when he was a child. i think he was a child, and he sang with the same talent and soul and intensity of an aretha franklin or james brown or any great vocalist. >> he was extraordinary. lenny, you're an extraordinary talent. it's been a great pleasure meeting you. i enjoyed it. >> all right, man. >> thank you very much. that's all for us tonight. second hour. run for lives. >> one minute a luxury vacation. in an instant a nightmare. a cruise ship runs aground. a whole ripped in its hull. how did they survive? how old you? in moments the survivors share their horror stories.

free at last. >> do you think he should have been let out? >> you need to do time. >> almost 200 criminals, some convicted murderers, pardoned by mississippi's outgoing governor. the public in and out now in fer safety and even their lives. that and more right here right now on cnn. good evening. i'm don lemon. thank you for joining us. as we go on the air tonight, more than 4,000 people are no doubt celebrating life like they never had before. they escaped death by drowning if a doomed gigantic cruise sthship that became their floating coffin when it ran aground off the coast of italy. a short while ago we learned rescuers pulled two more survivors ouft the boat more than 24 hours after the ship hit rocks. at this moment the ship is capsized with 160-foot long gash right in its hull. it is that damage that forced passengers to scramble for the

lifeboats. at last count three people are dead and another 20 were injured. investigators say as many as 50 people could still be unaccounted for. an estimated 126 americans were on the cruise, but none of them was hurt. the italian captain is under arrest. he could be charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship. we've been talking with some of the americans who had to flee the cruise. for some the ship turned into a dangerous obstacle course. others got out quickly but had to leave everything behind. >> we thought it was part of the act in a way, because all of a sudden the boat lifted and the curtains were just totally sideways. >> the people manning these

boats were just cooks and shopkeepers in the boat. they weren't the sailors. it wasn't the captain or the officers. never heard from any of those guys. never heard their invoices or saw any of them. they never helped us evacuate. we were totally abandoned. when we got to shore, we were never told where to go. we were never told to gather anywhere. we -- people curled up in churches and in up shops, and then in the morning boats came, and we were just told to get on the boats but we were given no reason why. we weren't told where we were going or what the next plan was. we were never told who was in charge or what was going to happen to us. we didn't know who was alive. we didn't know where we were going. >> the boat was so steep we couldn't get us down. they brought us to the downside of the ship close to the water.

they had a life raft that they blew up, but it got caught in a drain. the both started moving very quickly. there were 200 people there, and the life raft exploded because of what was on top of the life raft. at that time the water was two meters from us so we jumped in and swam to shore. it was about 300 feet. so there were 200 people that swam to shore and climbed up onto the rocks. >> everyone was rushing up to get to the lifeboats, and people were pushing and shoving. there was no order. there was no lines. there was no system in place. there was no one in charge. it was every crew member who walked past would shout instructions, but the instructions contradicted each other. at one point we were ordered to go back to our bunks and wait for the orders, but when we went to the stairs to go to our bunks, we were ordered not to go back to our bunks and get back out on the boats. the orders were contradictory,

and children were shouting and panicking. people -- since the boat had turned up on its side, people were slides on the slippery decks. they were landing in broken glass from wineglasses in the cafeteria. >> we were helping the staff more than they were helping us. they were in control. they were very few people that knew what was going on in our area. he was shouting don't jump. the boat was turning so fast. everybody jumped and swam to shore. it turned so fast. >> it was the marx brothers watching these guys figure out how to work the boat. they couldn't coordinate, they're shouting at each other. one would suddenly drop one end of the boat, and everyone would scream. then they'd reel that side of the boat back up and try to get it even. i heard that there were other boats that twisted and turned so

that the passengers were falling down into the ceiling parts of that boat. it was -- i felt like the disaster itself, you know, hitting the reef, the capsizing of the boat was manageable. i felt like the crew was going to kill us. >> you know that saying, the captain always goes down with the ship. apparently not this time. journalist barbie nadal tells us what kind of trouble the captain of the concordia is in. barbie. >> the captain of the cruise ship that ran aground here on the coast of tuscany has been stopped by the italian authorities and being investigated for manslaughter and for abandoning ship. these are two very serious offenses in maritime law. a number of passengers today that we spoke to will not be surprised by the fact that this particular captain of this cruise ship is culpable in some manner. there were numerous, numerous complaints about the way the

evacuation was conducted, about the lack of information on this cruise ship for these people. they basically self-evacuated in a number of ways, because the ship was listing and they still hadn't called people to their muster stations, which is where you go when a ship is in trouble and where you find your lifeboat. the people took it upon themselves on to help each other and to find a way off the ship. the divers who are looking under the water level of the ship off the coast of gelia, about 18 miles from where i stand right now, have stopped their search for tonight. they have not found any more bodies, other than the three dead who were recovered from the water earlier this morning. their investigation will continue again tomorrow morning. they have a huge area of the ship underwater that they need to really take a look at there. the divers have only finished a fraction of the search of that area. they're looking for bodies at this point. there are still 51 people unaccounted for, whether that's an administrative error in terms

of the lists of the passengers or whether those are actual fatalities from this accident, we're yet on to find out. >> barbie, thank you so much. here's why it's so tough to stop a cruise up ship of this size. it's 950 feet long, and it can move as fast as 26 miles per hour. when it was christened in 2006, it was believed to be the biggest cruise ship in all of italy. it's owned by a company called kosta cruises whose parent company is carnival cruise lines. kosta had a bad 2010. one cruise ship slam sbud a cargo ship in china injuring three people. another ship smashed into a dock in egypt killing three crew members. check out cnn.com for more stories from passengers and plus more incredible pictures of the ship that once sailed the seas but is now on its side partially underwater.

former mississippi governor haley barbour created an outroar in the last week. coming up, he's defending his decision to pardon several convicted murderers. ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays]

çtooowill be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. former mississippi governor haley barbour says he's at peace with his decision to pardon several convicted murderers, but it's hard to find anyone that agrees with him. cnn's martin savidge has more tonight from jackson. >> reporter: nearly a week after he pardoned so many in this state, there is still a lot of anger. nobody is more upset than the families of the victims. when ronald bonds wants to see his sister, jennifer, this is the only way. a photo album. >> that's jennifer, yeah.

>> jennifer mcrae was murdered in 2001 by a man ronald knew, her husband. >> he they lived together. good friends. we were good friends. >> anthony mcrae shot his wife in the back in front of a room full of witnesses in this after hours spot on the outskirts of town. >> he would have stood right here, and his attorney right here. >> mcrae admitted the killing in court, and judge michael smith sentenced him to life in prison. last sunday mississippi governor haley barbour set him free after less than ten years? >> do you think he should have been let out? >> you need to do time. he took somebody's life. >> as a prisoner mcrae worked at the governor's mansion and the governor got to know and trusted him. this week barbour pardoned him, which means in the eyes of the law the murder never up happened. >> you're going to give a

murderer, somebody that shot another female person that they say they love and shot them in the back, you know what i'm saying? you wipe his slate clean? >> for bonds there is no fresh start. he misses jennifer every day, especially as he raises her now 18-year-old son also named anthony mcrae. as the son of a man convicted of murdering your mom, what do you think of all this? >> i just -- when i think about it, i just have to forgive him, that the fact that he did it and she's gone. i got to move on in life. >> that's where this story might have ended, if it weren't for what happened next. so we were actually led to the street here. the area where anthony mcrae used to live. as we drove by another person in the neighborhood pointed out

that anthony mcrae is inside the house. we're going to go look. hello. i knocked on the door. mcrae came out, and i couldn't believe it. you were the man who was convicted of killing jennifer mcrae? >> yes, sir. >> the man who has been pardoned by governor barbour? >> yes, sir. >> he told me what it was like to be free? >> i've been saved, i've been baptized and reading the bible for 12 1/2 years. so it's just a true blessing. i didn't do this. god did this. god blessed him. they do this for us. >> do you think people should be angry at governor barbour? >> no, sir. no, sir. he treated us like we're his children. >> judge smith is angry at former governor barbour. he said it's wrong to overturn his ruling when the murder was so blatant. >> there is no question.

they have witnesses like evidently like they had in the mccray case, i don't think that the governor should have authority to pardon a defendant. >> do you think because of the public anger you may have to go back? >> there's a great possibility. >> judge smith hopes he's right not just in his case but the other three murderers barbour freed as well saying the pardons have only brought back pain. >> now they're back where they started from. >> the families, you mean? >> the families and the victims. >> back in what sense? >> back in the grief and the misery that the murderers caused. >> if you could talk to governor barbour, what would you ask him? >> did you think about it, you know what i'm saying? did you think about how many people it would affect. >> haley barbour continues to defend the pardons, although he

declined to talk to cnn. he said the pardons were the right thing to do. there are many in this state that would disagree. martin savidge, cnn, jackson, mississippi. here are your headlines right now. political boost for rick santorum as he campaigns across south carolina. a group of high profile christian conservatives are endorsing santorum for president. they met and aim to a consensus at a texas ranch. he was the preferred candidate after three rounds of voting. a california man that's in custody, and police say he fits a description of a serial killer who has been preying on the homeless. witnesses led police to the suspect after a man was killed last night. he hasn't yet been linked to the three other killings of homeless men in the los angeles area last month. a man suspected in a series of rear-end slashing last year in virginia is in custody in

pe peru. they issued a warrant charging him with malicious wounding. he was captured friday in lima. all of the victims were women in thirteens and early 20s. in each attack the victim was distracted before being cut on the backside. every parent wants their child to achieve their goals. coming up, meet a cnn hero whose goal is changing the world, and he's barely 18 years old. agents, what did we learn here today? that lint balls are extremely flammable! well, yeah. and that 15,000 dryer fires happen every year! that's why it's important to regularly clean and inspect your vents! correct. where did you get that?! i built it. [ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪

millions of young people say they want to change the world. tonight cnn heroes recognizes someone who did. his name is justin churchman. he's just 18 years old, but he's

already changing lives in juarez, mexico. how he's doing it? one house at a time. >> to give someone a home is from your heart and it's to their heart. you literally change their life forever. my name's justin churchman. i work with an organization that builds houses in juarez, mexico. after i built my first house, i just fell in love with it. it changed my heart, and it changed the way i saw the world. it's an addiction. >> we organized a theme, and at 13 years old led a group of americans across the border. he built a home and handed the keys of that home to that family in need. >> this is our first home that we built. we met this wonderful lady, and i've just fallen in love with it. >> we had a goal pretty early on that he wanted to build 18

houses by the time he turned 18. >> my parents got behind me and supported me, and on my 18th birthday i completed my 18th house. >> he's absolutely a young wonder. he's changing the world one house at a time. >> do you know someone making a big difference in the lives of others? go to cnnheroes.com and nominate the 2012 cnn hero today. harry potter fans will think this next guy looks very familiar. no, it's up not harry's pet hedwig, but these snowy owls look like they're popping up in the heart of the u.s. all over. what's that all about? we dig deeper next in our saturday night mysteries with jacqui jeras. not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent

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you'll get the award-winning service people are talking about. it's financial control - well, like you haven't had before. wow. ( bike bell) unbelievable. that's scary. i love it. we got her music. time for "saturday night mysteries" with jacqui jeras. we start with harary potter owl eruption. >> the snowy owl. normally they're up in the tundra up towards the arctic circle. this is an interruption or basically a huge surgery or a sudden burst in the natural pom lags and they're showing up in places you normally wouldn't say. really far south, and they've been spotted in canada, oregon,

washington, new york, kansas, oklahoma. >> really? >> really, that far south. we know why they're there for the most part. they're looking for food, but we don't know how long they're going to stick around or why there's so many of them. cnn meteorologist cara mcginnis is also a wildlife photographer. she took amazing photo and just got back from a frip from the pacific northwest. here's what she has to say about it. >> the snowy owls love lemmings, and they're like the main course and dessert. they live off of this in the arctic. they're like little hamsters that look better than that. there was a great lemming explosion, the owls are eating, they're fat, they're happy. they are reproducing. there are a lot of eggs, so there are a lot of young. the young are competing for food with the adults and that's why we have steen this eruption year. they're leaving this arctic region and coming and foraging

out to other areas, and this particular area was boundary bay, canada just across the border. so you just got back from this trip. how exciting was that for you to go and see so many owls? you are not going to see this again, and maybe never again in these kinds of numbers for five or six years. that's about how cyclical this becomes? >> it's so cool to look at. >> she's a great photographer. i love them. >> we have another one. the marlboro man. sna the original marlboro man? >> it's not the same kind of tobacco. we have the first physical evidence of tobacco use from the mayans and it wasn't the kind we're talking about. we're talking about a powdered substance here, but basically there are a bunch of these vessels, kind of clay pots with hieroglyphics on the outside of them. traces of nicotine have been confirmed on the inside of them.

what's mysterious and interesting is that the images and the depictions of the high glip if i cans on the outside haven't matched the chemical tests but that one in particular, the translation is the home of tobacco. that's the one that they actually found the in this case feign in it. they hope this will help them discover and learn a little bit more about hieroglyphics. >> you have cool stuff in saturday night mysteries with jacqui jeras. that was great stuff. thank you, jacqui. we'll have next week. up next on cnn, we have a expert report for you. a journalist goes undercover inside a syrian city that's ail battle zone between rebels and government forces. that begins in two and a half minutes. i'm don lemon in atlanta. thank you for joining us. i'll see you in a bit.

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good evening. i'm don lemon. right new a cnn special program. a journalist recently we understand undercover for six harrows days in homs, syria. it's a city that's a battle zone between rebel and government forces. the stories are of living, of fighting and of dying. a cnn special presentation, "homs: city under siege" begins right now.

>> this is the ugly, cold reality of syria's revolution. a daily exchange of sniper fire, a desperate run for cover. the mundane routines that somehow survive the violence. this program will take you to the heart of the uprising. to the shattered city of homs, a traditional bastian of opposition for the as soldier family. we explore the mosaic of hardship, resistance and death, which has splintered this country and its people. this is the story of a journalist who dared to go undercover in homs on the front line of syria's uprising. he must remain anonymous for his own safety. the journalist whose voice up hear visited a neighborhood in the north of the city called haldire under constant attack from assad's army.

>> the activist brought me to this building. it took me a while to appreciate what was happening. on to understand where the snipers of the regime are and to see where i have to hide and where it's better to run. through this hall, the snipers of the army have been trying for a couple of hours to shoot the snipers at the other part of the building a couple of hundred meters away. i couldn't stay the entire battle, because the activist asked me to leave in order to be safe. i figured out later they did kill the sniper of the assad army.

>> translator: we are surrounded from all directions by snipers and security services. every time there's a demonstration, they come and shoot at us, cut the power and water supplies. there's no coverage, no diesel. we cover on our faces because if we expose ourselves, they will arrest our families, abduct the girls, and there will be an awful lot of suffering. >> i came to this junction and realized someone wanted to cross the street with a huge bag of cigarettes. i could hear the snipers shooting. he wasn't able to cross the street.

>> translator: there is a main road which we cannot cross because of the snipers. anyone crosses it, women, children, men, elderly, they will not be spared. yesterday by car we wouldn't dare cross it. now i'm stuck here. i can't cross over to go home. there are no places to sleep. where do i sleep? in order to eat and drink, we have to go out in the streets. will we be imprisoned in our home with no electricity, water or food? >> these neighborhoods are totally dependent on how much they can smuggle inside the city.

there have been days that people have been telling me where they did not have bread, so every time they're able to have a normal day where the bakery is running well, they would go there and buy as much as possible. >> translator: there's a power cut. no water. we can't use the telephone. there's also a shortage of food. and to buy bread you may have to cure up for three hours. >> one of the biggest problems right now is winter. it's getting very cold especially in homs. every night the temperatures are falling below freezing, and the people aren't able to heat their houses because there is no oil.

so they started to cut off the trees in order to have firewood to eat and get a little bit warmer. >> translator: this is for heating. we have no gas, no electricity, and no diesel. the telephones are disconnected. so what can we do? we have to have wood for the heating. >> translator: these are your reforms assad sent. >> translator: we don't bashar. we don't want him. we're not eating. we're not drinking. there's no hope for our kids.

we don't have any diesel. we have no electricity. the children have no hope. we hardly have any bread to feed our children. >> it was very difficult to understand how people can survive here, but why not everybody leaving. i realized that not everybody has a safe haven, not everyone knows somebody in the countryside to go with their entire family to be safer. >> translator: the army is killing us. they keep kidnapping people and killing them. wherever you go snipers are planted there. i know some people, and i'm

going to them. they gave us a house to stay in. >> my days have been the most frightening days for me in the entire trip. >> for all the hardship, they remain defiant. for the people of homs it's too late to stop. resistance is their only path now. ve more energy than me? you're, like, eight!" [ male announcer ] for every 2 pounds you lose through diet and exercise alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. simple. effective. advantage: mom. let's fight fat with alli ♪

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days into the heart of the revolution and the uprising in the city of homs. at the beginning of my trip, i had this clear show of the strength of the syrian army. a convoy of 45 tanks being transferred by trucks towards the city. >> the journalist we're following traveled a few kilometers to the neighborhood of baba amr one of the first areas to be liberated by the free syria army. >> when i first went into baba amr i saw two bodies laying on the street. the activists told us that the

secret service kidnapped two guys and tortured them and killed them and throwed them on the street. apparently this was the way to frighten the neighborhood. people would not be able to get close to them in order to pick them up to bring them to cemetery because they would get shot. they drove slowly, and i i could see the destruction on the wa s walls. you could see the garbage piling up, and there's the siege of the neighborhoods. 50,000 people are living in this area, secured by the free syria army. >> translator: we are here in order to protect this area. assad army is in this area. and it's about 25 to 30 meters away with tanks and all their equipment. we protect this street where they kill everybody.

both young and old. >> i asked the activists who bring me to the streets where the snipers are aiming at basically everything moving. >> in the halls of residents athe university there are snipe erdz and there are other snipers in the houses in the top of the towers. there were about 50 snipers. they shoot at civilians, at homes, in the street, women, children. they don't spare anybody. even cars passing by. every day we have about four deaths and casualties. >> the activists have been telling me don't run. don't make any move which is

suspicious. just keep on walking. i could literally feel the sniper aiming on my head, and it was up to him if he was going to pull the trigger or not. i had to cross the same roads where others have been called a couple of hours before. >> after the prayers people started to go straight to the demonstration.

i see these kids, entire families coming to the demonstration singing songs against the regime. i didn't see any kind of fear. it was almost like a party. this was the clearest moment of liberty i've seen. people are able to sing songs they have never been able to sing before. we went to this rooftop to film people dancing in the demonstration, and then suddenly i realized that they've been chanting and cheering a guy standing there at the other roof up top in front of the street. it turns out to be not only one of the first officers defecting from the syrian army, it is the nephew of the foreign defense minister of regime.

>> translator: the free army is protecting the people and demonstrators as well as confronting the thug gangster and security services. >> everybody was like the entire neighborhood had been praying for him and cheering for him and his soldiers. >> the army's role is to protect the people and civilians in accordance with our oaths. but the orders we were receiving were in violation of that. as a result of the actions and violations of the members of the security services and the army, he defected on the 2nd of june, 2011. >> the defected soldier has been telling me although we don't have a lot of weapons, our biggest weapon is our motivation.

>> translator: we are in contact with soldiers who are in the army. they tell us a no-fly zone is essential to prevent them from getting bombed if they defect. >> at night they search everyone entering and leaving the area to stop government death squads from getting in. >> translator: the street you see over there is controlled by the secret service. they're known to kidnap or women and children. we try to prevent this. when strangers come here we stop and search them. >> the revolution started to create legends and heroes, and a lot of those heroes are singles.

>> this is mohammed. he's a poet. he's a singer of the demonstration. this night on the demonstration i could see women examine children coming out to the street to express their opposition against the regime. >> so the demonstrations are now a daily part of their lives. >> translator: the longer the revolution lasts, more energetic we become. i'm 42 years old and i feel like i'm 20. the longer it continues, the more active we become. >> god is with us, and we rely

on him to get rid of the regime. we want freedom for our children. we're fighting for god, our children, and lastly for ourselves. >> while these spirited demonstrations are going on, elsewhere in the city the killings continue. they're fearing, hoping, praying help will come soon. ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays]

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we've already seen the hardship and resistance on the streets of homs in the neighborhoods of haladia and baba amr but jusd outside the city is the village where assad's troops aren't deployed in great numbers but they can still strike with deadly force. >> i asked the activists to take me where the injured people would be get treated by doctors that are risking their lives. when we got to the makeshift hospital i realized it was

normal with an emergency room and intensive care. they had a pharmacy and laboratory. >> this patient who was injured by multiple sharp nell all over his body resulting from a nail bomb. he also received a more severe and dangerous injury which broke his scapula and caused a hemorrhage. activists told me that anyone who is injured in this neighborhood are not able to go to a public hospital, because those hospitals are infiltrated by agents of the regime. and they would get either kidnapped or even killed inside the clinics.

>> translator: in the fridges we keep what can help us provide aid for those poor, injured people. these are tetanus injections that we use, and these are some of the blood banks we use in transfusions for the wounded and injured. these are different types we use in addition to other drugs that must be kept refrigerated as well as our food and drink. >> translator: long live syria, and down with bashar assad. >> translator: if we do not survive the fighting, and if weren't destined to survive it through martyrdom, arrest, for tune or harassment, our children

will win and pay tribute to us. >> a family member of an activist got killed, and we decided to go to his funeral. >> translator: he was driving his car together with his friends. he was stopped at a checkpoint. their identities were checked. they searched them. they waited for them to walk away, and then they killed them. >> outside the entire village was waiting for the family coming out with the coffin. >> translator: i thought we would hold anyone accountable who is on pressing us, all of them! we know the officers giving the orders, we know all of them. >> this is funeral procession became more and more demonstration where they expressed their outrage against

the regime. >> among all these mourners was ma malek's distraught little brother. >> in many other urban neighborhoods, this kind of large funeral procession are not possible. activists feel it's part of their sad regime's policy to deny dignity to the dead and their family members. >> translator: they shot her near the round-about. her brother was two streets away. about half an hour later he together with the neighbors

started to cross over the roofs of the houses until they managed to get her and recover her body. about half an hour later any brought her here to my home, because right at that spot we couldn't reach her. we couldn't have aa funeral or bury her. we still cannot bury her. >> the troops would immediately shoot on this funeral procession. that's judge just four people are going with the cousin to the cemetery. >> he went to buy bread this morning. and he was killed by a sniper from the assad thugs. >> he was asking for freedom. nothing more.

he was just asking for freedom. >> each fresh grave tells the story of another family plunged into grief. the u.n. estimates 5,000 have died in the uprising so far. how many more families will be berest in syria's growing cemeteries, mourning the innocent victims of the assad regime. >> that was a cnn special presentation, "homs: city under siege." i'm don lemon. good night. cut! [ monica ] i thought we'd be on location for 3 days -- it's been 3 weeks. so i had to pick up some more things. good thing i've got the citi simplicity card. i don't get hit with a fee if i'm late with a payment... which is good because on this job, no! bigger! [ monica ] i may not be home for a while. [ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries.