keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carol cnn. thanks as always for your comments. anks for joining me today. i'm carol costello. cnn newsroom continues right now with ashleigh banfield. >> thank you so much. hi, everybody. i'm ashleigh banfield. it is 11:00 in the west and 8:00 in the west. let's get right to it, shall we. the man at the center of a royaling debate over abortion and the gop's platform finally giving in to his party's demands. halfway. missouri congressman and would be senator todd akin who has been hammered and hammered and hammered by his own party tore skip the gop convention and then drop out of the missouri senate race all together says he will bow to his party's wishes and won't go to the quoengs in tampa on monday but says he is not going away. no way, no how. in fact,ing in two network tv

interviews this morning it, akin said he's staying in the senate race and he's planning to win it. as you probably heard, the social conservative and member of the tea party caucus set off a firestorm when he suggested that "legitimate rape rarely causes pregnancy and that the female body can somehow shut owl that down, all that conception from unwanted sex. now to his credit, he has since apologized. not once, not twice, he has done this over and over and over. it's called mea culpa, folks. he has admitted he was misinformed and said so on the tv network shows this morning. take a look at good morning america". >> i was medically wrong. i understand that pregnancy can result from rape and those are terrible circumstances, very difficult circumstances. >> you know you remember the house science committee. a lot of people are wondering how an idea like that could even

get in your head. >> well, that's the point of the matter is is that yes, pregnancy can happen as a result of rape. i understand that. and i've acknowledged that fact. >> how about this issue. >> at the same time, i don't apologize for the fact that i'm consistently pro-life. and i believe in defend thing the unborn. i believe that based on those kinds of principles, we can win this race. a sharp contrast between me and my opponent. >> how does this issue of false claims of rape come about? how is this relevant to the case? are you suggesting, suggesting that babies are being killed because women make false claims of rape? a lot of people believe the much bigger problem is women are afraid to come forward after an incident because of shame or fear. >> well, i believe that what you just said is true. and i think there are many victims of rape. and it is extremely serious as i said, it's a violent crime.

it leaves permanent scars. and it's -- in that regard, that's why i apologize because i said hurtful things. i don't apologize for being pro-life and standing up for the ones who are defenseless and that is a deep conviction that i have. >> okay. fair point. earlier, congressman akin sent out a tweet asking supporters for cash and claim "the liberal media are trying to make me drop out." hold the phone. that would be me. and presumably some of my friends over at msnbc. but that i can a look at this graphic. the line of thrones. apparently these men you see here that would it be mitt romney, reince priebus, john boehner, mitch mcconnellal, john cornyn. i'm not so sure they're members of the liberal media. some call them the gop brass. all of those men have encouraged that congressman to get out of the senate race.

i have not even yet mentioned the v.p. candidate paul ryan. in his interview with nbc, mr. akin let on, don't ask me why, but he kind of let it out there that mitt romney's running mate who agrees with him on the absolute rejection of abortion rights gave him a dingell, called him up and asked him to step aside. i know. i'm shaking my head too here. lest we suggest the grand old party is uniformly opposed to reproductive freedom, no. you should know this. many republicans do consider themselves strongly pro-choice and they consider their party's leaders out of step. i want you to meet ann stone. she heads a group called republicans for choice. i guess that's exactly what we were just talking about. and she joins me this morning from tampa. tampa, which tells me, ms. stone, that you want your voice to be heard in tampa on monday. how is that going to go?

>> well, considering that this has been the most locked down convention i've ever been involved with, and i've been involved with several, it's going to be kind of tough. >> so let me get some folks up to speed on what scott brown, senator brown incumbent senator said yesterday. he was pretty upset about the gop platform calling for a human life amendment in that party platform. he wrote a letter saying come on, guys, reconsider this. he wrote this to priebus. he said if we're going to grow and succeed in all parts of this great nation, we must be a big tent party. there are people of good will on both sides of the abortion issue and we need to send a message to voters that there is room in the republican party for differing perspectives. >> you differ, he differs from the platform. isn't that what a convention is all about, talking, despite the fact there's the platform? aren't you all hurt? isn't it already a big tent?

>> it's supposed to be, but sometimes it feels rather small, feels more like a pup tent than it does the big tent. and in fact, we're here to show the american publicing that in fact, a majority of the party actually disagrees with the direction this platform has taken. if we weren't here, you wouldn't know that. >> kind of depends how you ask the question. because if you look at poll numbers they differ. if somebody asks me are you pro-choice or pro-life, i may choose a label. when you push me further and say okay, let's say you're pro-life. who gets -- who gets control over your body, you your doctor or your government. the answer may differ incredibly. >> well, in fact, that is the case that when you ask people who self-label as pro-life, they will actually are pro-choice. they may be personally pro-life but they want the woman to make the decision. so the bottom line is that the republicans are fooling themselves if they think that

they could ever take this right away from women without having an outright revolution. i mean, it would be amazing if they will tried to do that. i think they actually know that deep in their hearts. >> what i find amazing, i was reading john avlon's column yesterday and he said the paradox here is that republicans don't like big government. and yet, forcing a woman to take an unwanted baby to term is essentially saying keep your hands in my body, and i am struggling with that and i wonder how many other republicans struggle with that, as well. ann, thank you for joining us. i'd love to hear back from you how things go at the convention. >> okay. thanks. >> guess who else is going to tampa? rhymes with widen. find out more about it, wolf blitzer joins me with all of the things political and what the implications are coming up at 20 past the hour. and now i want to take you overseas. a journalist's last moments harrowing. and it's all on video.

just before she was killed in a gun battle in syria, a japanese journalist maked mikai yamamoto spent the last several moments of her life filming the horror in aleppo. you can hear a gunshot and hauntingly, that footage ends. take a look. >> and that's it. joining me live from beirut, lebanon is arwa damon. when i see things like this, it reminds me every day this is one of the most dangerous if not the most dangerous place in the

world for everyone. not just the civilians there but people like you who get yourselves into that country and out as fast as you can and try to get the story. and the last reminder of this is mika. >> it certainly is. i have the goose butches just listening to that having watched the video earlier. her colleague is also her husband and i was watching an interview that was done with him and he was talking about how the syrian troops that fired on them could not have been more than 30 meters, say around 100 feet away from them. he believes that they could have been able to see that she was, in fact, a woman and fired on her nonetheless. he was saying that it just goes to show how the syrian security forces are not really discriminating. they must have somehow known she was a foreigner, that she was most likely a journalist to have put herself in that situation. she also was yet another of those individuals who firmly believed in the fundamental purpose of what she was doing, and the fundamental need to keep

getting the story out despite the risks. but according to the committee to protect journalists, there have been at least 209 journalists killed since the uprising began. the tragedy of it all, there are likely to be more, as well. at the end of the day, we do have to keep going to these areas. >> the latest development today, i don't think it's good news for anybody but it may not be a surprise. the deputy prime minister as intractable as ever suggesting if the rebels have a condition of an sass stepping aside, they can just forget it. >> exactly. that has pretty much been the government's position from the on set. they have always said they're open to negotiations with genuine opposition as they tend to call it. calling the rebels themselves and the fighting force to be this foreign-backed terrorist organization but they have always said that absolutely in no way, shape, or form will assad stepping down take place before any sort of negotiation

has even begun. this is a red line for both sides because the opposition most certainly is not going to sit down at the negotiating table as long as president assad is still in power. this is yet another example of how polarized and hardened these two sides are against one another. many will tell you at this point in time, there is no way that will any sort of political dialogue is going to be a solution. this very much is a battle until the very bitter end. >> yeah, normally i end by staying stay safe. i'm glad you're in beirut but we know this conflict is spilling over into the country where you are, as well. stay stay of. and thank you for that. some sticks for you. just today, 44 people killed according to the opposition groups in that war. great shot.

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prince. in a vegas hotel room. and look behind, there's somebody else. and she's a she. this is the latest in a string of pr headaches for harry over the years. let me take you back, shall i? remember this, harry the nazi? he was posing at a halloween party in a nazi uniform? not good. and then photos like this party on, man. he was at a bar in canada. and then also other photos spilling out fighting on the streets, et cetera, et cetera. joining us now is tom up psychs. he reports on all things british and the royalty for "the daily beast" with us by skype. we've got the headphones. okay, tom. you should have heard the conversation around this newsroom this morning. it ranged from there he goes again to god, this guy can't get a break. is this youthful high jinks? exactly how is this going to be dijested not only among viewers but royals? >> well, i think that the real

problem with this for harry 0 on a kind of personal level, it will probably volleyball that strange effect of making him for popular, people saying it's just harry mucking about. i think that the real problem for harry is that it demonstrates just such appalling judgment. i mean, you know, to play a game of strip poker, strip billiards, hey, so what. but to do so with a number of girls you've just met on you know in the casino at las vegas? i mean, it was a very funny tweet this morning somebody commented, hey, what's the world coming to when you can't trust a girl you just met in las vegas in you know, and i kind of feel like the real tragedy of this for harry is that over the past 18 months, really since the royal wedding, you know, he hasn't really put a foot wrong. he's been building very

carefully and very slowly really being rehabilitated from being this kind of youthful. >> exactly. that's why i opened this segment with those olympic images. he seemed to be -- we almost forgot about all of the silliness early and thought he had grown out of it. now gosh, this might show how old i am. but the first thing i thought was oh, just like his uncle andy, randy andy. now i feel he's going to be branded once again as dirty harry. if this was a princess, there there would be no way anybody would give him a pass. >> that is a really interesting point is that harry gets away with a lot still because you know, with such an inherently sexist society that it's okay for a guy to do this, yeah. if this was beatrice or eugenie, forget about it. i think that the thing that sort of really is going to be interesting over the next couple

of weeks can what role is harry going to have now in the paralympics? now because the paralympics event obviously opening in london next week. harry wasn't supposed to be opening that. but he was expected to attend a number of events, and i spoke to buckingham palace this morning and they are suggesting that he may still attend some events at the paralympics. so i think that will be very interesting to see really, but i think it's very, very bad, if the so much just for harry but for the whole royal family. i think it's particularly embarrassing for prince charles. and i'll tell you why. there's been a bit of a power struggle in the british royal family over the past year. and charles has really sidelined prince andrew and beatrice and eugenie, his daughters, the princesses. you may remember after the jubilee, the balcony appearance was restricted to just charles,

william and harry. so there was charles saying this is the future, this is the royal family of the future. obviously, it was charles who lobbied for him to be given that tremendous honor of representing the queen at the closing of the olympics. and i think there's a lot of egg on charles' face over this. for harry, he'll laugh it off. >> he may but he's third in line to the throne. that is not going away. tom, i'm fresh out of time on this one. thank you very much. i will want to see what happens at the paralympics. we'll have to get you to join us again. thank you, tom sikes of the daily beast. by the way, a ballast official does say that harry third in line to the throne was in las vegas on vacation, remember he's active military and he was returning to duty. ♪

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chinese state media has a warning for us. the united states. don't fan the flames in this region. tough words. those statements come after united states marines this week were conducting military exercises in the western pacific, including some exercises with our ally japan. here's the problem.

the tensions between japan and china right now are really going up. and it's all over who controls a series of uninhabited islands in the east china sea. islands up till now really no one knew about or cared about except these twos countries. they are islands that are administered by japan but china says it's the rightful owner of the islands. and on sunday, ten japanese activists landed on one of those islands and you guessed it, they stuck a flag right there on the island. a japanese flag. that sparked some really violent protests across china and the united states could end up right in the middle. here's chris lawrence with the latest. >> it's a frightening scenario. american troops backing their japanese allies, drawn into a conflict with china. and fighting over nothing more than some uninhabited islands

and a few rocks. u.s. marines and japanese troops are beginning new exercises like this one, practicing how to recapture occupied islands. a defense official says it's just part of the marines' annual requalification training and not drengt e directed at any particular nation. china doesn't see it that way. on tuesday, a state editorial warned the u.s. not to the "fan the flame in the region," and suggested the situation could spiral out of control. >> tensions are clearly rising. >> all of this over a small cluster of islands that no one even lives on. the islands are privately administered by the japanese but the chinese claim they will are the rightful owners. >> these guyses have to work this out. we're not going to take a side with it. >> while officially neutral, the u.s. defense treaty means it would have to back japan in a military confrontation over these islands. >> i think hinds the scenes the

united states is probably encouraging all parties including japan to not take any actions that are going to further cause tensions to potentially spiral out of control. >> like recent incidents in which chinese protesters turned violent. and japanese nationalists waved their flag. >> translator: this is japan's territory. >> reporter: the u.s. is signaling it will support japan's security if not its sovereignty claim. the pentagon has traditionally conducted surveillance flights for anti-submarine warfare operations near japan. >> we've upgraded those capabilities. and are now going to in the future potentially fly drones over that area, which would provide better surveillance capabilities so that there would be more situational awareness of actually what is taking place in that region. >> reporter: the u.s. military

says they are going ahead with the exercises, which they point out are some 2,000 kilometers away from these disputed islands. they say the marines need to be requalified and this in no way is meant to target any particular nation. chris lawrence, cnn. the pentagon. >> and chris is going to stay on the story at the pentagon and report for us if there's any change, particularly when it comes to us and our position in the story. the military, and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different.

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republicans are flocking to tampa ahead of the party convention and it is just five days away. did you get your ticket yet? it's going to be tough to get one. guess what? one or two democrats are making the trip, as well. take a look. >> hey, guys, who's going to flo with me? any of you going to be in florida? well, i'm the speaker at the convention. it's good to see you guys.

thanks for covering it. >> that's adorable but highly unlikely. that is vice president joe biden. he is going to be playing something we call the new political game bracketing where surrogates turn up at events at the opposing campaign. that's one big opposing event. wolf blitzer is front and center with all the political stories. can joe biden do much to steal thunder? with all of the people going to be at the convention, that sounds like you're really surrounded. >> it's it's one hinge to do some bracketing as they call it by sending debbie wasserman-schultz, the chair of the democratic national committee, the congresswoman or to send robert gibbs from the obama campaign or robert axelrod or you know whatever stephanie cutter from the campaign. >> david axelrod i meant. >> it's one thing to do that. it's another thing to send the sitting vice president of the united states right into the tampa at the time of the republican convention.

i don't remember when a sitting vice president has gone in, if you will, into the lion's den at the time of the other party's convention and done that, but clearly he wants to do that. he's going to do some fund-raising, do a political rally down there. florida as you know and all viewers know is a key battleground state. it's probably going to be decisive. it's very close down there. so he wants to go in there. i suspect, i'll be down in tampa for the republican convention in, charlotte for the democratic convention. i suspect joe biden will get some publicity which is what they want. they don't want the republicans to have a free ride, if you will, at entire week and let them make their infomercial go forward at the inquired. >> they've been girded for it to happen to them, too. speaking of that, the charlotte convention, they listed the democrats put out a new batch of convention speakers. i sense a theme as i read through this list. caroline kennedy, lilly leadbetter, sandra fluke, eva

long goria, cecile richards, planned parenthood. is this a coinkidink or are they seizing on the women people. >> the president needs toe even expand that gap he's got in favor of him among women voters out there. he's got a pretty impressive gap right now if you look at the latest nbc/with you veet journal poll or the abc/boast poll. women, that's part of his base by and large. certainly he needs that because he's not doing all that well among men voters especially vite male voters across the united states. so he needs to balance that off. if he's going to get himself re-elected, he's got to the get that base out there. they have to show up on election day, women, young people, minorities, hispanics, others. he's got to expand that because the other side -- they've got their base pretty much in line right now. i think paul ryan has really helped mitt romney get that

republican conservative tea party base on board the romney bandwagon so the president's going to have to do well with his base. it's going to be tough. >> they'll want the big bounce going out of the convention. the obama ticket right now is the leading the romney ticket 48-44. wolf, i thank you profusely. you are brilliant and lovely all at the same time. i want to make sure everybody knows they can tune into wolf's program "the situation room" live every day 4:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. >> thank you ashleigh. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity,

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(train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. so i'm reading through the papers, and i get to this story and i think immediately, i have got to call my good friend chad meyers because he's the smartest guy i know when it comes to stuff like this. here's what it is i'm talking about. first of all, a bad weather system that could derail the convention. more in a moment and then this. awesome pictures out of ecuador. look at that. i know this happens all the time. i know there are volcanoes all over the earth, but rarely do you get to see pictures like this. this is spewing ash and vapor

two and a half miles into the air. look at nighttime looks like fourth of july. remarkable and dangerous because 110 families have had to be poofed in this ecuadorian mess. chad, i might not have ever known about this particular volcano but for those amazing pictures. >> officially i am now your phone a friend. >> you're my phone friend. >> you're up for $1 million, you can call me. make sure you get my number. it's a cool volcano. erupting since 1999, erupts about every other year and active for 13 years. this is what the people there see at night. that's cool to look at but not cool to libby. not in my backyard kind of thing there. so they are evacuating some people, not atypical. this goes all the time there. >> let me move to isaac. i always love a good tropical storm and the science behind it, but not when it's going to derail a convention. tens of thousands of people flying to tampa. >> the odds of a hurricane being in the water anywhere near this

convention, obviously, zero. about two weeks ago. then about two days ago, we had about 1%. now this thing's in the water, growing. now we're like 5 or 10% that this really col affect places around tampa. and affect these people. thousands, tens of thousands of people flying in. then all of a sudden, you have to get them out because you get evacuated. that's probably not going to happen but it could. i'm not ruling out that this thing gets in the gulf of mexico and makes a turn at tampa. 45 miles per hour. moving very fast. 21 miles per hour. there's puerto rico. here's the dominican republic and haiti. the people of haiti are still living in tents from the earthquake they had years ago. so this is a big deal. you get winds 60, 70, 80 miles an hour over port-au-prince and it's raining, they have nowhere to run or hide. storm warningsing from mart teen uniquing to puerto rico at this time. there's the storm. where does it go? we'll follow the line. round and round she goes, where

she stops nobody knows. >> it's true where she stops no one knows. it's going to be raining and awful on monday in tampa. >> it certainly will be. exactly right. some of our makeup artists were going down there. i said take something to stay dry. they said why? what if it hits miami? it's going to rain all the way from bermuda back into the gulf of mexico. here's the option. you could move all the way to the east and miss the u.s. completely or maybe make a run at north carolina eventually or stay on the bottom of the path and get into the gulf of mexico and it still could go toward texas. i want to take the lines off. the line in the middle is not important. it's only the highest probability. doesn't mean the only probability. chance in the middle about 20%, 10%, 5% and so on on both sides. >> you just did the math, didn't you in you went there. you did path. chad meyers, call me. >> i will. >> you call me. >> all right. switching gears fur a bit here, ralph braun, ever heard of him?

he was born with muscular dystrophy. his parents were told he wouldn't live past his teens. yeah, didn't happen. he not 0 only defied the odds, he started a company that builds scooters to help not only him but people like him to get around. sanjay gupta got his amazing story and has it for you in our human factor. >> each day, you'll find ralph braun at the headquarters of the company he founded in the 1970s, the braun corporation. he's been in business for 40 years and has clients around the globe. but such a successful future seemed unlikely when he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1946. >> my parents were told that i would probably not live past my teens. >> braun grew up in rural winnimoc, indiana. he says back then, there were no sidewalks. people like braun were not welcome. >> disabled people were looked at in the '40s and early '50s and whatever as is most of the time they should be just sitting

in a closet somewhere. >> his way of becoming successful was born out of necessity. by that time, braun was unable to walk. but he needed to be able to get to and from work. so he tapped his love of engineering. gobbled together random parts and created a scooter so he could get on the road. the year was 1963. >> the three-wheel scooters that you see today in the supermarkets and wherever were -- there wasn't any such thing. and so i built the first one, a four-wheeler which you know, i call frankenstein. and then i brought -- i built the second one which was the three-wheeler and which was the bride of. >> today his company manufactures several thousand wheelchair accessible vehicles and lifts every year. braun is improving the lives of many people just like him all over the world. dr. sanjay gupta, n reporting. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol

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the man hop shot and killed john lennon, mark david capmfvi is up for parole again. in case you've been counting seventh time he's had a chance at freedom. to refresh, december 8th, 1980, mark david chapman spent the entire day outside of lennon's apartment even meeting his son sean and even getting john to seen a copy of his new album for him. but then five hours later while lenin was returning home with his wife yoko ono, chapman pulled out a gun and fires four bullets right into john lennon's back killing the legend right in front of yoko. mark david chapman was charged

with second degree murder and his defense team prepared to argue an insanity defense and chapman didn't like that. he refused it. instead, he pled guilty. he said god told him, that's what he was supposed to do. he is sentenced to 20 years to life and fast forward 32 years later, jeffrey toobin is sitting at the cnn center in new york to talk to me about this parole. thank you, jeff. my first question has to do with a quote. i have to read it for you. i couldn't believe it. in 2000, a member of the correctional association of new york apparently was talking to an a.p. reporter and said this, and i'm going to quote. "if jesus christ returned to earth for the sole purpose of decreeing ta it would be appropriate to the release mark chapman, the parole board wouldn't be willing to take the political heat they would get by doing it." is that what this comes to? >> well, i think that's part of it. but you know, there are some

crimes where life in prison means life in prison. and i don't think anybody would mourn if mark david chapman spent the rest of his life in prison. he has not reformed in the way that some people have. and given the magnitude of this crime, given the level of premeditation, given the horror of it all, it is not surprising that he's going to -- that he's been locked up all this time and he's going to stay there. >> what's the purpose of parole? i looked back and we had producers combing to find out how he's been in the last couple decades. he's only had three disciplinary actions. let me read through them quickly. let's see, 1989, something called a delayed count. in 1990, unauthorized exchange. that also doesn't sound violent and 1994, failure to follow a direct order and primp officials say he's "had a very good disciplinary history." so what does it take? what does it take to get parole?

>> it varies depending on the crime. there are obviously a lot of people in prison for crimes far less serious than murder and if they show that they've reformed themselves, if they behave well, then it's entirely appropriate to let them out of prison on parole. parole i think is a very good thing. prison officials need have carrots as well as sticks in order to maintain discipline. we also have 2 million people incourse rated in this country far more than any other country on a percentage basis. so the idea that people should always serve their full sentences i don't think is good for public safety, is good for prisons or good for the taxpayers. but you know, when you have a crime like this, i think you know, the calculus is somewhat different. >> he picked the wrong person especially with the politics of this. i would be fascinated to find out if he would be out by now if it weren't john lennon. jeffrey toobin, as always, thank

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we have been following the very mysterious death of a young man named chavis carter happening in arkansas. the autopsy reports raised as many questions as answers. this morning a new development, the reverend jesse jackson is in memphis, tennessee, and he is talking to the family of chavis carter and that family is upset with the police explanation of how carter died and that somehow carter shot himself like we see in the reenactment, hand cuffed in the back of a police cruiser and look at the reenactment, if you try to do it at home and pretend that the hands are

cuffed behind the back and try to get them up to the right temple, it is tough. reverend jesse jackson is joining me live from memphis. sir, thank you for being with me. the first question, in your meeting with chavis carter's family, are you discussing the action on the civil right's violation front? >> absolutely. the 1983 civil rights act and i'm sitting here with mrs. theresa carter, chavis' mother and the attorney from the law firm and we have been wrestling with the legal options today. there is simply the answers given as to how and why he was killed are not credible. what we do know number one, he was in police custody, and which should be in the oasis of security, but became a pit of hell. secondly, he was frisked twice. they found no weapon and handcuffed in the back of the

car. he was left-hand and they say he shot himself in the left temple, and that is a houdini act. impossible. there is a four-minute gap in the tape. >> and you have great points with the fact in the case. sorry, we have a delay, but i beg your pardon and i want to get to something critical, but the facts of case are inkr incredible, and they are public since this crime became public, but there is something troublesome with the family's argument whether it is civil action, and that is that there is a witness who says she saw where those police officers were standing when the gunshot went off. and more importantly, perhaps what the circumstances were with the door of the back door of the car. let me let her explain it for herself. have a listen. >> they put him in the back of the police car. >> okay. >> and then about 10 or 15 minutes after that, we heard a loud pop. i'm like, what is going on? >> you heard a pop?

>> yes, it sounded like a gun going off. >> so where were the police officers when you heard this? >> they were standing on the outside of the car. >> when you heard the pop, the doors were open? of the police car? >> the one he had in the back seat and they were open. >> they were closed? >> yes, sir. >> reverend jackson, that's what you call a very intriguing piece of factual evidence of witness evidence that the back door if the allegation is that the police officers shot mr. carter, that back door, it would be very difficult to do so if closed. is this problematic for the claims of the family is making? >> it is problematic. and plus the policemen on the scene were witnesses as well. what we really do know with all of the mystery he was in the kus di, and he died in their custody. we know there is a gap in the tape, and that gap is a significant piece of evidence,

and so today, we are going to go to the scene of marching from the jonesboro and appeal to the department of justice -- >> when is that? >> today at 5:00. >> and ask for justice in the case. and. >> sir, the gap in the tape, and i will tell you what the police say with regard to the gap in the tape. they say it is automated system which certain things trigger the tape to start and end. that is their story and clearly some analysis of this that is different, and in the meantime though, and this is a tough question especially with chavis' mom sitting beside you. is it at all possible or anyone discussing the possibility that this is something referred to in forensics as an accidental suicide and i will say this, travis had a warrant and there was a loaded gun in the car with him.

that is very problematic, is it not plausible that he could have been trying very hard to hide that gun and it accidentally went off? >> well, we are stretching right now looking for explanations. we know they searched him twice in the back of the car and they found no gun when they searched him twice. now comes a gun, goes off and he is not here to tell his side of what happened in that formidable gap. is it not convenient that there is an automated gap at the time of his last conversation and the death? and no one, the police explanation for what happened is not a credible one. therefo therefore, they are liable. once you are in their custody, they are liable, and they are responsible for what happens in their custody. and so far we don't have those explanations. that is why we are going public with this and making a clear case of seeking answers to these questions. just seems incredible that he

would be in the car and after having been searched, handcuffed, left-handed and shot in the right side of the temple. it does not stand to reason. >> i so appreciate your time and i would love you to keep us updated for the developments and we will be watching for the 5:00 march as well. thank you for being with us, sir. >> and i want to remind you that newsroom international comes up right after the break. thank you for watching, everyone.

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