,newshour producsored by judy woodruff.ing, i'm on the newshour tonight, the date is set. the u.s. hse of representatives announces theen first earings in the impeachment inquiry, as damning testimony fr the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine is released to the public. then, what the returns reveal-- after results pour in from yesterday's state and local elections, state houses are realigned, and clues for 2020 begin to emerge. and, a conversation with democratic presidential hopeful mayor pete buttigieg, with less than three months to go before the first votes are cast in the primaries. us, the trace of a killer. as at-home d.n.a. testing explodes in popularity, law enforcement discovers a powerful

new tool-- one that puts genealogists at the leading edge of investigation.a >> it wary odd moment to be looking at the name of the person i believed to be a kille and know that i was the only person in the world who probably knew what he h done other than himself. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has bn provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. po

>> suping social entrepreneurs and their solutions tohe world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to iroroving lives h invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. upported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful worlon more informat macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made public broadcasting.for and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: the impeachment inquiry into president trump's actions is about to go public. democrats in the u.s. house of representatives announced today that open hearings will begin next wednesday. intelligence committee chair adam schiff touted thelan. >> those open hearings will be an opportunity for the american people to evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make theirrm own deations about the credibility of the witnesses, about the facts of thethand president's misconduct. >> woodruff:eanwhile, house investigators released another transcript, this one from williataylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. in it, he spoke of "a clr understanding" that president trump linked military aid for ukraine to his own political interests. we'll discuss all of this, after the news summary. the day's other major story: the elections of 2019. democrats are mostly smiling

over tuesday's returnse including ntucky governor's race. n in that rablica is asking officials to check the math. amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: in kentucky, las to make sense of having a brexit in the midst of an election mess. and -- >> we are better than this we are mo capable than this. >> fire and fury, california leads on climate so what happens when even it can't handle this ? emerge i ask the state's lieutenant governor. plus -- ♪ what's going on verizon >> hip-hop on broadway he heartto a trio at of the famousmpv rap group freestyle love supreme. "amanpour and company" is made possible by -- rosalind p. walter. bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. candace king weir. the anderson family fund.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. jeffrey katz and beth rogersrs ananby contributions to your pbs statns from viewers like you thank you. welcome to the program, everyone. i'm christiane amanpour in london. the prevailing wisdom during any election season is that if the economy is good, then rty in power should stay in power. but t big question in the u.s. and the uk, how good is the economy? a stronger economy was one of the populist biggest promises in 2016. are bubbling of a possible ars looming recession.n the house of delegates and senate for the first time in 25 years. ghazala hashmi became the first muslim eleed to the virginia senate, after flipping her suburban richmond district.is >> this victorot mine alone, it belongs to all of you who believed that we need to make progressive change here in

virginia. >> nawaz: democrats said they will use their nepor to pass gun control laws, especially universal background checks, and to approve the equal rights amendment to the u.s. constitution. >> this victory bon to you! >> nawaz: republicans did manage to hold the mississippi governor's msion. lieutenant governor tate reeves beat democratic ajiorney general hood by six points, in a state that president trump carried 17 points. the president congratulated the night's g.o.p. winners in a series of tweets. m tonight, trump is holding a rally for the republican running for governor in louisiana. >> woodruff: and now, to take a closer look at yesterday's election rults, i'm joined by kyle kondik, managing editor of larry sabato's crystal ball at the university of virginia center for politics., >> kyle kondlcome back to the newshour. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: these less were t acro country, we

highlighted just three of them, but let's talk about what lessons we can maybe learn from these rults. ere did each party do well and why? >> i think that the results were irgenerally a cotion of the trend we have been seeing in american politics since 2016 aod even bthat, in that you have a lot of affluent, highly educated suburban art eas thae moving towards the democrats and we saw that really in virginani, a lot of the key districts of the democrats flipped, t that characteristics in places like northern virginia, greater rich mofned, hampton roads anred blican strength is getting better oo doing betner rural areas and asmall citioss the country. kentucky is an exception to that trend in that kentucky governor matt bevin, the republican he tried to nationalize thatlar. race, bring in the president but he wasn't able o get a lot of trump voters to foat vor him. i think that is more of an an raitionz, mississippi is a better conrmation that we have a republican state, you had a pretty strong democratic challepger and thelican

still won relatively handily. >> woodruff: maybe the answer to this next question say pir rohr image of what you just said, kyle.t here did each party not do well and why? and are these things that can change. >> let me give you an example from another state that held elections on tuesday night. that was in southern new jersey. jeff bandrieu u.s. house member, used to be a member of the state senate, one of two democrats not to back the impeachment last woke and you get the sense as ty the reason. republicans picked up the two state assembly seats that cover sortf the generaarea where he is from and the state senate seat that he used to hoanld. that that is kind of a white working class area of southern new jersey. that is othe kind place donald trump really performs quite well in 2016. and we see similar kind ofat results in tven with trump in the white house those places may be sort of trending away from democrats. th woodruff: you mentioned suburbs a minute ago. philadelphia suburbsk dement krats did well. is there something about the kind of suburbs where democrats

are getting stronger anderh they aren't? >> i tell you what, if you look at f you just look at cennmsus ts and you look at whether a place has higher than average for four geyear colcame in, nationally it is about 30%. a county has 35, 40% four ar college a intament that is a place generally trending towards democrats. various places are in various stage of transition but if nu look at thber it steles a tale and if you look at a place overly white don't have high four year college a tainlt, classified as white working, class aruthern new jrsee say good exam elf that. trending more towards e republicans there are lots of rots ltds dudges differences in the outcomes but those big picture trends, that nationalization and split in the whe electorate amongst white voters who have a four year degree and those who do not, is becoming prevalent. american elections do go back 40, 50 years. i think they used to be more interesting in that you had a lot more regional variation in how is place is voted but a

lot of that is falling off and being placed by kind of national political feelings. >> and if you are, whether you n ana democrat or republica you are looking closely at what happened yesterday, are you takek, and you g are runnfor president, are you taking something away from what hatched or are youef cl about what you see. >> i think you should be carefu and i also think that people who are partisan should make sure they re tcognize whe other side is doing well too. and pennsylvania is an example in that we mentioned at in some of these local level races the democrats did as well as they have ever done in some suburb ban racials in terms of kubilitiee level. but at the same time there are democratic places in westerut pennsylvaniaide of pittsburgh with democrats used to be strong. and republicans did ptty well in a lot of those county level races. and so ther iare shif these states in places like pennsyania which states could very well decide the presidential race there are

positives that both parties can point to. >> woodruff: what aut turnout. i hadn't thought about ask you you this, but as i listen to you talk so much of what happens in can we tenything from an out. off-year election like this, that just doesn't get the kind of national a tings? >> the general trend has been turnout has been pretty good in the trumpra e the mid-term turnout last year was about 50% which is basically a modern record. and in virginia turnout was a lot higher than you would expect for an off, off-year election. no governor's race on the ballot, just the state legislative stuff and local races. so turnout was pretty good in viwainia. turnou really good in kentucky, not so good in mississippi which might be a little bit a warning sign for democrats in that particularly great.rnout wasn't that is a state that is vet is y polarized by race. democrats really needed a-a dynamite africerican turnout for democrat jim hood to get over the finish line that did not really materialize for him in that state. but broadly speaking turnout has

beepretty high in these elections since trump got elected and i think if is indicative of a very engaged electorate and we could look at a record presidental turnout. usually are you looking at 70%, maybe it will be more line5%. a lot of people coming out of the woodwork. the general a sump shufer shurn is that is god for democrats because the democratic base is less reliable however there are a lot of potential t ump voters ere that didn't show flup 2016 that maybe would show up in 2020 particularly in some of these key state, so don't just assume that high turnout dis goo for docrats everywhere. >> woodruff: kyle kondik, university of virnlg yarks thank you investment. thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, federal prosecutors accud president trump's long- time confidant roger stone of repeatedly lying to congress. the defense said stone did not willfully mislead lawmakers. the opening statements came in a

case stemming from the mueller instigation of russian meddling in the 2016 election. stone is accused of lying to coress, obstructing justice and tampering with witnesses. authorites in northern mexico are still hunting for the drug cartel gunmen who killed nine americans, including six children. the attack left one s.u.v. burned out, and two others riddled by bullets. investigators say the killers may have thought a rival gang was using the vehicles. mexico's president insisted today they will not go unpunished. >> ( translated ): we will take charge of the investigation and for justice to be done. we don't have any limitations on us tor informi media how it is going. if the u.s. wants to participate then they can. >> woodruff: five children who survived the massacre have been heflown to t.s. for treatment. iran began injecting uranium gas into centrifuges tonight at an undergrounead nusite. it is tehran's latest breach of

the 2015 nuclear accord that the u.s. renounced last year. the centrifuges, at the fordo facility, will enrich the uranium, but iran says it will be well below weapons grade. still, fnch president emmanuel macron, during a visit to china, warned the move is a mistake. >> ( translated ): for the first time, iran has decided in an explicit and blunt manner to leave the agrseement, which ma a profound shift, compared to their approach over these last few weeks. i will have discussions in the coming days with the iranians but we must alcecollectively he consequences. >> woodruff: iran argued its actions are reversible, if european nations help compensate for losses due to u.s. sanctions. in iraq, a violent crackdown on anti-government protests left more dead and wounded today. demonsators in baghdad fled from security rces firing tear gas and live ammunition, injuring at least 27 people.

a medic was killed at a second location.to he south, at least two people were killed overnight in demonstrations in karbala. angry, new protests erupted in bolivia overnight, demanding that president evo morales elecon.after a disputed demonstrators in la paz called for new el cectioniming that officials rigged last month'sve results to giorales a fourth term. riot police used tear gas on the crobawd. in this country, the u.s. justice department charged two employees at twitter with spying for saudi arabia. a complaint filed in san francisco says the saudis paid the pair to dig up personal day it says thousands of accounts were compromised. calirnia announced it is investigating facebook over alleged privacy violations. the probe began last year after disclosures that a data mining firm, "cambridge analytica," gained access to data on 87 million users.

state attorney general xavier becerrsaid he went public today after asking a court to make facebook answer subpoenas. >> we have since spring of 2018 been looking into allegations that facebook violated california law by among other things deceiving users and misrepresentating its privacy pracces. those are serious allegations when you consider the personal information that we all supply to facebook every single day. >> woodru states are also investigating facebook. a federal kejudge today bl the trump administration's so- called "conscience rule" on it would let health care workers refuse to perform abortions and other services on moral and religious grounds. but the judge, in new york, found it is unconstutional, in part because it denies funding to hospitals and otherserhat do not obe the rule. the administration is

considering an appeal. voters in tucson, arizona have rejected a plan to becomthe state's rst sanctuary city for migrants. the proposal lost overwhelmingly on tuesday. elsewhere, kansas city, missouri a historic boulevard after dr.me martin luther king, junior. and, in san francisco, a measure to overturn a ban on vaping products was defeated.ee and, on wall stoday, the dow jones industrial average lost a fraction, tclose at 27,492. the nasdaq fell 24 points, and the s&p 500 added two. still to cewome on theour: the u.s. house announces the dates for the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry. a convertion with democratic presidential hopeful, mayor pete buttigieg. geneticsgenealogy and jurisdiction-- a powful new tool for solving cold cases is unveiled. and much more.

>> woodruff: next week, the impeachment inquiry that has so far been held behind closed doors, will go public. house demoats announced and they releasednscript of a closed door deposition that sheds new light on the heart of the impeachment inquiry-- why u.s. mility aid to ukraine was withheld. here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: judy, use democrats today released the testimony of bill taylor. he is thacting ambassador in ukraine, appointed by secretary of state mike pompeo. he waslready ambassador to ukraine back in 2006 to 2009, appointed by president george w. bush. he's served under both parties' administrations since the mid 1980's, an id also a west point grad and vietnam vet. his testimony has been one of the most important for democrats, who say it provides

the clearest explanation for what president trump and his allies were demanding, before ukraine could receive nedoly 400 milliollars of military assistance. and i turn now to the dynamics duo of la desjardins and yamiche alcindor. yamiche, let's start with you, main takeaways. whack are the >> let's break down the hundreds of pagesk democrats say the most important, one of the reasons is because he was in meetings where was ordering this quid pro quo as some see it he testified that ordered that ukrainian aid money frozen. again he was tolthat second nd but he is the one testifying to it he also testifies that very soon fter took over that position as irregular channelshe learned of including rudy giuliani, the president's attorney and that diplomats we out. this is something he said he hadn't experienced before. why does that matter? he goes into great detail in

this testimony tha sees this as grave consequences. this was not just an irregularo back chanll help the president. but he thought as something that specifically in hi words ran counter to long-standing u.s. goals with ukraine. he said one our key pilars of u.s. policy with ukraine was beinne threa >> and really suggesting that that security system was life or death for ukraine and its future. >> that's right, this is a diplomat who spent a lot of time think being this. this is his personal view. but to him this was a dramatic situation. >> so yamiche, let's look at that. whatat order to freeze military assistance to the and according to taylor, how specific was it? >> a carel reading of the trns kraipt of william taylor acting ambassador to ukraine rtheally gh shows why democrats think of him as a central figure and why he will be one of the first people publicly testifying in the impiechry inquiry. we haveuolear, the first is that was my clear understanding, security

assistance money would t me until the president, and that is the president of ukraine, committed t pursue t investigation of the buyens. that is really clear. , ere he goes on to say d talking about the ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland, he said president trump wanted pdent zel ensky in a box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations. so right there you ha william taylor really laying out in very clear and short terms what he really beeneves prest trump was trying to do it is also important to note that ambass tadlor really had some pause when it came to taking that post in ukraine. and i goes on to say, this and i will read from the transcrypt, i was concerned that there was, i think i put it, a snake pit in kiev, the capital city of ukraine, in a snake pit here, wawsh aboutashington, d.c. and i was not sure i could serve in that context. what he is referring to there is the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani making frequent trips to ukraine and he said that he as meeting with people who he didn't think were credible and really launching this kind of shadow camign, to

shadow foreign policy. and he was really concerned that he wouldn't be able to wo in those conditions. he did of course go on to take >> we certainly saw some republicans pushing back today. and we saw that in two ways. one, outsi of thdep stition-- deposition room, we heard from lawmakers today. o and aside the deposition room we got to read what republican lauers were asking, what were those two defenses of the president? >> the president has continuously said that republicans needto show fierce loyalty to him and they want to see him de fending him on social media, on tv and in interview, so here is senator graham today, really de fending the president in clear term >> what i can tell you about the trump policy toward the ukraine t w iasoherent, it depends on who you talk to. they seem to be incapable of fornling a quid pro quo. >> this is really a remarkable statement coming from close ally of the president because is he essentially saying that president trump and u.s.s

officialcarrying out foreign policy when it comes to ukraine were simply not organized ough to have a quid pro quo that is a new type of defense that we haven't seen repubcans making. and republicans have had to change their messaging in their defense of the president several times. so i think republicans are saying that ambassador taylor, top u.s. diplomat in ukraine that i wasn't in fact a fact witness when if fact l he had sevenversations with people about t president's intent to have ukraine investate joeiden and his son hunter biden. the other thing to note is that republicans essentially ere saying in the deposition that there were ukrainian officials targeting president when he was running and when he was a candidate for president in 2016 and they were asking questions very specifically aout officials working for the former president of the ukraine. that is important because thepr ident told officials in his governmenthat he believed thattr ukrainians werng to take him down. he said that over and over again. essentially making that point as they were interviewing william taylor in the room dung t deposition. >> i want to turn to you quickly what is exin, open hearings next

week, how does that play out. >> let me summarize it verbally. the hearings will have two days next week and there is a pop uprightthere. quickly congress is only supposed to be in session for a few more weeks after that, threus december, so i think coming back to me, nick, let me summarize this quickly. want to tell you, who would like date.nish this up by that end saw the toth, have a house vote by the 20th but it.is not clear if they can hopefully we get more time to talk about it another time. >> i have aeeling we ll. >> lots to go on, this lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor, thanks very much. >> woodruff: recent polls in early voting states show pete buttigieg's popularity surging among mocratic voters, putting the mayor of south bend, indiana in the top tier of candidates vying for their party's nomination to challenge esident trump a year from now.

but with that rising support comes increased scrutiny. and mayor pete buttigieg joins us now. mayor buttigieg, welcome back to the newshour it is almost exactly a year away, as voters will be deciding who to support in the general election. but i want to ask you about what happened yesterday, the so called aroff-lections in several states. do those tell us anytng about 2020? >>ell, i've always said there a no such thi a permanently red state. and when you see the governorship of kentucky go to a democratic candidate, when you see the chambers flipping in virginia and a lot of other encouraging results, what it tells you is that a lot of ople, including people in the habit of voting for republicans, are fed up with what thice repu party is doing right now, in particular it's embracee of adent who goes against every value, progressive and conservative that we used to

count on from either party. so i thir it is y encouraging. it shows us that if we do a good job of makingure that we reach out to energize our base and to recruit as many americans as possible, includi people who maybe have thought of themselves as republicanse n st, offer a message and a vision to the future where they see that theyan belong, even as we move to solve these serious issues around heathh care, climatee economy and more, we absolutely can win, not just the white house in 2020 but crucially win the congress and win across the states too. >> woodruff: all right, let's talk about some of the issues. in the last democratic debate you were critical of senator elizabeth warren's medicare for all proposal. and i'm quoting. yon said ian has been laid out yet to explain how that multitrillion dollare is supposed to get filled in. as you know in the last few days she's given details for how she says her plan will be paid for. so my question to you is, do w

now know how her multitrillion dollar hole isilled yet? >> well, there is a lot of aggressive math in there, abouth kughe military, assuming that immigration reform happens and getting about aofrillion out hat, and some other areas that are controversial among the ecpoomists. thet i'm making is that we don't need to spend tens of trillions of dollars in order tl address this p. the idea of my proposal, medicare for all who want it is that we take a version of medicare and make it available to anybody who wants in on it. without commands people to adopt it, if they would prefer their private plan. it has the advanofage rusting americans to make their own decisions am but it also has tha r advantage of costing 1.5 trillion, which of course is still an awful lot of money but it iorfully paid fit is fundable, without having to go into the more challenging and ntroversial math being used to explain a plan that is 20 or 30 trillion or more depending who you ask. >> woodruff: there are critics on the left though who are saying it sounds all well and

good but what if doesn't do is it doesn't provide coverage for everybody. >> it certainly is set up mato sure that everybody has coverage it is designed so that nobody falls through the cracks and if you are not core at all you can retroactively be sad added on our plan. what it does mean is that not everybody is on the public plan. i think that the medicare-like public plan we're going to create is going to be the best option for most americans. and i am i'm rght about that than mt americans will choos it until eventually it is the single payor, it will be the glide past to medicare for all. but crucially if it is the case that for some americans the private plans they have are better, we're going to be really glad we didn't force them off those private plans. and avin particular, ibeen talking to a lot of union members who are happy with the private pns that they negotiated for, fought for, sometimes gave wage concessions in oer to gain. why kick them off those plans when we can let people choose. >> woodrf: taxes, you have said that you would return the corporate rate back up to 35%. president trump puit down ar

20%. you said you would consider raising the marginal tax rate for high earners. you said a wealth tax makes sense. my question is, do you have numbers you can give us, percentages. the other democrats running for president have put numbers o this. what are yours. >> so more numbers will be forth coming alongside the nuers of what we're proposing to invest. we're not doing taxation for its own sake. i'm proposing chans to the tax code to make sure that my policies are paid for. so as i put out more pomsees you are going tsee morade stments on the tax side, but in terms of what we put out trillion i was talking about5 that is the cost over a decade of my health-care plan t is fully explained in terms of two things. and the math breaks down sically in these pieces. bh 100 billion is what we need to go forward it, will come from lowing medicare to negotiate drug prices. the other 1.4 will come from t

rollback of the corporate rate portion of the trump corporate tax cut. tax cuts that mostly went to line the pockets of those who didn't need help. and i think in the long run have done nothing to make our long run sources of domestic business competitiveness any better. >> wdruff: several other things i want to ask you about, mayor buttigieg. iran, you have said you d not have pulled the united states out of the iran nuclear deal as present trump did. that has happened many months ago. we now have a very different ality on t ground. iran is now talking about you yorainium enrichment, talking about firing up centrifuges stvment a diff now.situation so what would you do if you are elected president? >> well, unfortunately, things have moved in the direction of iran building out more their nuclear plan. the exact thing thathe nuclear deal was preventing. which shows just what ays allish move it was of the trump administration to wreck that unfortunately also mean there is no going back to the situation that theam ob

administration was in when they negotiated that first deal. but i still thin keeping iran from developing nubbing clear weapons capability has to be a major u.s. regioncurity priority. and that means we're going to have to truck steur another deal that will ave the same affect. and we may only be able to get to it incrementally because unfortunately the deal that was actually doing the jo as the trump administration itself administration.estroyed by this >> woodruff: mayor buttigieg, your critics on the left are saying they think you are moving to the center from whnre youou starte this year. they say you have moved to the center on climate change, de criminalizing border crossings, raising middle class taxes and d so on. how do you answer that. >> my positions are the sw ame. also think that there is more and more pressure especially in the kind of poundityphere to align all of us on the left right spectrum. i just don't thi that that is helpful at a time like this wren rewe a starting to see some of

the ideological categories get more and morscmbled. i have lead the field in proposals on bold actions icfor democreform. and again my positions haven't changed. there are other areas where like health care where i guess if your top priority is to find the rtideologically rrest solution, you are probably going to look for a different candidate than me. but the proposals i am putting forward would make me the most progressive candidate, moe progressivesident in my lifetime. >> woodruff: let me finally ask you about impeachment. as you know thhouse of representatives announced when they are going to start public hearings next week. we are going to hear from the people who are going to be testifying about what happens with the president in ukdine. how muco voters on the campaign trail bring up impeachment with you? >> some, not a whe lot. most of the questions that i go are about things like health care and whether we are going to be able to grow opportunities, overcoming racial inequality, serving rural america, making sure the prescription drug costs

are under control. but it is definitely on people's minds as it must be. this say proselfs utmost gravity. a constitutional process to hold the president accountable for misconduct that he has already confessed to in public. there is no escaping it. there is no ignoring it. but also as much as possible, we have to keep that process separate from e process of partisan politics. and the part that i have a role in as a candidte for the democratic nomination for president, is to try to make sure that this pre is defeated, if indeed he is the president in november of next year. or regardless, that we get a president who can actually this country fooshed, united and deliver on the big problems that need solutions right now. >> woodruff: when you said if heows the president, right the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell say sts if the house votes to impeach, the senate there are not the votes in the senate to but my question to you is if there were, if the president were removed from office, why would you be the best democrat to go up against your fello indianaan mike pence who would step up and be the president?

>> well, i know a thing about the vice president. a fellow hassier is the term we prefer here in indiana. i have got to say that his far right extreme social ideology does not reflect thiscountry, and it doesn't even reflect this state. when he tried to push this eology on our state, it wasn't just democrat, it was a lot of republicans of conscience who ca together. we all stepped up and we all pushed back on that. and it is someby who has now come on board with a presidency that is an affront not only our values but to his own professed values,'m certainl prepared for that debate and would look forward to the opportunity to lay out the ctrn s and show americans a different kind of solution coming out of indiana. >> woodruff: mayor pete buttigieg, joining us again. thank you very much. >> good to be with you.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: "broken justice"-- a preview of the newshour's brand new podcast. and the attorney who represented the family of trayvon martin on his new book "openseason." so far thiws year, enforcement has identified over 70 suspectws using a technique called "genetic genealy." this is the sameivool that detes in california last year used to identify the so- called "golden state killer." in t first of two stories, william brangham explains how this tool works and why it's raised serious privacy concerns. it begins with the murder of a young couple in washington state-- a case that became thefi rst ever genetic genealogy case to go ito trial. thpart of our leading edge series on science and technology. brangham: in 1987, under the high bridge in rural washington state, a young man named jay cook was found murdered.

his girlfriend, tanya vabon cuylg, was found in the woods 60 miles away. she'd been raped and murdered. the only piece of evidence was semen from an unknown man, found on tanya's clothes. but that d.n.a. sample didn't match anyone, even after police a databases were developed in the following years. eventually, the case went cold. but 18 years later, snohomish county detective james scharf picked up the case. he turned to the public for new leads. >> there is a green backpack the person might have had. >> brangham: but still... nothing. >> these were totally innocent kids 20 and 18 years old. so this was a case that i really wanted to solve. >> brangham: but the person who would even case was not in law enforcement at all. cece moore is what's known as "" genetic s genealogist"eone who helps people trace their family ancestry >> by about 2012, i think iwas

starting to kind of bubble to the surface with a fes that what we're doing could have law enforcement applications but hae databases were too small. >> brangham: butwas all about to change, when commercial d.n.a. testing suddenly went mainstream. >> don't just give a gift.e give them ancstry d.n.a. >> brangha d testing services, like ancestry.com and 23-and-me have exploded in popularity. its estimated that more than 26 million ople have now used companies like this. the process of testing your d.n.a. is pretty simple. you order the kit online-- these each cost about $100, and you just spit some saliva into a tube like this, send it in, and in a few weeks, you get your d.n.a. rep mort. aslions of people started getting their d.n.a. results, many of them cied their data into other, public websites, so they couldte bfind distant family members. but cece moore realized this wealth of information could also

be used to help solve cold cases. >> we havewoatches at the top of the list that are both sharing about 3% of their d.n.a. with the unknown suspect. >> brangham:she demonstrated how she did it in the cook/van cuylenborg case. she took the unknown suspect's d.n.a. from that semen sampt and compared d.n.a. results in the database. she found twpartial-matches: people who were likely the killer's two second-cousins. >> so if you share 3% of your d.n.a. with someone than you are most likely second cousins which means u share great grandparents so i am going to build these trees back to great grandparents. >> brangham: from there, she went back in time, up the family tree, up to the great- grandparents of those cousins. >>e should find the common ancestor at this level somewhere with the unknsuowect. >> brangham: from there, moving down the family tree, she searched public documents and obituaries to find where these two families converged. this family would likely be the

suspect's immediate family-- his parents and siblings. but from the d.n.a. we knowma its a e and these are daughters. >> brangham: this was how she identified the likely culprit. >> this allows me to zero in on just this one male as the potential suspect. it was a very odd moment to be looking at the name of the person i believed to be a killer and know ts hat i e only person in the world who probably knew what he had done other than himself. but this was a very heavy wscovery and i juted to quickly get that name to detective scharf and get that off my shoulders. >> brangham: for detective scharf, this was a huge lead-- but not enough to make an arrest. he'd need actual d.n.a. frothe suspect know for sure, and so, a coffee cup discarded by the suspect was colcted by the police, and tested. when the results came back, it was a match. i

>> as just like you get a rush and i got tears in my eyes and then i screamed that yeah we finally got this case solved. it was just such a wonderful feeling. >> yesterday we took into custoda 55 year old c-tach man who is suspected of the 1987 murders of jay cook and tanya n cuylenberg. >> brangham: this summer, 56 year old william earl talbott the second went on trial for th murder of ok and tanya von cuylenborg. talbott pled not-guilty, and never took the stand. t's lawyers argued that the presence of talbs semen at the crime scene could have been from consensual sex. >> there was evidence consistent with sexual intercourse but not injuries associated with assault. she was not beat up bruised or battered there was not evidence of sexual assault. >> brangham: the only definitive thing linki talbot to the crime was this d.n.a. match. after two days of deliberation, the jury convicted talbot of

first degree bmurder foth cook and von cuylenborg. prison.sentenced to life in it was the first ever trial and nviction on a case cracked open by genetic genealogy. >> without genetic genealogy, this case never would have been solved. cece moore did in two hours what or 30 cops couldn't do in 30 years of working on this case. that's how powerful genetic genealogy is in solving crimes. >> brangham: in our next story, we'll explore the deeper privacy implications ofhis technique, and why some are so concerned about this new crime fighting tool. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: let's look at a differt part of the criminal

justice system, one that's the subject of a new podcast we unched today. it's called "broken justice" and it focuses on the enormous gaps and problems with the public defender system in the unite states. our five-part series zeroes in on how ts has been playing out for decades in missouri and what it tells us about justice in america. amna nawaz and producer frank carlson reported from missouri for this series and they join me now. >> hello to boftd you, let's talk about t how did yoget interested in in this, what drew you ttho particular subject. >> the story of this podcast newshour over a year ago, theres with a story reported by our colleague john yank, and it focused how public de fendurers in missowere basically saying we refuse to take any more cases because we are so overwhelmed. over the course of the next year, frank continued to dig alongside our colleague podcast

produce err, and i tagged a long and they basically pulled an o incredible nf details that painted a very alarming picture much just howac bad thelogs are. and how bad those overloaded with case loads public de fenders find themselves in this situation. so we focus in on missouri because it is one of the least, one of rather the worst funded systems in the count and als because the public de fenders there are among the mo overwhelmed. and we met onek a guy named jeff esparsa whn o told us ihis office just how bad the system is right now. >> 150 percent oy maximum possible ethical case load basically i an that if rked a 60 hour week, which would be a fair modest week, for the next year and a half and didn't get a single new case, that i coul do the bare minimum to ethically represent the clients. >> judy, these public de fenders go into this line of work because they want to represent some of the people in society with the least amount of voice,

people who are poor and criminally accused. and what ends up happening is they end up with so ma cases that they can't do the job they want to do for these clients. so they are in this position where they have to essentially raise the alarm on their own profession, on their own failings. s one of the first things that struck me about this story was how willing public de s fenders were t i'm failing these clients. and how i can't do the job under these circumstances. >> so what happens to these people you highlight in your reporting? what is the criminal justice system do with them? >> yeah, the ripple effects of those public de fenders being eo overd are far and wide, one of the most immediate impacts, one of the harshest impacts i think could you also say is longer jail times for the defendants and that is before they have ever been tried or convicted of anything. can you imagine if you are arrested, charged with a yocrim, arheld in jail. if you can't afford a lawyer you probably can't afford bail eieer. and beca the public de fenders are so overwhelmed, some of those defendants wait in jail

for days or weeks or months before the public de fender has the time to turn to their case. and we met someone as part of this podcast serik a man named kevin shepherd who was in exactly that situation. arrestme, charged with a c but his public de fender wasn't able to turn to his case for 118 days. he spent 118 days in jail. he was already sick when he went in. he got sicker in the overcrowded conditions there. and judy, even though public fender eventually got him out before he could ever have his day ct, kevin shepherd ended up passing away. that is just one way in which it sim pacting people. >> and judy, you can think of that as kind of the accuseis in this system. the people who are spending day after day, week after week in jail, like amna said, not convicted of anything, that sa, real problcause they are missing their lives, their work, they are not paying rents. many are parents. so that is the acute crisis, but this plays out in a lot of other different ways. one other way is the

investigation. what public de fenderseian't do for clients in terms of investigating their cases. and when we first started relarting this storst year, i learned about a man who is kind of the worst-case scenario of how that can play out for the defendin this system. today because of missouri state public de fender. i thdk if these things wo have been flushed out years ago, 23 years ago, that we without t be having this conversation today. this not in that somebos going to get represented you are innocent and represented properly, at is a false notion. >> so in 1997 ricky kid wa convicted of a double homicide and he has always maintained that he had nothing to do w cith thme. but because he had a public de fenner who was working in this terworked system and did have time to investigate his case and represent him properly he spent more than two decades trying to prove what he says she should have proved all along. >> and ricky story is just one of many that we feature in that podcast. judy t is basically a deep dive

into a part of our criminal justice system that is often gets overlooked. these are the folks on the front line, the public de fenders so episode on is out now. and episodes are going to drop every wednesday for the next month. >> woodruff: as you say one of many cases, in missouri one o many states that has a very similar issue with the public de >> absolutely right. >> woodruff: thank you both very much amna and franker. and looking forward to hearin more of the series. looking forward to hearing more of the series. s you want to listen to the podcast, there aeral ways you can download it. go to the "broken justice" link that's on our website. you can also find episodes on apple podcasts, stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. >> woodruff: civil rights attorney b crump has been called the african-american family's ergcy plan. he has represented the families of black men and women killed by the police, including cases that inspired the black lives matter movement and legislation on the

use of pice body cameras. yamiche alcindor is back and sat down dowruwith to talk about his new work for our "bookshelf." >> alcindor: trayvon martin, michael brown, boham jean. all unarmed young black men killed in high profile, racially charged incidents. each one of their families turned to the same civil rights attorney to call out what they believed was a deadly pattern of injustice. his name is ben crump. in 2012, crump gained national prominence when he took on the case of trayvon martin. the 17 year old was killed in sanford, floridaafter his death in the fall and the 2014 the black lives matter movement was born. now crump has written a new book, "open season:ized genocide of colored people." many are part of a racistgs of criminal justice system. thanks so much for joining me. ben, you use t word genocide to describe what's happening to african-american men and women across this country. why use that word? >> because it is very

intentional that we bring attention to the way black and own people are being killed, high profile police shootings,se but more poignantly how they are killing our people, especially our young people every day in every courtroom in america with these trumped up felony convictions. in many ways what i endeavored to do with this book. open season is hold a mirroo america's face. so they would have to acknowledge the hypocrisies, that they would acknowledge that racism and discrimination is part of the governance of al the institutions that exist in americ >> alcindor: you came into prominence when you represented the family of trayvon martin. that's when i met you as a reporter. i'm used right in this book that when you were first speaking to the father of trayvon martin,

you said he wasn't need you. you thought that that george zimmerman would be immediately arrested, but he wasn't. explain what happened there. >> because as an officer of the court, that's what all attorneys and judges are. we have tove beln the system that it will treat each service and equally. and, you know, you have made sure you knew about when trayvon happened because you covered it so diligently that they never intended on arresting the self- confessed killer of an unarmed teenager who had the proverbial smoking gun in his hand at the ti. but when i had that call from his father, i just absolutely believed that you have to arrest him, because in our community,op would get arrested with no evidence at all on an hinnuendo, orch and think about all these black men who have been wrongfully convicted. so i just eythought ad to

arrest him at least. and so i t.old his fath give it a couple of days.. but then a couple of days went by and they called me back. and he says, the attorney crump i toldou. they told me they were not going to arrest called stand your ground. >> alcindor: after the death of michael brown thousands of people gathered to protest in the streets of ferguson, missouri, but african-americans are still beinkilled by police these racially charged incidents. what do you make of that? >> well, i think it's a long journey to justiwe. and i thinet progress slowly. but i do see progress. think about as tragic as the killing of michael brown was, there was some positive that came out of it. president obama signed legislation where $50 million were allocated to equip local police agencies were body cam video. and that has made a world of

difference for transparency. >> alcindor: you also have a 'tok, a chapter in your book called please dhoot white men in the back. tell me about that. in the situation that you've seen where white people get treated one waamand african- icans get treated in another. >> you know, i go around the country speaking at a lot of universities and civic organizations. and one of the tngs i do. i sa can you tell me a black or brown person who has been killed by rpolice brutality shot in the back by police? whthey're running away. and i mean, immediately peopleju start sprouting off names that we have come familiar with to hashtags. and then i say, now tell me the name of our white person w's being killed by the police from a shot in the backnd its silence. becae the police just don't do it or is so rare that we don'tn

knoweir names. >> alcindor: you're talking about hypocrisy in america. you've also experienced and witnessed a lot of trauma of families that have personally experienced these. does that affected you and how does that affect these families? >> you know, i stillthalk to many o daily. book signing and michael brown's mother, lesley mcspadden, troduced me and we talk about how it's been fi years and every day we continue to try to define the legacy of her first trayvon's parents, sabrina, is seekinpotical office, trying to transform the pain into power becae there is a hole in their heart that would never be filled. and in many ways, even though we win the civil rights lawsuits in federal court, but the cost of prosecutors when they are trying

to prosecute the kmeillers of unpeople of color, especially the police, is like a fish outf water experience. they're so used to prosece and put black and brown people in jail that when they have to y to dignify them and talk about them as honorable americ citizens, they have a difficult time to do it, doingt. >> alcindr: and you write that america is both a racist nation, but also the greatest nation. how can both of those things be true and what do you think is the solution to all of this?>> then again, yamiche i think about we have to make these day words on paper, no matter how glorious they are a reality. and the only people who can do that is us. and america still the greatest country in the world. we're disenfranchised people and marginalized people can change their destiny and life. it's just that we have to make everybody have an opportunity tr

the an dream, not just a few. well america, that means black and brown people, too. >> alcindor: well,n he book is "oason: legalized genocide of colored people." ben crump, thanks so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy wjooodruff. us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major fundinghoor the pbs ne has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believes that wireless plans should reflect the amount of talk, text andata that you use. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

>> this program possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, welcome to "amanpour and company." he's what's coming up. thiss conservative governmet has brexit ready to go, and tos vote for uis the best way. >>oris johnson's big gambl britain's former finan minister george osborne joins us to make sense of having a brexit in the midst of an election mess. and -- >> we are bett than this we are mo capable than this. >> fire and fury, california leads on climate so what happens when even it can't handle this emergency? i ask the state's lieutenant governor. plus -- ♪ what's going on verizon >> hip-hop on broadway talking to a trio at the heart of the famous improv rap gup