conrad murray had