ns by vitac -- www.vitac.com thank you, brianna. it is 7:00 p.m. here on the east coast of the united states. and we are talking about a deep search looking for the malaysian flight 370, and now people are trying to figure out whether this new something is worth pursuing. this is wa we are talking about. earlier today, the chinese ship said they found something that was collected on a frequency that is normally used by the flight data coordinators. >> this afternoon the rescuers have heard a ping every second, and it lasted for one minute, one and a half minutes. however, the government says that these kinds of signals could be from other equipment, but at this moment, they cannot

confirm that the signals are from the missing plane. >> okay. at about the same time that the pings were detected, a search crew in the air says they flew over some white objects floating in the area, and reported pipgs and the newfound debris are adding cautious new energy to the frustrating search that has lasted nearly a month. military and civilian airplanes, 13 in all crisscrossed the area, and some of them ships with high-tech scanners worked on the ocean surface. and this is all being run out of perth, australia, and that is where our senior correspondent matthew chance is with us, and in beijing is cnn's david mckenzie. and matthew, to you first. just after 6:00 in the morninger and when do you expect to see the search planes wheels up? >> well, they should be coming off of the operation now, and

the whole issue of the chinese apparently finding the pings, outside of the actual area that was being searched has thrown some confusion into the mix. what the australian coordinators are looking for is more information about what has exact ly been found, and what assets to best use with the chinese search, and then they will make the decision to deploy the assets. at the moment though, what everyone is stressing both in china and here as i understand it is that there's no linkage or proven linkage found yet that has anything to do with the missing malaysian airliner, and they want much more information before they commit to saying that. don? >> matthew, a plan to hit this area where the chinese reportedly heard the pings and saw stuff floating in the water? >> well, you certainly hope that there would be, i mean, given that it is the best potential development in the story, and the most developmental part of the story in the last few weeks, but if will is a plan to do that, the chinese coordinators are not talking about it. you have a sense that there is a degree of friction here, because

this information is not from them, but the chinese, themselves, and they are circumventing the normal channels of communication, and there are eight countries involved in the international search, and only one, china, refuses to pass the information through the regular channels and that is beijing, and that is a source of some confusion, and so we don't know what the news is going to be, because it is sunday morning here. and here in australia, they will get together the koord nayers or the and decide the course of action, don. >> and now the david mckenzie, and what is the reaction to the news in china, and are people optimistic that it might be it? >> well, don, i think that people are jaded by this point. we have all been watching this search go on, and as matthew said, it has been fruitless in the recent days. certainly the family members of those on board who are stuck here in beijing waiting for any credible evidence have told us that they want to to see more.

they said that they have bp here before, and they have had these leads that have seemed credible, and then those leads have been dashed. so i think that from the family members' point of view, they are holding out for more information, and hopefully to get some physical debris, and that is what they have told us that they want. from the media side, and certainly two state media reporters on the haixun vessels, and these pings or the pulses that they describe it, these pulses that they appear to be the most credible lead for some time, but also here in china, both state media, and the government agencies are cautioning at this point that there is no conclusive evidence that it is linked to the missing plane. don? >> and david, talk about the communication between the chinese and the koord coordinat australia, because there is some frustration that the chinese are releasing the information first through the state-run media. >> well, it is unclear yet if

there were prior conversations that we don't know about before they were released on state-run media, but it is clear that the australians knew about it before it came out in cctv and xinhua news. it may be part of the way that the chinese do the business, because it is a very top-down setup, and that all of the information that needs to come through beijing, through the military leadership here, and then be disseminated to malaysia and to australia. it is unclear if there is a logjam in the information and where it went, and too, certainly, the chinese do their business their own way, and it appears that they are not kind of using the same level of communication directly with the australian authorities a as others are, but certainly, they are putting a huge amount of effort into the search. more than 150 passengers on board, don, as you know, were

chinese nationals, and so it is clear they want to put every effort they can to get some clarity and closure in this, because china obviously has so much vested interest in the search. >> all right. thank you, david mckenzie, and matthew chance, and for a month, it has come down to this. find the pinger and then find the plane. so could the pulses heard by a chinese ship be the real thing? i want to bring in our army captain art wright, and you say that this is probably not the black box, and why is that? >> well with, it could be the black box, but it could be a number of other sounds in the ocean, also. that frequency of kilohertz is very popular for fishing sonas s and mine hunting sonars and if you look at the weapons systems in the world, you will find that there are several 37 kilohertz

sonars out there. and so if somebody is testing one of those, and turns it on for a short period of time, you would get a number of pings separated by a second. we need to know more about the signal, and then the search group in perth can figure out what to do with it. >> and also, people should know that there is a lot of ship traffic, and sea life in the southern indian ocean, and does it impact the ability to hear the pings? >> 37.5 kilohertz is a pretty frequency that is pretty clear in the ocean spectrum, however, there are dolphins that can make clicking sounds, and i believe 37.5 kilohertz is one of their frequencies, also, so perhaps the people at scripps ought to tell us about the sounds that dolphins can make. >> yes. and tell us about the equipment that is needed to hear the ping

s. is this something that the chinese have, and they are using? >> i understand it is a system made in the u.s., and it is a standard sonar crystal item that changes a voltage to the mechanical pulse that pushes out into the water the, and once you have that crystal, you can fairly straight forward to make a pinger or a pinger receiver. >> thank you, sir. i appreciate it. you wanted to the say something else, richard quest? >> i would like to the -- >> is he still there? >> yes. i want to quickly. it is richard quest and, sir, looking at the pictures that we have seen where you see the basically the fishing pole with the microphone being shoved over the side of the small boat, it does not look very sophisticated compared to what we have been led to believe are the the ocean

shie shield. i mean, is it likely with such rudimentary methods that they have picked something up? >> it is possible. simple is better, and if that signal can travel through the water and reach that hydrophone, you will get a response. and they have evidently think they have heard a response. and also, any sew for tn sonar out there at 37.5 kilohertz will see the frequency as with well. >> and thank you so much. and i will get to the panel shortly, but richard, you wanted to get in on that, and very great question. we will talk more about that coming up, and time is running out on the flight recorders or the black boxes, and if the beacons stop working, just how much harder does the entire operation get? we will discuss that on the other side of the break. don't go anywhere.

♪ find yourself. in an accomodation... where you get to do... whatever it is that you love to do! booking.com booking.yeah!

why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york - dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. you'll get a warm welcome in the new new york. see if your business qualifies at startupny.com that's a man interviewino.for a job. not that one. that one. the one who seems like he's already got the job

'cause he studied all the right courses from the get-go. and that's an accountant, a mom, a university of phoenix scholarship recipient, who used our unique --scratch that-- awesome career-planning tool. and that's a student, working late, with a day job, taking courses aligned with the industry he's aiming to be in. ready to build an education around the career that you want? let's get to work. suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right.

>> well, the battery on the plane with the pingers should only last for a few days if it is not gone already. let's discuss it with art wright, and les abend, and cnn analyst and as well richard quest, cnn correspondent here. and richard, you said that you have new information to announce. >> yes, it has been announced from perth, the joint authority for the search coordinator, and this is what they are saying today. the search and recovery continues, and this is the sunday agenda, what they are going to be looking at. 10 military planes, two civil planes and 13 ships will assist in the search. they have set up three separate search areas, and the i have not given the coordinators on that, but this is the important part, don. reports of night that the

chinese ship haixun has picked up pings cannot be verified at this point in time. they continue to the refine the search area. what they are not saying here, and what they are not saying is that they are going to that area to see if it is anything there worth searching. >> so that does not mean that they are not. >> right. but we have to see what the three separate search areas are that they have established for today and get the coordinates for that, and we will get those in the next couple of hours. >> and the e-mail i am reading is the same thing that you have. and imagine, imagine if it is the last bit of the ping left that they picked up, and you know, today is like the last day, right? that is pretty much it? >> we think so. >> yes. >> and we know it is 30 days, but we also have been told the by the experts it could be 40 days, as well, and it is not a cliff of it dropping off, but a

slow decline of the amplitude of the signal. >> and also depends on the flight data recorder and when it was last serviced. >> and yes, we are told that the batteries are relatively new according to the authorities from malaysia. >> and the chief exec said that the batteries were due to expire in june of this year, and they have a six-year life. and due to expire in june of this year, and the president of the company who makes them basically says that they are tested so that at the date of expiration, they are still at maximum thrust. >> so les, as a pilot s this the part of the discussion, because you guys have to go through the training, and do you get testing every now and again -- >> regarding? >> do you have to re-up, and re-certify as pilots? >> recurrent training. >> and so do they talk about the new technology, and the old

flight data recorders, and this is the old technology and this is the changing technology, and -- >> well, don, if it is relative to the operation, they will talk about it, but this is not something that we get. we know that the black boxes exist, and we only get involved with them if we have an incident or accident of some sort. so this is not necessarily, and not necessarily an area that we would get into. >> but is there something, because obviously, when, as a pilot, you are the number one thing is the safety of the passengers, correct? >> absolutely. >> something that you would like to see done differently with the data recorderings? would you like to see them the updated in some way, and maybe you don't know how, but you would like to? >> well, we can always pull data off of the -- and as a matter of fact, my airline pulls the data off of it for safety purposes to discover trends before they are issues and that is off of the digital flight data recorder, but the best way to ensure all of this is to use what we have in the north atlantic is to have constantly streaming data available to us. that is going to require a lot

of possible security issues and things of that nature so that the right people get the right stuff. >> but, this is a whole different ball game if these pingers run out, right, mike? >> well, you can't find smoke without fire, and i can't think of a situation in contemporary history where you have found the black boxes before debris, and it is almost inconceivable. >> and there is nothing conceivable about this story. >> that is right. there is nothing orthodox, but we have to run with what we know. however, the search will go on if the pingers stop pinging, and they will do within the next ten days, and the search is going to go on the look for the debris, but the big thing today is once again the credibility of the investigation being tested and if i were james huiston, i would be upset, because this is a

situation where you don't have anything leaked and you are not going to have anything open for misinterpretation, and you will not give it out unless it is verified. and that is why richard said, it cannot be verify ied at any tim and the chief will have said, i want nobody talking to any media, and i want this information secure, and i'm going to be the chance that it is leaked. >> and it is water under the bridge now, and i totally agree with what you are saying, but it is water out under the bridge. >> we have to find out if it is credible. >> if i can apologize, and if anybody thinks that i am being rude to you, i am actually e-mailing -- >> and awe you are always on the blackberry, and what he is doing is answering the viewers' question questions. >> no, i am e-mailing the sppts and the teams in perth to to find out the details of any of the search areas are actually the same as the ones that are in the ping zone that the chinese

claim to have heard. >> and people think that the we don't like each other, because we are always going back and forth. that is just our relationship. we do the same thing off television, and by the way, hueston. >> okay. i will make sure i say that correctly. >> thank you, welcome aboard as a analyst. >> and there were some people who said that there were some curious things inside of the m simulat simulato simulator, and we will go inside and find out what those curious things are next.

(music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed.

these days, everything is done on the internet. and tomorrow you'll do even more. that's what comcast business was built for. slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. and you'll be ready for tomorrow today. comcast business.

built for business. welcome back, and so if the pulse signal does belong to malaysian 370, and if it is the plane's, what course did the airliner take beforehand? we go the cnn's martin savidge and mitchell quesada in the flight simulator, and what were you able to find out, martin? >> well, it fits into at least what have been reported as the southern arc, and that is of course, the information that we have known for a couple of weeks, which are the pings that came every hour from reportedly flight 370, and through some very apparently extrapolated math, they were able to determine a possible route. so when i looked at the map

where the ping was heard, the line is very nicely with that. >> almost exact ly to the arc. >> it is off to one side. >> off to the east a little bit, but it coincides with where the last ping s and it is almost identical, and right on that route. >> and what we would really love to know if we had more information on this, of course, is what were the exact locations and them, of course, if you knew the altitude that the aircraft was flying at and the fuel levels, we could plug it in, and technically say, can the simulator fly us to that spot with fuel or running out around that point, and would the simulator bear it out, but there more that we have to know, and it also brings up the issue of the partial ping, the eighth partial ping, because it is always believed that if you knew where that came from, you had a pretty good idea, mitchell, that is where the aircraft was in its final stage. >> that is right. yes. >> and it is probably going into the water at that point.

so it fits is what we are saying, and still a lot of skepticism if that is really the ping. >> well, les abend has a question. what do you want to nknow, les? >> well, marty, are you putting in a lat long to go to that position at a particular altitude? i'm not in the ffmc, and maybe should address that to mitchell? >> well, go ahead. >> that is what we we had discussed doing the very thing. >> first of all, i don't have the lat/long, and if i did secondly, on this particular fmc, i can't input it. the most i can do is to get the distance from perth, and west in the case, 120,000 miles whatever the case is and just prior to that location. >> okay. standby, and hold on, when you say lat/long, you are talking about the latitude and the longitude, and when he says fmc and he can't do that, what is that? >> well, the flight management computer, and he has to enter

the specific coordinates on the chart that we are seeing today. >> and is it different in the u.s. or -- >> no, it is the same. he can enter it very easily, but you know, you have to know what the altitude is in order to determine when the fuel would run out, and certainly, this is possible. >> and you know, marty and mitchell, we are seeing these, and i am wondering if the investigators are doing the same scenarios that you are doing when they come up with where they found these possible pings today. i wonder if they do the similar scenarios to try to figure out how to hone in on a specific search area. >> yeah, it is a really good question, and one i have been wondering as well. i would imagine they have access to just about any resource they would need at this point. >> yes, the guys are going to be in the real level b simulators with the full functionality, and they have so many resources, and it is the government, and so they have resources that go on and on. >> and beyond what we have here, so i would expect that they would be doing as you say, plotting it out, and trying it

out, and see if it works. >> i don't know why i have an idea that marty and mitchell are flying around even when i'm in bed just all over, everywhere. sorry, guys. you have been in that sim ulato so long. >> and three planes are headed to the indian ocean sunday, and also, chinese reports of hearing the pulses from the black box cannot be verified at this point. we will give you the details straight ahead. oh! the name your price tool! you tell them how much you want to pay, and they help you find a policy that fits your budget. i told you to wear something comfortable! this is a polyester blend! whoa! uh...little help? i got you! unh! it's so beautiful! man: should we call security? no, this is just getting good. the name your price tool, still only from progressive. why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate.

the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york - dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. you'll get a warm welcome in the new new york. see if your business qualifies at startupny.com how did i know? well, i didn't really. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests. showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number -- not just me. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy, increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor

if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are or may become pregnant or are breastfeeding, should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. so...what do men do when a number's too low? turn it up! [ male announcer ] in a clinical study, over 80% of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. get the blood tests. change your number. turn it up. androgel 1.62%.

let's get a quick update on the search for flight 370. today, chinese state-run media said that chinese ship had detected a pulse consistent with a pinger from a black box. but now, it is said that it cannot be verified. and now, earlier today, i asked about how the frequency can be changed? >> it does not change the

frequency for the duration of the pattern, but what it happens is that it starts to emit less acoustic energy, and in other words, it gets quiet. so as the battery dies, the signal strength is less, and that means that deteched range will start to decrease. >> and the chinese also report that one of the search plans detected white objects floating in the ocean near the search area. no confirmation of what those items might be, but previous objects were trash or other debris. and the hopes rose when we heard that the chinese ship had stumbled across it, and the longer we wait for the k confirmation, the less confident we are feeling. so let's bring in our analysts, michael kay, les abend, and richard quest. so michael, we have heard the experts say over and over that the black box needs to be found, and it would not be found until

the debris is found. and do you believe the chinese report sths. >> i am treating them with extreme caution. >> why? >> for all of the reasons that we are talking about today, because it has not come from the official sources or the j.a.c.c. and it has not been corroborated and the equipment that was used to actually discover the pings, i would say it is suboptimal and certainly looking at the equipment out there on the ocean shield, and the echo, and active and passive sonar echo systems with filtering. and we know in that part of the world, there is a lot of background noise, and so to detect that 37.5 kilohertz ping is difficult. we want to make sure it is that and not background noise, so there are a number of factors the corroborate before we start to release any information to the indicate that it is from flight 370. >> and richard, how do you confirm it in any way or do the

chinese confirm it? >> well, they confirm it without any corroboration, and so that means that the jaac will -- the jacc will have to send out their own equipment, and that is the australian group to be clear, and there is we are looking further into it or nothing. it is almost like, what on earth is all of this about? >> and that is my question, what on cert all of this about? >> no one knows. and you have a bizarre situation of these chinese going off in the small boat, and these sailors putting a hydrophone over the edge and claiming to have heard a ping, and some experts say that, and david gallo says that it is just almost unbelievable that you would be able to pick a ping up from that far down. >> and les, can you imagine a

ship running across the path of a black box randomly like that with rudimentary equipment, and we just had someone on who said it could happen, but wa are the odds? >> well, the odds are better by simple virtue of changing the search pattern, and maybe luck is upon the folks, but e reading be between the lines, and making an interpretation, like richard, i am more doubtful than when i heard it earlier today. >> and richard quest, there is an app for that? >> well, i wanted to show you later. >> well, show it now. >> well, this is for the air traffic control. >> can you do it now? >> well, give me, and are you slightly taken me by awares. >> well, i stumped richard qu t quest. >> i would like to pick up on that. >> and no, no, no. >> and what is that? >> well, richard, i am giving you time. >> he is helping you out here. >> and he is trying to help you o out. >> and on richard's last piece when he said that it cannot be verified at any point at this time, and that is one part of

the ark and whc, and what we ar cautious about is if they are not looking into it, because they may p be, but they don't want to raise another false hope. we have to be careful ofl how we interpret that statement. >> this is all about the air traffic control tapes and the pilots and why they are not released. well, anybody who is an aviation geek is going to be familiar with this. this is live atc, and you can pretty much listen to the control tower on any major airport. >> and can you do it backwards? >> well, i want to raise the volume here, and this is something that you are familiar with. kennedy. >> well, it is not that loud, richard. >> right. in is kennedy. oh, it stopped. >> do it again. >> hang on. >> there it is, and basically, you can listen to any air traffic control. >> stop, listen, play. maybe not. >> it depends upon when the pilots are talking. >> it comes and goes, and you

will see it on the little red light. >> there you go. >> american 94, and left wing. >> and 31, left, american 94. >> and looking for contact to the departure? >> yes. >> and now, across the world, there are people who are not only listening to this, but they are recording it. so, for example, how did we ever get the live, and how did we ever get the live audio e from thes a yaw -- aseano, and that is from here. >> and i listen to it on united. >> channel 9 on united has the same thing, yes, but the number of people that you use live around the world just to listen or get involved with, and let's see, since you listen to it. >> do you mind that people can hear that? >> well, yes/no. i mean, it is subject to the

interpretation, when the people hear phraseology that they are not familiar with, but maybe after the break i would like to get into some of the things that richard is bringing up with reference to the families wanting to listen to the tapes. >> you think it will help them? >> well, let's wait until after the break. >> all right. let's talk about, that and don't go anywhere. we will be right back. well, did you know bad news doesn't always travel fast? (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise! at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you.

get the it card and see your fico® credit score. check the weather. borrow ted's wheelbarrow. post big tomato pics. buy a birdhouse for sparrows. download gardening apps. answer my wife's texts. search how to sculpt hedges into a t-rex. i can do all that with my android from tracfone for as low as $7 a month. [ male announcer ] unbeatable nationwide coverage, no contract. for a limited time, save $50 on the zte valet. now just 49.99. tracfone. do everything for less.

now just 49.99. why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york - dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. you'll get a warm welcome in the new new york. see if your business qualifies at startupny.com your education is built to help move your career forward. here's how: we work with leading employers to learn what you need to learn so classes impact your career. while helping ensure credits you've already earned pay off.

and we have career planning tools to keep you on track every step of the way. plus the freshman fifteen, isn't really a thing here. and graduation, it's just the beginning. because we build education around where you want to go. so, you know, you can get the job you want. ready, let's get to work. back thou with the panel of experts, and les abend, you say that there is something

important to discuss that has not been brought up that the you want to discuss. >> yes, i understand the family's desires to listen to the actual transmissions by air traffic control and we have to distinguish between these transmissions and the actual cockpit recorder, because those can't be listened to because of part of the investigation. >> those are in bottom of the ocean presumed. >> yes. >> and the transmissions are a subject to a little bit of -- and with we have read the transcripts and there does not seem to be anything abnormal about it, a nd we understand tht we have had friends of the pilots listen to see if they can distinguish voices, but it is so difficult to be able to do that, e ven as a pilot, and your voice sounds different on the radio. i had my wife in the back of the airplane to listen to my p.a. n announcement, and she had no idea that it was her husband speaking, and so your voice is different. and if you have ever listened to a cockpit voice recorder, it is

still difficult, and it is a -- it is not a pleasant experience. >> what are you saying that -- >> well, i am saying that the people who should be listening to the transmissions should be other pilots that know these folks, and that they have flown with these folks and familiar with the slight distortion of air traffic control, because if you listen to this. >> and this is malaysia air traffic control at the moment. [ inaudible ]. >> this is the sort of thing and it is not easy to understand. >> we will be right back. [ speaking foreign language ]

more on the search for flight 370 in a moment, but first in the cnn series "death row mysteries" we unravel capital murder cases. a man who spent years on death row had people trying to get him a new trial, but all options had been denied. >> on april 19th, 1999, the final death warrant had been issued. we had struck out. we had failed, and he was going to die. >> the state set an execution dat date. >> we drove over to angola.

john came into the room, and we didn't tell him that we had been coming, but he knew why we were there, and he looked at us, and he said, what's the date. and we looked at him, and we said, john, it is may 20th, which was basically a month off. >> i have been around death row that time long enough to know what was going on. i was like, wow, this is my turn, my time, and so, you know, i was trying to be strong. i was trying to be like, understand what is getting ready to happen. i am getting ready to die for a crime i did not commit. and anxiety kicked in, and i did not know how to accept the reality that they were going to kill me. >> it took unraffling a kcomple cover-up, and 14 years in the infamous angola prison, and it is no joke as someone from louisiana. and then john thomson walked free. and there he is. the moment that police showed up

at your home to arrest you for a crime that they knew you didn't commit, what was going through your mind? >> hello? >> yes. >> all right. >> you there? >> yes, sir, i hear you now. >> yeah. >> really, i was just, you know, shocked that they were saying first-degree murder. it was like, unreal. murder. is y'all serious? >> yeah. you know, john, at one point, your lawyers suggested that you plead guilty to a lesser offense and be released from prison, and what did you think after all of those years behind bars, why not take that offer? >> because i was innocent. you know, i watched 12 men be executed, and watching that made me realize that i was just about to die for something they i did not do, and explain it to my sons and my family, and for me

to come here under any circumstances to plead for my life to something i did not do, it was like, wow, it was killing all of the principles that i had within me, and so i had to stand dead long, and it was if this is god's will for me, this is what god's will may be. >> yeah. and also, the victim was from a prominent family, in louisiana, and another prominent family, also was the district attorney who is harry connick, sr., and in 2011, the supreme court decided 5-4 to overturn the case that you won against the district attorney's office who oversaw your case, and led again by harry connick sr. saying that they were not liable for the failure to turn over evidence, and how do you feel about that? >> wow. it is like, if you really think about what it all meant, it is what i feel about what they say, first off all they accepted three decision, and all three judges if my favor, and this is one they should not have been hearing at all, but the

consequence consequences of what they said, and what it means to us as citizens is what frightened me, because here is a man in my particular case, and i'm going to name him, jim williams and he took a picture with six of us on the electric chair and all six all of us have been exonerated off death row. for you to tell us that an individual can just go after a citizen, placed him on death row, tried to kill him, commit murder, actually, try to, if you look at what premeditated murder mean, if this is not premeditated murder, i don't know what it is. you say you allow him to get away with letting six killers continue to run the streets and hurt other people and don't find a reason to hold accountability to that, wow. you know? i don't believe that's what the people want. i don't believe that's what the american people want. we want justice, and for him to take upon his own will, i can't believe that we're not investigating each and every one

of his cases. mr. connie bragged on some things during my civil case as to him placing 12 judges over his years that's out of his office that became prosecutors that became judges. through his abuse of his power, of his political power. >> harry connick ser. was a controversial figure as a controversial lawyer. they know his son. he's controversial. >> he had a 30-year reign and placed 12 judges with the same philosophy. look at all the high court overturn from the united states supreme courts all the way to our supreme courts have overturned mr. connick cases, on robbery cases, on murder cases, on all -- >> what do you think was behind it? why you dough think you were railroaded? what do you think was behind it? >> it was money. it was who the victim were. it was the victim.

mr. williams had a serious problem. if you look at it, like i say, every national case from mine to curtis cost, all these cases happened in the ten-year span. he was really violating a lot of constitutional rights of everyone. we shouldn't even think about the.penalty in this country in someone had this kind of power. why give someone the permission to kill us? that's what i don't understand. when you say you support the death penalty, you're actually giving the state permission to kill you. why should we allow people with this kind of power that clearly show what he did, on the national magazine, he was on the front cover with his image of electric chair. if we allow that and say we're right with it and question it, some of these people are still being questioned if they're guilty or not. nobody's questioning what he did. >> mr. thompson, thank you so much. we see your passion. we appreciate it. your story is unbelievable.

watch it on cnn. congratulations on your son. your son graduated high school or college today? >> college. he went back to college five years ago. once he seen my work, resurrection after exoneration and working with the people and things i do, he wanted to better his life. he wnt back to school. i'm happy. >> congratulations to you and your entire family. the original series "death row seri stories" watch it tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern on cnn. everyone has said trying to find a plane in the indian ocean is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. richard quest says it's more difficult than that. he's going to break it down for us right after this. with my friends, we'll do almost anything.

out for drinks, eats. i have very well fitting dentures. i like to eat a lot of fruits. love them all. the seal i get with the super poligrip free keeps the seeds from getting up underneath. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. a lot of things going on in my life and the last thing i want to be thinking about is my dentures. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. is my dentures. why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york - dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. you'll get a warm welcome in the new new york.

see if your business qualifies at startupny.com

this week, australia's prime minister called a search for flight 370, quote, the most difficult in human history. cnn's richard quest shows us just how difficult by crunching the numbers for us. >> proverbial needle in a haystack. how do you find the wreckage of

one plane floating in a vast ocean? at the end of march, the search area was roughly 123,000 square miles. which is little bigger than the state of new mexico. now, let's say the plane is a rectangle. nose to tail. it's about 209 feet. and wing tip to wing tip, it's 200 feet. so the square footage of a 777 is about 41,800 square feet. so to make this simpler, let's scale it down using mathematics and algebra. if the search area was, say, the empire state building, it's roughly like finding your wallet somewhere in the skyscraper. or let's say that search area is a football field. then it's like finding a pencil eraser. finally, to put this back in terms of water, let's consider that the search area is the same

as an olympic swimming pool. then it would be like trying to find a large grain of rice somewhere in that water. add darkness and ocean currents, and actually it's nothing like finding a needle in a haystack. it's much more difficult. >> so mr. quest -- >> yes. >> he joins us live. that's him right there. your piece is based on 123 mile square trek, but the actual search is 150 mile track, right? >> that was at the beginning when they first started. obviously it's a movable feast. but today's search area is 216,000 square kilometers. i'm going to have to turn to my fellow panelists who are more familiar with doing the conversion. what's 216,000 square kilometers in old money? >> don't ask me to do math. >> 1.6 kilometers to a mile, but i know it's not strictly that conversion when it comes to square miles.

>> gives you an idea of -- >> everybody's like, what, math, huh? >> way beyond pilot math. >> excuse me. >> then it gives you an idea of just how difficult this is. to find it. and as a person, some way, don, it makes it clear what we're talking about with what the chinese said we found joovernig, becomes a little more incredible. virtually at the last day, runoff period of the pinger period, they're searching in an area that wasn't on the official search map for this day and didn't report it through the jacc. it all just starts to become more difficult to follow through. >> yeah. did we figure out how much? no? >> no, but i will get on it in the commercial break and come right back to you. les and i are on it. >> thank you, guys. appreciate it. let's move on now. you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm don lemon.

thanks for joining us. top of the our. a new day dawns in the part of the world where the malaysian airline is missing. searchers came across something this weekend that perked up their ears. crews honed in on a series of pulses in the indian ocean just outside the search area. nothing is confirmed. so far, nothing links these pings to flight 370. in the words of one of our analysts, it's not out of the question. also from the air, chinese searchers spotted a field of floating white objects about 60 miles from where those pings were picked up. now here's the time problem. time problem here. if a pinger still is working in the water somewhere, it won't be for very much longer. its batteries are designed to operate for 30 days, maybe a few more days. that time is almost up now. live right now in perth, in western australia, that's where senior international correspondent matthew chance is. matthew, are search planes in the air again now and have these reported