or make money off those who do. drop a few moist bills in a gas station slot. see the full spectrum of human folly and commit some follies of folly and commit some follies of your own. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. just how bad is this going to get? fighting spreading across iraq as isis militants set their sights on baghdad. iraq's government pleading for american air strikes. the white house says nothing has been ruled out. nothing, that is, except sending u.s. combat troops. so what should we do now? our military experts are going to go head to head on this. plus an unprecedented attack on the president by a former vice president. dick cheney says it's all gone to pieces since the good old days of mission accomplished. meanwhile, the man who the white house says masterminded the benghazi attack is on a slow boat to the usa. plenty of time to interrogate him. should he be tried in a civilian

or military court? plus, love and death -- love on death row. he faced execution for the horrific west memphis child murders. now he is free and rebuilding his life with the woman who he fell in love with while he was still behind bars. damian echols and laurie davis they will their story. tweet us using the #askdon. dick cheney in an op-ed today in the "wall street journal" blasts president obama for, get this, his handling of iraq. that's right. pop, meet kettle. cheney, one of the architects of the iraq war, a crucial part of the team who got the u.s. into this mess in the first place, says this -- "rarely has a u.s. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." this from the man who helped use faulty intelligence. remember? weapons of mass destruction? none found. miscalculated the cost of the war. part of it, they said, paid for by iraq's oil revenues.

never happened. and misjudged just how long the conflict would last. quote, dick cheney back in 2003, "i think it will go quickly, weeks rather than months." it ended up lasting almost nine years. underestimated the price paid by our soldiers. speaking of american troops in iraq, quote, dick cheney back in 2003 again, "my belief is we will in fact be greeted as liberators." wrong again. 4,500 american service members lost their lives in the iraq war. here is the bottom line. the obama administration should and does hold responsibility for what's happened in iraq under its watch. but the fact that dick cheney has the gall to offer advice to anyone on iraq is laughable. except it's not funny. the former commander in chief who sent us to war, george w. bush, has done the classy thing and remained quiet. perhaps mr. cheney, with all due respect, you should do the same. have a seat. now let's go right to anderson cooper live in baghdad.

jim sciutto in washington tonight. isis fighters, anderson, have taken over a number of iraq's cities. are they expected to reach baghdad? >> reporter: you know, that is very much an open question. we know there are some 35 to 40 miles, the closest city they're in and fighting for is baquba. still, that battle's been going on for more than a day now. that's about as close as we know that they are in large numbers on the outskirts. obviously, there are insurgents, there are terrorist groups operating inside baghdad itself. we've seen a number of suicide blasts, roadside bombs, of car bombs and the like over the last several days. dozen of wounded. more than a dozen killed just yesterday. yesterday alone. so you know, it's a big question about whether or not they can actually come to the gates of the city. these are more shia-dominated areas. the shia fighters here that make up the iraqi military, a lot of these volunteers who have signed up to fight as well, they're highly motivated to protect shia

areas, less so to protect sunni areas, which an area like mosul, we all know what happened there. but don, you know, the fight that's going on up in baji, up in the north for the oil refinery, the largest oil refinery in iraq, one of three oil refineries in this country, that battle is said to be still raging. isis milt sxants their tsunami supporters control at last report that we had based on two local sources some 60% of that oil refinery. iraqi forces, hardened troops, anti-terror forces are still in control, the last report we got, about 40% of that facility. but that would be a major blow to the government here if that facility fell into the hands of isis. >> anderson, since we have you here, i want to talk to you about the reports of evacuations, kidnappings of foreign workers in iraq. how dangerous is the situation there for them now? >> reporter: you know, it certainly is very dangerous. obviously, the foreign workers from that baji facility, from the refinery, they were actually evacuated by a private security

firm before the battle took place. there were several dozen foreign workers, many germans and others. they got out. we know there are some indian workers from mosul who have allegedly been kidnapped, some turkish workers as well, as well as the turkish consulate there. you know, there's very real concern about kidnapping. and among all westerners, frankly, even operating in baghdad, security is a daily concern. you have to think about it all the time no matter where you go. >> jim sciutto in washington. we understand that vice president joe biden called iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki today. do you know what the two discussed? >> we do have a readout of the call. and what you heard from the vice president has been a consistent message really from the white house. he spoke with the prime minister about possible addition al military assistance but he said that would have to be part of a broader package that includes political agreement. and what does that mean for the iraqi prime minister? it means him doing what the administration says and the

iraqis say he hasn't been doing, and that is make his government truly inclusive. he's the shiite prime minister. the view in iraq is he is really the prime minister of the shia communities in iraq, not the n sunnis and not the kurds and that's seen as a root kauftz divisions you have right now. another day where the administration is delivering that message to the iraqi leader. >> the president has been weighing his options, jim, for days now on what action to take against isis. is there a sense of urgency about making this decision? >> well, the administration says yes, they are dealing with this with urgency but i think also with great care. partly because they want any military action to be coupled with political action as they've delivered in many messages to iraqi leaders. but also i believe, and i've heard this from administration officials, i've heard it from intelligence officials, they believe that iraq will hold, that iraq and the south, dominated by shiahs, that they

will -- that the military there, one, more loyal to the government and also the city of iraq, very much a majority shia city, because of those advantages it will be unlikely that isis can move through there. certainly not nearly as quickly as they did through the northern part of the country. the impression being that that gives the administration and others time to figure out what's the best next step. >> jim sciutto, thank you. anderson, thank you as well. make sure you stay safe in iraq. joining me now is jessica lewis, a research director for the institute for the study of war. she was stationed in iraq for 15 ms. as a u.s. army intelligence officer. u.s. general james spider marks. michael waltz is a senior national security fellow of the new america foundation and a former special adviser on counterterrorism to vice president dick cheney. and also nina burr lee, who covered the middle east and the president's foreign policy for "rolling stone." thank you all for joining us this evening. general marks, to you first. president obama has a big decision to make, whether to

hont iraqi government's request and send military air power to iraq now. should he do that? why or why not? >> well, he should do that. and as jim described, that the administration is acting with a surgeon general degree of urgency. i have to tell you, don, if this is urgent, i'd hate to see what deliberate looks like. they've had plenty of time to weigh all the various options. the concern obviously is how much time exists before maliki and his government are truly at risk, how can we weigh that vis-a-vis where isis is located just north of baghdad right now in baquba, and what does that timeline look like? and so balancing all of that, i have to assume that our national security council has a -- not only a granular but a credible picture of what maliki's survivability is. otherwise, we'd have to have aircraft in the air right now. so clearly there's a picture that we don't have right now that indicates that baghdad and the government is in pretty good shape, or at least sound for

now. my suggestion would be let's hedge our bets and let's put something in the air to help them out. >> i asked the general, jessica, about air strikes. but late today we got word that a moroccan sunni cleric has already called for attacks against u.s. embassies worldwide if the u.s. conducts air strikes in iraq. is retaliation against americans a real threat if the u.s. bombs iraq again? >> well, i think that we should expect that there are threats outside of iraq and syria that can potentially respond to action at this point. however, i think those threats were there already. so as concerns this example, that isn't necessarily the data point that is i think most compelling for me. i'm more concerned about what happens if i.s.i.s. retains control of the urban centers and the military bases in the northern portion of iraq that they currently have and how much stronger they become over time the longer they are able to maintain those positions. >> michael, you're a former adviser to vice president cheney and his daughter. they're making a lot of waves with the "wall street journal"

op-ed criticizing the president and an interview they just did on fox news. i want you to listen. >> we've got to go back and look at the track record. we inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody's mind about the extent of saddam's involvement in weapons of mass destruction. we had a situation where if we after 9/11, we were concerned about a follow-on attack that would involve not just airline tickets and box cutters as the weapons but rather something far deadlier, perhaps even a nuclear weapon. >> is he a credible critic, michael? >> absolutely, don, he's a credible critic. and i think the iraq criticism today is only one piece of his broader point. you know, let's look at from boko haram in nigeria to libya to al shabaab in somalia to the levant with syria and iraq. the middle east and north africa are literally crumbling.

libya in particular, the administration's key foreign policy victory is in shambles right now. and i think the world is crying out for american leadership and the vice president's underlying point is that that's been absent under this administration. >> but nina, you say -- you take a different point of view, i believe. you say the former vp and his daughter slimed obama today. explain that. >> well, listen, i don't know where vice president cheney went to college, but i think that he could have gone to a class in how to take a country apart and give it to a terrorist organization. that is exactly what seems to have happened here. they are not able to -- sorry. they're not -- they're not able to, you know, put any kind of blame on this president. as jay carney said, which president are they talking about here? i mean, they basically took a country apart.

they went in there. you know, halliburton got $7 billion in no-bid contracts before they went in. i mean, it's either they didn't know what they were doing or they did it out of greed. and i'm not saying greed is a bad thing. but i mean, that's what's happened here, i think. >> general marks, let me read part of the op-ed here and let you respond. he says, "rarely has a u.s. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. too many times to count mr. obama has told us he is ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan as though wishing made it so. his rhetoric has now come crashing into reality. watching the black-clad isis jihadists take territory once secured by american blood is final proof, if any were needed, that america's enemies are not decimated. they are emboldened on the march." so what do you think of the policies here? does dick cheney have any credibility when it comes to criticizing the obama administration when the faulty intelligence got us into the iraq war in the first place? >> well, don, i need to tell you

as the senior intel guy, when we went to war in iraq i was the guy that was holding the wmd bag and had to try to make sense of it. to the contrary, there were elements of wmd that we did find. but that's another story. clearly, there was some intelligence that was extremely faulty and was laid bare during the initial stages of the conflict in iraq. the issue that i have right now is that we could go back, and there clearly is plenty of blame. we rolled into iraq in 2003 far too few troops on the ground to really get a sense of what was going on. and then we decimated the military, told everybody to go away. so we created a vacuum into which all of what we've seen over the past decade -- >> the question is why are we going back -- why are we going back and fighting a war that has already been fought? shouldn't we be looking -- >> no, no -- >> shouldn't we be looking forward to -- >> well, of course. your question of me is what is vice president cheney saying

relative -- vis-a-vis what happened back in '03-04 and where we are today? so of course. all the could have, should have, would have stuff and all the pundits that are self-congratulatory, they predicted all the stuff that is going on, they all need to shut up. what needs to happen right now is this administration needs to step up and make sure that we don't have a failed state in iraq even more than it's failed right now or we've got a big problem going forward. so the problem has to be solved. and it includes maliki. as lousy as he is. we can't afford to increase distance and speed at the same time. let's give iraqis some -- the iraqi government some breathing space, and then let's deal with maliki post the some form of stabilization if we can help them achieve that. that's where we are right now. >> all right, everyone, hold your thoughts. stay with me. when we come right back, the surprising conservative voice who says liberals, you were right on iraq. also, is this man the man behind the benghazi attacks? and should a jury of american citizens decide his fate? i'm going to ask a former attorney general for the george

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breaking news i want to tell you about. a tornado touches down in the south central area of south dakota. damage is said to be significant in the town of wessington springs. people are reportedly trapped in rubble and the director of patient care at a local hospital

says the tornado struck only a block away. one person has sought treatment so far, but staffers are prepping for other patients to arri arrive. meantime, the national weather service also says an extremely dangerous tornado is heading toward the nearby town of alpena in south dakota. we're going to keep you updated on this story as soon as we get more information on it. now let's get back to iraq now. remember this speech by president george w. bush in 2003 declaring the end of major combat in iraq. >> major combat operations in iraq have ended. in the battle of iraq the united states and our allies have prevailed. [ applause ] and now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. >> so we all know how that worked out. but now are we on the verge of history repeating itself? so back with me now is jessica lewis, major general spider marks, michael waltz, and also nina burleigh. jessica, i want to ask but the main concern that many in the

administration, is that the political leadership in iraq is not equipped to pull the country together. you're an expert in this area. is that an accurate assessment? >> i think it's a very fair concern, that we don't just face a threat from i.s.i.s., this former al qaeda group that is gaining territory in iraq and syria. iraq may very well now be in a sectarian civil war, which was the object of this group to create the circumstance in iraq because it's what provides best for their islamic state ultimately. but there is a big question in my mind as to whether or not the sunnis in northern iraq are ever going to stand with maliki again. >> the question too is how this has become so politicized. it's very politicized. nina, i want you to listen to what glenn beck had to say today, and then we'll talk. >> they said we couldn't force freedom on people. you know what? let me lead with my mistakes. you're right. liberals, you were right.

we shouldn't have. >> why is it so tough for people on the political right to admit that there's -- that they may have been wrong and that they were wrong about the war back in 2003? and now we have this -- people now who are defending the former vice president and defending the decision to go to war. is this a no-win situation? do we all just assume that the other countries want democracy just like ours? >> well, i'm glad you asked me that, don. i am probably one of the people here who knows the most about iraq because my mother is an iraqi christian from kirkuk. and those of us who knew anything about the country culturally in 2003 when this was beginning were making all sorts of noise about how it's much more complicated, this is a -- it was a heterogeneous society. it was not in sectarian warfare until it was taken apart and

dismantled. and i understand the urge not to talk about history, as the gentleman in the earlier segment mentioned. i understand that. but you can't -- we will repeat history if we don't understand how complicated this is. and that's why i think obama is right to begin to bring in the iranians and to start talking to other people in the region about this, people who will stand up against these people. you can't keep on talking about weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction, terrorists, terrorists. there is a -- there are civilians living there. they live together in relative peace. yes, the dictator was a horrendous person, horrendous, horrendous person. but we americans, most americans, my fellow panelists here do not understand that country. you know, you can go over there and you can, you know, sit there with the military in the green zone, but you don't understand

the fabric of it, and it's a problem because then we rush back in, we rushed in in 2003, we rush in again, and you'll repeat -- you'll repeat the problem. >> i want to let the general respond. go ahead, general. >> well, she did a very good job of essentially insulting all of us. i think -- and i completely respect her personal perspective on this. the concern that i have is the sunni, shia, and kurd challenges that exist in iraq will not be resolved externally. it's going to have to be done internally. having said, that there is a government in iraq that has to survive in order to move forward. maliki has to be gone post some form of stabilization. there has to be a more inclusive government. and i think we would all agree to that. that's not provocative in the least. it's how do we get to that next step so that we can achieve the step after that, which is some form of reconciliation that

allows this government to be inclusive and allows this incredibly rich, educated, vibrant society to grow. and frankly, it's very difficult to kind of keep that all inbounds right now. >> michael, david petraeus spoke about this. i want you to listen and then you can respond. let's listen. >> this cannot be the united states being the air force for shia militias or a shia on sunni arab fight. it has to be a fight of all of iraq against extremists who do happen to be sunni arabs, but extremists that are wreaking havoc on a country that really had an enormous opportunity back in 2011. >> michael, should we just stay out of it at this point? >> don, absolutely not. i agree with spider that we have to have some type of political rekconciliation that includes al of these groups. unfortunately, i don't think

prime minister maliki is going to be able to be that leader. right now he's the prime minister of the shia, not the prime minister of iraq. and the level of trust between him and the other groups is absolutely broken. he will have to go. what do we do then to buy space till we get to that point? i think we're going to need some special forces on the ground that are going to be able to give us the intelligence we'll need to beat back isis, to create that political breathing room that will allow for reconciliation. don, i think we're in real danger here of essentially having a partitioned state with the kurds in the north, a sanctuary for al qaeda from syria down to iraq, and then having essentially an iranian-backed rump state from ba baghdad southward with the shia and what's left of iraq. and that's bad for the region. >> and jessica, quickly here, does that mean isis in the

meantime continues to strengthen? >> yes. i think that it does. i think they have many phases of many campaigns that they have executed prior to this one such that my imagination runs very quickly to what else most dangerously they could yet be capable to do. but i think even most conservative assessments hold that they gained strength over the course of this most recent offensive. if only through the military equipment that they've been able to achieve military control over and the prisoners that they've been able to escape from prisons in mosul. >> jessica lewis, major general james spider marks, michael waltz and nina burleigh, appreciate your time. up next the benghazi terror suspect in u.s. custody is likely to be tried in civilian court not by the military. is that the right move? answers coming up. olks think abt what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing.

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tonight, libyan terror suspect ahmed abu khatallah is being interrogated aboard a navy ship headed slowly to the united states. he's an alleged leader of the attack on the u.s. diplomatic post in benghazi that killed four americans. the obama administration plans to try him in federal court, not before a military commission. joining me now to discuss all of this is michael muck aasey. so good to have you here. >> good to be here, don. >> they chose to transport khatallah on a ship instead of a plane to have maximum time to interrogate him. in the past he would have gone straight to guantanamo bay. in your opinion is that what should happen? >> should he be fwrot guantanamo bay or she be taken on a snip. >> should he be brought to guantanamo bay? >> i don't know that it much matters at this point.

the administration is committed not to bring anybody to guantanamo bay and there's no way to force them to do it. i think what's monitor is to get as much intelligence out of him as possible to get for however long it takes. and if he's on a ship that's fine. >> on a slow boat as we said. plenty of time to intergate him until he gets to the united states. >> right. >> i want to talk to you about hillary clinton. she spoke about that last night in her town hall with christiane amanpour. let's listen. >> now that we have khatallah in custody, hopefully we will learn more, at least from his perspective. the reason it takes long is to put together cases, which is what the fbi and other law enforcement agencies were doing. they have to piece it together just as we started piecing it together on the night of the attack. we want to know who was behind it, what the motivation of the leaders and attackers happened to be. there are still some unanswered questions. >> so you think that interrogation will be successful and the tactics that they will

use? >> i'm certainly hopeful it will be. it's going to be down by people with a lot of experience and hopefully people with a body of long. don't forget, they've had two years to investigate this case while this guy's been giving interviews and downing strawberry fraps in benghazi. so they know a good deal about him. >> who knew you had such a sense of humor, michael mukasey. i want to bring in -- >> well, he has been downing strawberry frappes. >> what happens once he gets off the ship in the united states? what's the next step? >> he is tried in the american criminal justice system, which has been enormously successful in prosecuting terrorists. there's this weird dichotomy that has been established. it's like oh, let's be tough and put them in guantanamo or let's be easy and let him be prosecuted by the justice department. and in fact, the successes have been by the justice department

and the catastrophic failures and delays having been in guantanamo. the idea this is going easy on him or behaving appropriate inappropriately for the prevths country seems absurd. they're doing exactly what they should be doing. >> mr. mukasey. >> well, i think the dichotomy that's been drawn is a little exaggerated. first of all, the military commissions that are being run in guantanamo are not being run the way military commissions were run in world war ii. what they've done is neeshl to make them as much like civilian trials as possible. and put a good deal of obstruction in the way of the procedure. they also can't try cases involving material assistance to terrorism because that's not a recognized war crime. and they can't try conspiracy. so in essence, what they've said is we just poured glue in your watch and it doesn't work so, you might as well throw it away. i don't think that's a good argument. >> hey, jeffrey, can i ask you

about miranda rights? apparently he has not been read his miranda rights. should those rights be read or does that not matter at this point? >> i don't think it matters. people i don't think frankly have a very good idea of what miranda rights mean. all miranda rights mean is that anything you say before your miranda rights are given can't be used in a criminal case against you. however, all of that information can be used for intelligence purposes. it can be used against other people. they would not have arrested him if they didn't have enough evidence to convict him already. so they weren't giving up anything by failing to read him his miranda rights. and i think that whole miranda thing is basically a red herring. the justice department knows how to do this. i frankly find it shocking that attorney general mukasey, someone who ran the best law enforcement agency in the world, is disparaging the ability of

the justice department to do this job. i mean, why would you do that, judge mukasey? >> i don't know what you've been listening to. i haven't been disparaging the ability of the justice department at all. i think they're very able and they've had an excellent record. and there's no doubt in my mind as to the skill with which this case is going to be prosecuted. i think it might be prosecuted better if it were done in either the eastern district of virginia or the southern district of new york. but that's their decision. >> but that's -- >> it will be prosecuted well regardless of where they prosecute it. and as you say, they've had two years to investigate it. i'm sure they wouldn't have arrested this guy had they not had enough to convict him without his statements. >> but the idea that guantanamo is a good place for anyone at this point just seems -- seems preposterous. that's been a failure. guantanamo has been a disaster. >> you keep repeating that. guantanamo has three advantages that as far as i know aren't possessed by any facility in the united states, in that it is remote, secure, and humane. >> okay. that will have to be the last word on that. we're never going to get to solve that.

but listen, i want to ask you. i'd be remiss in not asking you about this, about the former vice president's scathing op-ed in the "wall street journal," he and his daughter, that he wrote today. you served with him in the bush administration. can you understand why given the miscalculations and mishandling of this war that many say dick cheney is in no position to criticize anyone, especially the president? >> well, i can understand people making the statement. i think that the record shows that whatever mishandling occurred in iraq occurred after the invasion and at a time when the decision was made to frankly take that government apart instead of trying to bring people in and have them -- >> but how can you say that when the whole reason we went to war was faulty? that the mishandling happened after the invasion? and event mission accomplished -- >> the war -- >> the decision to bring in more troops -- >> excuse me. it was based on faulty intelligence as to what he had at the time. there was also --

>> but hang on. it wasn't just faulty intelligence. it was also the way that the administration interpreted the intelligence that they got. it wasn't just the faulty intelligence. it was the interpretation of the intelligence as well. >> understand something. at the time that we went into iraq during the first iraq -- during the first iraq war to get them out of kuwait, the united states was enormously surprised at how far saddam hussein had gone in developing an atomic weapons program. remember that the israelis bombed an atomic reactor in 1981. so he was dead set on getting atomic weapons. sanctions were degrading at the time that we invaded in 2003. we thought he was further along at that time than he was. >> yeah. i have to run, though. >> if you want to do some counterfactual history, imagine him staying in power and competing with the iranians to be the first kid on the block to get the islamic bomb. >> i understand that. with all due respect, though, nothing was found. no weapons of mass destruction. it took nine years longer than they promised and also cost

trillions of dollars more, almost $2 trillion more than they estimated. thank you very much, mr. mukasey. thank you very much, jeffrey toobin. appreciate that. coming up, love behind bars. next we'll meet a couple who met while he was on death row. now they're building a new life together. but first, cnn's original series "the sixties." watch tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern. now here's your "sixties" minute. >> we will prevail in vietnam. >> 14,000 american dead. the war in vietnam has become the most divisive in 100 years. >> what vietnam did is introduce us to a new kind of america, one that was not pure. >> can't expect to do your job and feel pity for these people. >> the vietcong and the north vietnamese didn't play by our rules. >> these people are being killed and they're being killed why? >> i don't think it's worth fighting for and i don't think we can get out. >> we started to distrust your own leaders because you started to say well, they're lying to us. >> i can assure you that we

intend to carry on. ♪ stop, hey, what's that sound ♪ everybody look what's going down ♪ >> as the casualties mounted, that was turning the public in this country against the war. >> david miller publicly burned his draft card. >> lyndon johnson realized he was no longer in charge of the war. the war was in charge of him. >> "the sixties," tomorrow night at 9:00 on cnn. k... [ meows ] ...and let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ] ...that secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. cisco. tomorrow starts here. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes,

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and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? damien echols was one of the west memphis three. and believe it or not, his wife to-be met him for the first time while he was on death row and married him while he was still in a maximum security unit. jean casarez has their story of love behind bars. >> for me, it was just an average day. there was nothing out of the ordinary about that day. so there's nothing in it that really stands out in my mind. >> reporter: may 5th, 1993, the bodies of three second graders lay in an arkansas ditch riddled with lacerations, skulls fractured, their hands and feet bound with their own shoelaces. the genitals of one of the boys severely mutilated. in the little town of west

memphis, rumors spread fast about a satanic ritual killing. law enforcement went with the lead and rounded up three local teenagers, including 18-year-old damien echols. echols and his friends were all charged with murder and faced the death penalty. >> i'm being put on trial for three murders that i know i didn't do. i'm only 18 years old. my entire world had been destroyed. >> reporter: the teens were convicted and echols sentenced to die. but the story doesn't end there. it was just beginning. many, including celebrities like johnny depp, were convinced the three were innocent and joined their fight for freedom. the men became known as the west memphis three. gaining national attention with an hbo documentary on the case. >> i tried to watch it. i made it part of the way through the first one, and it was literally like being there in the courtroom again. and it's too much. it was an overload. >> reporter: but in new york

city, a young woman couldn't keep her eyes off the screen. lorri davis wrote a letter to echols in 1996, and a love affair quickly blossomed. three years after davis' first letter, she and echols were married in arkansas's tucker maximum security unit. but their story of love behind bars is not unique. even the most notorious convicted killers have attracted outside admirers, and relationships often blossom across the prison walls. >> i think many of the women who are seeking out prisoners, even without their own knowledge are looking for someone who can't actually commit to an ongoing relationship. they find it thrilling, and at the same time it's safe, right, because he is behind bars. in fact, these are killers that are probably never coming out. >> the hillside stranglers, two california cousins, were convicted of brutally killing ten young women. >> killing a broad doesn't make any difference to me. >> reporter: they both married behind bars.

so did lyle and eric menendez, convicted of killing their own parents. even scott peterson sentenced to death for killing his wife and their unborn son received at least two marriage proposals his very first day on death row, say prison officials. for echols and davis, though, the story holds an unusual twist, a happy ending. in 2011 prosecutors made a deal with the west memphis three, and they were granted release. echols took his last walk along death row to freedom. and the love of his life. jean casarez, cnn. >> theirs is a true love story and it's testament to you never know who you're going to find love and where you're going to find love. we're going dig deeper with this story coming up right after this break.

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humans. even when we cross our "ts" and dot our "i's", we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. if you qualify, your rates won't go up due to your first accident. because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. we also offer new car replacement, so if you total your new car, we'll give you the money for a new one. call liberty mutual insurance at... and ask us all about our auto features, like guaranteed repairs, where if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, the repairs are guaranteed for life.

so call... to talk with an insurance expert about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? what is life like after being in prison for close to two decades and then also falling in love in prison and getting married? joining me now is damien echols, known as one of the west memphis three who met his wife lorri while he was on death row. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> listen, i'm all about transparency.

you took issue to the story. you did not like being compared to some of the people who found love, so to speak, behind bars, right? >> i certainly did. >> why not? >> because i'm not a woman who fell in love with a murderer. i'm a woman who is educated, who educated herself about a case about an innocent man. and yes, we did fall in love and we married. i worked on his case for 16 years. i worked with the legal team. it's completely different. i don't associate myself with anyone else. whatever anyone else is their business. but i don't want to be associated with it. >> i understand. and you want to be in charge of how your story is old. >> exactly. >> any of would want. i would want the same thing. and that's what you're doing in this book. do you want to respond to that before we move on and talk about the book? >> yeah, it's, you know, for me i've been called just about everything a human being can be called at one point or another. so things like that don't get to me as much. but it's like, you know, you

always want to protect the people you love, your loved ones, the people you care about. so it hurts me whenever lorri is hurt, whenever she has to, you know, deal with things like that. >> well, listen, we didn't mean to hurt anyone. so we apologize for that. >> thank you. >> but on a more positive note, what was it like to have someone -- obviously, she's gorgeous. falling in love with you. you thought your life was over. she went and saw you in a documentary, a film about you. >> yes. >> wrote you a letter. >> yes. >> and you responded. she couldn't believe it. and you guys started communicating by letter and then by phone and you met. what was that like? >> you know, from the very beginning, from the very first letters i received from lorri, i knew this was someone completely and absolutely unlike anyone i'd ever known before. you know, i'd received letters from people all over the world because of the documentaries about the case and everything else. but lorri had a way of seeing things that most people wouldn't think anything about. just everyday mundane things that she would see them in a way or describe them in a way that made them seem almost magical. and it would make me want to see

the world the way she saw the world. it sort of made me want to be a little bit more like her. and no one had ever done that. i had never felt that with anyone before. and i think we fell in love really quickly and the relationship progressed very rapidly. >> what made you believe in him? was it the first letter? i think it was in the first letter where i think he wrote i knew from the very beginning that there had to be something bigger, something good to come out of all of this. is that when you felt completely that he was not guilty? of what he was accused of. >> no. i saw "paradise lost" in 1996, the first documentary made about the case. and from that film you can take away that there's been an injustice, definitely has happened. you don't get the whole story. but i took the time to go to the library. the internet was fledgling at the time. so i went to the library. i researched the case. i went through microfiche. i did everything i could. >> microfiche. you're dating yourself. >> yes. this is 1996.

>> right. >> i found out everything i could about the case and read the first appeal filed. i knew a lot about the case going into it, as much as was available at the time. so i knew enough to know that, yes, i believed he was innocent. >> you guys finally met. you ended up moving, right? down south. you quit your job here in new york city as a landscape architect, correct? you were making great money and you said you were making i think you said a quarter of what you were making this new york city but you wanted to be close to him. and you moved down, and then two years later you eventually married. you guys had never touched. you were speaking through glass. and then the first time you touched was what? >> our wedding ceremony. >> here's a -- everyone -- did you consummate your marriage then or when you got out? >> no. the whole time you're in prison we weren't even allowed to touch for the first four years together. after we were married, we were allowed to sit in the same room together, but that's it. we still -- you know, you have prison guards around you all the time watching you constantly.

but at least we were allowed to be together after that. >> i have to say, if you don't believe that's love, that is love. and to stick with someone for that long, and the little things we take for granted like being able to speak to someone on the phone at will, see them at will, and even sleeping in the same bed, we take those things for granted. >> exactly. >> yeah. thank you. this -- it's called "a love story on death row: yours for eternity." and it's by dame sxwren ien and echols davis. thank you. it's a beautiful book. i appreciate it. i love reading some of the letters. a true love story. >> thank you. >> we will be right back. re awks than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you.

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time now for "cnn tonight." tomorrow. the stories you'll be talking about tomorrow. first, the vatican moves to quash suggestions that pope francis is ill simply because his public schedule has been cut back in july. a spokesman said, "there is no sickness whatsoever, and the 77-year-old pope will work less because it is summertime." meanwhile, an offensive tackle against the washington redskins. the u.s. patent office cancels

the nfl team's redskins trademarks, saying they're offensive to native americans. the team has been under pressure to dropt redskins name, but so far has resisted and vows to appeal. that's for us tonight. i'm don lemon. i'm don lemon. thank you so much for watching. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com up next, a wealthy businessman is killed by an intruder. >> there's blood everywhere. >> can you tell where he was shot? >> no. >> investigators find a wide-ranging conspiracy. >> the murder had been planned out. >> other people not only knew about it, but had then asked to participate. >> friends turn on friends. >> i didn't do anything. >> it didn't seem to be sinking in with him how deep he was involved. >> but to get the killer, one piece of evidence had to be identified. >> all these high school kids had been involved, and perhaps one of them did it.