it's a pleasure. thank you so much. that's going to wrap things up. but let's keep the conversation going on at twitter. time now to get you back into the cnn "newsroom" with don lemon. you are in the cnn "newsroom." i'm jim sciutto in for don lemon. a commercial airliner is still missing more than 24 hours after losing all contact with the ground. a search is under way for the boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew on board, operated by malaysia airlines. it took off yesterday from kuala lumpur going to beijing but didn't make it. no wreckage has turned up, but one clue is giving researchers a bad feeling about this flight.

several miles of oil slicks have been spotted on the gulf of thailand on the general flight path that jet was on before it disappeared. and something unusual has officials concerned. two people whose names were on the passenger manifest were not on the plane at all. they say their passports were stolen months or years ago. that means two people were on the plane with passports not issued to them. while we wait for word from the airline, we want to talk about this stolen passport concern. for that we have tom fuentes, a former assistant director at the fbi. also mary skyler, with specific experience on these kinds of incidents. tom, i want to talk to both of you to get a sense of how important this detail is. i want to read a quote i got this morning. the intel official said, we're aware of the reporting on the two lost, stolen passports.

no nexus to terrorism yet, but that's by no means definitive. tom, with your experience, two paerng passengers on that plane with stolen passports. so that give you any concerned sense about somewhat might have brought this plane down? >> absolutely, jim. you wonder who was using it, what were their motives? were they using it to check luggage in that matched the tickets, and maybe the luggage contained explosives. so it's a great concern when people use false documents to board international aircraft. in this case, both passports were reported stolen. only one of the two, the italian passport, was in interpol's database in france. interpol houses a database with 39 million stolen and lost documents in a while. and many countries make an inquiry of that file before

individuals come in through their passport control to their country. currently, interpol has a project to have two airlines, it's a pilot project, to allow airlines to directly make inquiry to that database before they even issue the tickets or boarding passes. but those are the only two. what interpol knows for certain is that the passengers that boarded that malaysian flight, which was also a co-chair with china southern airlines, that database was not checked with before the tickets were issued. the italian passport that was in their data bass was not checked. >> mary, just a reminder to our viewers, it's only been 24 hours, no one knows what brought this plane down, but this is a dethal that investigators are at least going to look at. so mary, we're 13 years past

9/11. would it surprise you with all the communication between intelligence agencies, airlines, et cetera, warning lists and so on, would it surprise you two people could get on a plane with passports, one of which was stolen? >> yes, it does. since 9/11 and all the work we've done to try to identify who is on the plane, we have learned a lot of lessons. one, previous bombers and terrorists had traveled on foreign or fake passports, including very significant bombers connected with the 9/11 terrorism. and also it concerns me because where the plane was headed. i've gotten chinese visas and they're very exacting. it's not a bad process, but you don't just up and decide to fly into beijing. so the fact that this slipped through the facts, that they didn't check against lists. and many times the airlines, certainly in the united states, they require incoming foreign flights to provide to us who is

on board. and beijing is pretty tight with their passport control and with their visas. so something slipped through the cracks, perhaps at the airlines and certainly with the authorities it appears. >> good point. i have flown to china many times, and if there's a country very tough on visas and they ask for it in advance, it is certainly china. tom, would someone -- and just again to remind viewers, there are reasons you would be aware of, tom, smuggling, law enforcement issues that would lead someone to steal a passport to get on an airplane. but does it give you a sign that someone would need help on the ground? >> well, it could. but in this case, by the way, in terms of visas for china, there are seven cities in china, including beijing, that allow entry without a visa, as long as you depart within 72 hours. so if the person purchased a

round trip ticket from kuala lumpur to beijing within 72 hours, no visa would be required from the chinese government. so the only checks for the documents would have to occur in kuala lumpur before the plane departed. and if no checks were done, as in this case apparently, tickets would be -- or boarding passes would be issued. >> fascinating. i remember that. that just happened in the last year or two ago where they allowed that. to both of you, there are other reasons that people would steal a passport and get on a plane, right? people would be smuggling something, running away from something. there's a market for stolen passports out there, isn't there, mary? >> absolutely. even in the united states, we have a tremendous problem with our documentation, our driver's licenses, our everything can be forged and faked here. we certainly have a problem with that, as well. but that's why you have the various checklists to check against and had they been

identified as stolen passports, and they could have faked passports, so there was a way to flag them in advance. that's what is disturbing as it apparently wasn't checked. >> mary, with your department of transportation background, in 2009, we had this air france plane disappear over the atlantic. there was no warning, no may day call. that turned out to be pilot error. here i don't have another plane, disappears without any may day. walk us through the possible explanations for that. >> i've worked several accidents where it's a catastrophic mechanic failure. for example, the twa 200, the sea plane was in the daytime. in this case, the wing came out. here on this plane, there was previous wing damage. it could have had catastrophic damage. it's possible this plane didn't have a full fuel tank, although

boeing changed that system, it's much safer today. and many other things where catastrophic failure has occurred. we know it's catastrophic, because this plane sends signals itself. the pilots don't even have to do it, back to its home base. if it's experiencing problems, it's constantly updating through this computer system. and it wasn't just a communications failure why something was going on. this plane has several independent systems. it has backups to backups. the plane would have helped send out information, unless whatever happened was so catastrophic it stopped all communications. >> listen, fascinating. thank you very much to both of you. tom is going to be back with us as we continue to follow this story, catastrophic failure, a real mystery off the coast of vietnam. thank you very much to both of you.

in ukraine is escalating to new levels and russia's president putin is issuing no signs of retreat. he's made clear that russia may soon close any available space for diplomacy. here's anna coren with more on the ground in crimea. >> reporter: the military buildup of russian troops here on the crimean peninsula has entered a new phase, with the ukrainian defense minister saying a convoy of trucks carrying russian troops has crossed the russian border heading towards crimea. the crimean government says

there are 30,000 russian troops here and can only grow as the day for the referendum draws closer. the self-appointed government has already said that only russian forces should be on crimean soil. and ukrainian troops should swear allegiance to russia or leave. a military office has been stormed here by armed pro russian forces. an air force base was attacked by russian troops after they rammed a truck into the gate. they eventually retreated, but the scene turned ugly when local militia began bashing journalists. warning shots were fired and they're now deciding whether or not they will try to enter the crimean peninsula again. anna coren, cnn, on the crimean

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day she allegedly trying to kill her children. you're seeing the moment right there as she drove her car into the ocean. she apparently checked herself out of a hospital that day and was stopped by police who couldn't find a reason to hold her. her sister says wilkerson believed there were demons in her house. joining me now we have holly hughes, as well as dr. jeff gardere, a psychologist. holly, i want to start with you. our information is that no alcohol or drugs were found in her system, but police have not ruled out mental issues. what at this stage, and grant it, it's early, do you think her defense is likely to be? >> the first thing they're going to do, jim, is move for a psychiatric evaluation. they're going to have a professional interview her and find out if this is what we call a delusion that she could not fight. if she was under this delusion

that what she was doing was right, she could not appreciate the difference between right and wrong and thought she was justified, this may be a situation like what we saw with andrea yates, the mom who drowned her five children in the tub, but told everybody it was the right thing to do. so that's the first thing they'll do is have her examined. >> we have jeff gardere here. police say wilkerson told her children to close their eyes and go to sleep. he was taking them to a better place. what does that tell you about her mental state? i understand some of her family members mentioned the idea of post partum depression, which we've seen a lot of disturbing cases involving that. >> right. let's be aware that first of all, for a mother to want to kill her children at the very minimum, there's some sort of a psychopathic personality. in this case, we're looking at someone with a paranoid

schizophrenia, mental breakdown. she said she saw jesus christ in her home. this is a woman who i believe is very disturbed. but we also have to look at the fact that not just post partum depression being an issue, but there are documented cases of prepartum depression, someone who is pregnant, and because of the hormonal imbalance, and in this case, a lot of stressors. she claims she was abused. there's documentation of that, of a man who was abusing her, perhaps the father of some of the children or one of the children at the very least. all of those things would add to the clinical picture of a psycho sis. >> is that enough to build an insanity defense, holly? >> absolutely. if we didn't understand the nature of her actions, jim, yes, it would be enough to enter a

guilty butmentally ill plea and she would be put into a psychiatric institution and get the help she desperately needs. >> jeff, in just one word, if you are an expert on a case like this called into court, would you corroborate that as a defense? >> absolutely. this is a woman who i truly believe is mentally ill. some sort of a psychosis, whether post or prepartum. >> thank you very much, holly and jeff. coming up, we have a sad truth about a man put to death for killing his kids. new evidence ten years later as revealed he may have been innocent. that's coming up right after this. if you wear a denture, touch it with your tongue.

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welcome back. i'm jim sciutto in washington. what does the united states have in common with iran, iraq and saudi arabia? the answer is, the death penalty. according to amnesty international, those four nations and china are responsible for 82% of the world's executions. so it's no wonder that capital punishment is a hotly debated issue here, especially when you hear about death row inmates being exonerated after years often behind bars. >> just picture yourself one day, you wake up at about 3:00 in the morning, the banging on the door. and somebody takes you in handcuffs, reads you your

rights, puts you in a police car and that's the last time you see your hometown for 8 years, 10 months and 19 days. then they tell you they're going to execute you for something you didn't do. it was awful. >> that was a former marine, the first person in the u.s. exonerated by dna testing while on death row. let me bring back holly hughes and dr. jeff gardere, assistant professor in new york. let's turn to another case first. cameron todd willingham was executed ten years ago in texas for murdering his three young daughters in a house fire. but newly discovered evidence may prove that he was in fact innocent. holly, just looking at that case, if this man is found innocent ten years after his execution, we have had a number of cases where people have been exonerated while on death row, close. this is one who would have been killed on death row, what would

that mean for the u.s. justice system and for the death penalty in america? >> what it would mean, justice scalia had once written an opinion in an appeal, there is not one proven case where somebody innocent has been executed. what it would mean is that statement is no longer true. if they have actual proof of innocence, there is no do-overs. you cannot give this man back his life. and his family has even said, look, we're not suing. this isn't about money. we just want the truth to come out and we want his name cleared. what this would do, if they can prove it, is give a huge boost to the death penalty opponents who say you cannot give the death penalty because what if you are wrong? this is the strongest evidence that that possibility has become a reality. >> it's just a nightmare story. jeff, i have seen people like him, and i can't imagine how

they survive this, in one piece. if you're on death row knowing you were there for a crime you didn't commit, how do people have the strength to get through that, how does it affect themmentally? >> knowing that they're truly insent is what gets them through. they know that if nothing else, they can look at themselves in the mirror, even if one day they're going to die. but what we find psychologically, these people become very, very strong. they're not just survivors. they become victors. they transform their lives completely, knowing that they're innocent and being crucified in this way takes them to a whole level where they become much wiser and much more peaceful, knowing that if they have to go to the beyond, at least they did it in a way that they knew they were innocent. >> incredibly powerful stories. holly, in light of these cases

like this, plus numbers, there are fewer people sent to death row these days, partly because of a decline in crime rates. but there is also still large political support for political and public support for the death penalty in the worst crimes. why do you think the u.s. keeps capital punishment despite these inconsistencies, and do you see it heading in a direction at all where it would disappear? >> well, i think, jim, a lot of it is based on what justice scalia wrote, we've never executed an innocent person. that argument is going to go by the wayside. the reason we still embrace capital punishment, and remember, when we talked about the facts of this case, who were the victims? three young children. so when you see crimes against children, the natural human reaction is, you want that person to never be able to do it again. it is a guttural instinct. we want to protect our children and elderly.

so i don't necessarily see the death penalty going away. so if this one case is proven, then the people, the proponents who are for it are going to say it happened once in 800 executions. and bear in mind too in this particular case, there is the allegation that the prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence. he gave a deal to an informant who testified against mr. willingham. that doesn't happen in a lot of cases. so a lot of people will say it's still justified when you see children, elderly people tortured, murdered, and we are crying out somebody has to pay for that. >> this is an emotional case, the first time someone possibly exonerated after dying on death

row. thank you very much to holly hughes, jeff gardere. a program note, don't miss "death row stories" right here on cnn. coming up, the malaysian airlines flight that disappeared from the sky. that's coming up after this. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything.

welcome back. i'm jim sciutto in washington. right now, hundreds of families are waiting to hear any word about a commercial jet that just disappeared more than 24 hours ago. it happened between malaysia and china, and investigators are closely looking at the passenger manifest. two of the people whose passports were used to board that malaysian airlines flight tell officials their passports were stolen, they weren't on the flight at all. that means two people on this missing plane checked in with

passports not issued to them. it's still early in the investigation and nobody has drawn any conclusions about this passport issue yet, but they are investigating. cnn's jim clancy is in kuala lumpur where that airliner and passengers were last seen. >> reporter: more than 24 hours after flight mh370 disappeared from radar screens and lost all contact, there is still no answers as to what may have happened on board, where that aircraft may have gone down. but as they continue the search, nothing is being ruled out. the ceo of malaysia airlines. >> we seem to be living by speculation now. so i think it's leave the authorities to do their work. >> are you ruling out any possibility of terrorism? >> we're not ruling out anything. >> reporter: vietnamese search and rescue crews say they spotted two large oil slicks

between six and nine miles long some 90 miles south. the members of the vietnamese air crews suspected those could have come from the jet liner. but there's no confirmation of that. at first light, it is expected that more surface ships, as well as aircraft will be out in that specific area looking for any evidence that they may be able to find. this is a crash that stretches right across international boarders. it affects some 14 nationalities. more than half of the 239 passengers and crew who are aboard flight mh370 are said to have been chinese nationals. they included a group of distinguished artists, calligraphers who had come to kuala lumpur and were returning to beijing. it included elderly tourists, as

the search continues, as questions are continuing to be asked, the people whose family members, whose loved ones were aboard that aircraft are being sequestered here at kuala lumpur international airport by authorities the away from the media. they are obviously awaiting any word on the whereabouts of their loved ones. they have many, many questions, but the one that is perhaps most serious right now, the one most difficult to answer, is why? jim clancy, cnn, kuala lumpur. also overseas, the ukraine crisis is getting more volatile with fresh rounds of bullying from pro russian forces in crimea. meanwhile, president obama personally spoke with six key leaders today, all agreeing that russia needs to immediately de-escalate the situation.

the president spoke with the british prime minister, france's president, and italy's prime minister. obama also hosted a conference call with three baltic leaders, the presidents of lithuania, estonia and latvia. this comes as secretary of state john kerry issued a new warning to his russian counterpart serge lavrov, making sheer that russia's military escalation may close any available space for diplomacy. in crimea, masked troops seized control of a military office. this video showed unmarked military trucks enroute to the city, as well. "the new york times" columnist is weighing in. our own rosa flores spoke with him and joins us now. what did he have to say? >> reporter: i had a great

conversation with nick, and he said this notion that president obama's weakness somehow led putin to seize crimea is not substantiated by facts. take a listen. >> there are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize president obama's foreign policy. in the case of syria, there isn't much of a policy. he's appointed some really weak ambassadors. but in the case of ukraine, it's not that his weakness led president putin to do anything there. i think this notion that somehow obama's weakness led putin to seize crimea is just completely unsupported by the facts. >> i've got to ask you this, because i talked to several ukrainian families here in the united states, and they all tell me the same thing. they all say that they have family that they communicate with on a daily basis. they're very worried. they're watching the news second

by second, hoping that there is peace. and they're focusing in on crimea and hoping that the russian troops leave so that they can have peace. do you see that happening? >> boy, i wish i could, but i guess it seems to me the best case scenario, which is that international observers would go in and that there by putin would get a face saving excuse to pull back the troops and stay russian speaking people in crimea are going to be protected, but i don't think that is very realistic. i don't think that's going to happen. >> one of the other things that stood out to me about his article was he mentioned all of this is a stumble for putin. i asked, what? any observer would say putin has the upper hand. he said this, jim. he said if you look at the long-term economic impact of this, it's not good to be putin. he's very popular right now at

67%. but he said think about the international business relations that are being broken or compromised. he says in the long run, this is not good for russia. jim? >> interesting for sure. thank you. a sobering read as to how quickly it will be resolved. coming up, a vote going on right now, offers an early clue who will be the republican front-runner in 2016. we'll give you the results after this break. i reckon a storm's a brewin'.

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welcome back. i'm jim sciutto in washington. not far from here, we're waiting for the results of the presidential straw poll at the cpac as it's known. it's a huge annual gathering of conservatives. i'm joined by cnn political commentators. this is a straw poll, but a lot of people pay attention to the results, particularly as we get closer to 2016. ben, as a conservative, who are you betting on and who do you think would be the best winner for the gop? >> i think right now it is -- you've got so many qualified guys. this is one of the fields i've seen -- first field i've seen in a long time i think there are four or five people that can do well. chris christie got a standing ovation, so did rick perry. your others like ted cruz. i wouldn't be surprised if ted cruz won the straw poll to be honest with you, because he was absolutely loved at this convention and he had a lot of people really rallying behind

him. so if that happens, some people say he would be an underdog. but in a conservative conference like this, maybe not so much. >> mark, asking you just about the relevance of this. it's 2014, we've got 2 1/2 years before the election day. how valuable an indicator is the winner of this poll for november 2016? >> i mean, it's always valuable because it gives you a window into what voters are thinking about and some of the power brokers of the gop. but we've seen people like michele bachmann win straw polls before. what you might find is this also lets us know who embodies main line conservative values. not necessarily that voters want in a real election. in other words, somebody like rand paul or ted cruz may do really well in a straw poll right now, because they're saying the things that voters want to hear. but when it comes time for a real election, somebody like a chris christie or jeb bush might

be more desirable, because they think they have a legit shot at beating hillary clinton. >> you make a great point there, mark. we're still waiting for the results of that straw poll. ronald reagan won this a number of times back in the day. more recently the poll, father and son pair has done very well. is cpac becoming a bastion of libertarian supporters? >> i think it's becoming more libertarian and more true freedom. any time you have a convention like this, you'll have the top 1% who are involved in the system that come to these events. most people are flying here, spending their own dollar to come here. so you're really engaged. it doesn't mean it's going to be the overall gop viewpoint for the future. when you say who does it matter to? it always matters to the winner. you can walk around and say to other people, hey, i won that straw poll at cpac. you need to give me money.

and everyone is going to down play it saying it's just these people that fly in town, it's not that big of a deal. so it fedepends on how you spint as a candidate. >> i want to ask you about some of the moments before we get to the straw poll results. you had an interesting moment when mitch mcconnell, who as you know, facing a big primary challenge in kentucky, he walked on stage, brandishing a gun, gave it to retiring senator coburn, and there you have it. is that a good image for mcconnell and the republican party? maybe start with you, mark. >> it's a great image in terms of his base. he wants to continue to appeal to his gas abase. i'm not sure everyone at home

were pleased with it. but the heart of the party was fine with it. in terms of how that makes republicans look, it still continues to box them in as extremists, people who don't have their finger on the pulse of america and people that might be insensitive. i don't have a problem with the gun. >> it's a classic musket, it's not an ar-15. the only people that are offended by it are those that aren't going to vote for any republican candidate any way. so i'm not worried if i'm one of those guys on that stage, because if you're offended by it, you probably weren't going to vote for me in the first place, so i think that's why you see this award be such a big deal and why so many republicans like it. >> thank you very much to both of you, mark, ben, appreciate it. when we come back after the break, we'll have the results from that cpac straw poll, who

republicans, at least in 2014, think would be the best candidate in 2016. stay with us. what does everything mean to you?

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have just learned the results of the presidential straw conference or the cpac as it is known, a conservative gathering of political activists, and we have cnn political reporter richard hanby on the scene with the news. like the oscars, and who went out this year, richard? >> well, it is just like the oscars, jim. rand paul won. it is not a surprise, but he won big. i am reading the results here from the "washington times" and they announced the straw polls right behind me. and rand paul won 31% of the straw poll vote which is really a huge margin of victory, and a bigger margin of victory than past winners. second place was ted cruz who got 11%. he was followed in third place surprisingly by ben carson, a conservative neurosurgeon who makes the rounds at the conservative events like this, and some people want him to run

for president, and chris christie came in fourth, and that is good for him, because this is not the crowd, and movement conservatives and the conservative base, but he did give a good speech this year. one thing they just said, jim, that i should point out is that the 18-25-year-olds made up almost half of the straw poll vote here, and again, this is a conference dominated by young people, by libertarians and so no surprise that rand paul won in that fashion, jim. >> and that is interesting, peter, because some would think that the crowd would be older and white, and et cetera, but that would seem to add value to the results here, but looking at rand paul, the libertarian background and he has national appeal, and on television a lot, and he has fans. does this make him at least for now the republican front-runner for 2016? >> i'm not sure that is the case. there is certainly a lot of buzz in the political circles that is certainly a top tier candidate.

his views cut across many different wings of the republican party. yesterday, he gave a speech here attacking the national security administration, and focused heavily on how the government shouldn't involve itself in your cell phones and the credit card transactions and the young people really enjoyed that. but look at this, ron paul, his father finished third place in iowa and he finished second place in new hampshire. and if rand paul can can grow that share of the vote, and expand his appeal beyond just that libertarian base, that is a win in iowa, and that sis a win in new hampshire and maybe south carolina in a fractured field salutely considered a top tier candidate at this point. >> and behind you, just for the viewers, and but for the viewers you are hearing the enthusiasm, and that is rand paul on the stage behind you, and you can hear the cheers greeting him, and greeting him as the winner of this. and you mentioned chris christie finishing fourth, and how is

that an okay finish for him? >> well, the fact that he only got 9% of the vote here, but again, expectations for him coming in here were so low. you know, it was almost surprising when he got such a great reception here. look, chris christie is a talented politician, and he knew the audience and sort of framed himself as a brave conservative taking on the unions and he hit home the fact that he was pro life which was important, because if you do go into a lot of the conservative events over the past year, and talk the conservative activists, a lot of con ser va t conser vatists didn't know he was a liberal, but he came here and said, i am pro life, and that helps him. this is below the first place finish, it is expectations game.

and rick perry for example gave a good speech here, and i was talking to some people here who thought that rick perry would do better, and he didn't. so a fourth place finish for chris christie is a win for him on the heel ogs of a really goo speech from him. >> and thank you, peter hanby at the cpac, but the results of the straw poll is early, and 11% for ted cruz and then ben carson and chris christie in fourth, and all of them behind rand paul with the 31% big win there. we will have more news abroad and back home in the u.s. when we come back. i am jim sciutto, and the ho hours are passing without any s