are going to remain? >> they are. but i know how politics works, i know no one's going to do this, if you want to solve this problem, investing in education and giving kids opportunities to get back there. there are opportunities that are helping kids stay. anyone who wants to be part of the solution should look for those sorts of opportunities. >> thanks so much. great reporting. that's all in for this evening, the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. we have breaking news tonight. it has happened again, and apparently it's just going to keep happening as long as the courts in this country keep letting these things go forward as if what we are doing in this country with our execution process right now is something other than what it really plainly is, which is human medical experimentation on live prisoners. there has been tonight another dramatically botched execution in the united states. the most botched one yet by some measures. this time it's happened in the state of arizona.

an experimental combination of drugs the state had never used before. the state would not say where they got the drugs. they fought until the last minute to keep that secret, and then they injected those drugs into a man at the state prison in arizona, the first time air air had ever tried this exact procedure, they're making it up as they go along now, the man did not diaz planned he gasped and made noises and stayed alive for nearly two hours. we're about to speak with a witness who was there in person to see that execution tonight. state prisons in the united states have been engaged in these experiments on ways to kill people for the last several years, when manufacturer's of the drugs that prisons had typically used for teethal injections began to cut off the supply. initially to u.s. prison execution teams and ultimately to the entire united states. because they figured that was the only way they could keep them out of prisons. they objected to their drugs being deliberately misused to kill people in the cub the.

and the drug manufacturer's decides to block their use for that purpose. that started in 2011 and 2012. and what's happened since then has been an escalating series of experiments, basically. it's chaos. the state of arizona at one point illegally imported the last remaining stocks of the previous drug from west london, england. as states got caught trying to get the drugs legally, the experimentation on live prisoners started all over the country. in 2012, the state of south dakota became the first state in the country to try to kill someone not with drugs purchased from the manufacturer, but with drugs made specially for them at a compounding pharmacy. compounding pharmacies are much less regulated than other manufacturer's, they're not factories, they just make small batches of drugs on order, usually one pill at a time. so it was a controversial thing for south dakota to resort to that kind of less regulated source for their drugs they wanted to use to kill people.

the results from that first execution with compounded drugs, surprised. at the -- as the drug was administered, the clean shaven prisoner wearing orange pants and a white blanket wrapped around his body, began clearing his throat and gasped heavily. his skin turned pale, it eventually gained a purplish hue. the guy turned blue, his eyes stayed open during the entire process. this is not what anyone was expecting to happen. that was in 2012 in south dakota. since then, states have come up with new experiments about ways

to try to kill people, state after state after state has taken measures to hide where they're getting their drugs from. it's widely believed that many if not most states are getting drugs from compounding pharmacies the way south dakota did. they're keeping that information secret from the public. all the states that are doing in all across the country are trying to prevent the public from knowing where they're getting their drugs from. and as states have been running out of drugs or found the drugs don't work all that well, and turn people blue and make them gasp and stare for a long while, while they're supposed to be peacefully dying, the system has just logistically become more chaotic and more experimental over time, this year, in the year 2014, it has started to fall completely apart. in january in oklahoma, drugs from a compounding pharmacy were used, the prisoner they were trying to kill in oklahoma, he gave what he thought would be his last words. i love everybody, love the world, love my daughters for me, i'm going to miss you always. he thought those would be his

last words on earth. it turns out his last words were i feel my whole body burning. one week later in ohio, another botched experiment made national headlines when the man that ohio was trying to kill with a new experimental combination of drugs, he spent more than 25 minutes writhing and gasping in front of witnesses. >> an execution at this prison abeers to go horkably wrong. the execution was done with a two-drug method which was used for the first time in the united states. this man convicted of rape and murder convulsed and appeared to struggle for breath during his

execution. >> i would say anywhere from 10 to 13 minutes, mr. mcguire appeared to be gasping for air. i don't know if it was air hunger or what it was, the description he gasped deeply, there was kind of a rattling sound, a snorting through his nose. a couple times he definitely appeared to be choke willing. >> he received a combination of medications. the producer for ohio's preferred drug had objected to its use in executions. a prison spokeswoman declined to comment. >> that was in january. the medazalam was a new experiment by ohio, the prisoner gasping and choking for more than 20 minutes. they described that execution as going horribly wrong. but the experiments must go on.

apparently, and in april, that was just january. in april, oklahoma decided they would try again, remember, oklahoma's last execution had been the i feel my whole body burning guy. this time, oklahoma switched up their drug experiment, they decided they would give medazalam a try. oklahoma in april went ahead with the same drug as the botched experiment used in ohio in january. and oklahoma's experiment, turns out that was the worst botch yet, at least before today. >> shortly after the state began pumping a lethal combination of drugs into the arm of clayton lockett, convicted of shooting a woman and burying her alive, something went wrong. >> he began kicking his feet, lifting his head and chest off

the gurney, grimacing. and a couple moments he mumbled. >> that horror show in oklahoma, the man they were trying to kill gasped and writhed for more than 43 minutes. authorities tried to stop that killing once it was already underway. they tried to halt the execution, they pulled the blinds so the witnesses couldn't see. we don't know if they tried to revive him, we do know he eventually died, he died of a heart attack. and after that one in oklahoma in april, for a while, the country stopped the experiments. stopped trying out new ways to kill prisoners with deliberately misused drugs. but apparently the experiments must go on. and tonight in arizona, they took another stab at it, they used the same drug that botched the execution in april in oklahoma, which was the same drug that botched the execution in ohio in january, they used medazalam again, and this time it went on and on and on, not for 23 minutes not for 43 minutes.

tonight it went on and on and on for nearly two hours. it took so long, that during the execution, the prisoner's lawyers had time to run out of the execution chamber and file a new application for a stay of execution while it was underway. look at this. >> this is the brief they filed during the execution after it had already been injected they began the execution at 1:55 p.m., five minutes later he began to breathe. a minute later his mouth moved. he's continued to breathe since that time. he's been gasping and snorting for more than an hour. at 3:02 p.m., at that time, staff rechecked for sedation. he is still alive.

this execution has violated his his eighth amendment right to execute him humanely. >> he was still alive more than an hour into it, when his lawyers left the chamber where they were watching them try to kill him, and try to stop it, they tried to get him revived, they tried to say this isn't working more than an hour into it. eventually he did finally die. >> i'm michael keefer from the arizona republic, this is the fifth execution i've witnessed. i've seen them done with other drugs, usually takes about ten minutes, the person goes to sleep. this was not that. it looked like that at the beginning for maybe the first seven minutes, he closed his eyes, he went to sleep, then he started gasping, and he did, he gasped for more than an hour and a half. when the doctor would come in to check his consciousness he would turn the mike on, you could hear a deep snoring, sucking air sound.

this went on for more than an hour and a half. the whole process took about two hours from start to finish. he was clearly struggling for breath. and that's atypical, because as i said, usually an execution takes 10, 11 minutes, and you see virtually nothing. one wondered if someone was going to come in and stop the procedure, because we -- troy and i were looking at each other saying, he's not dying. the process all started at about 1:30. and by 1:40, they had the first line in. by 1:50, he was saying his -- the curtain opened, he said his last words, then the -- by 1:53 the procedure started, by -- 1:57 he was unconscious, and then at about 2:05. 2:03 he started gasping, and that continued constantly, i

counted more than 640 -- i counted like 660 times, and that finally started to peter out at 3:36. by 3:36 it stopped. and he called director ryan called the death at 3:48. >> this is the first time i've seen an execution, and yes, it was an excruciating sort of experience to go through. it took about two hours to go through the whole process, i counted about 660 times he started to gasp, kind of looked as if he was trying to breathe or catch air in his lungs. >> it was very disturbing to watch. joe wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die. and to watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air. i can liken it to a fish after you've thrown it to shore. i can't imagine this is what the

criminal justice system hoped for when they came up with this new drug protocol. it was tough for everyone in that room. at a certain point you wondered if he was ever going to die. it was serious. >> that was tonight in arizona, the governor of arizona has ordered a review of the matter, this week, the ninth circuit court of appeals had intervened to try to get the source they wanted to use, and the qualifications of the medical team that killed him. they tried to get that, the supreme court overruled the circuit court, this is what happened when the state of arizona did go ahead. the experiments must go on. joining us now, a reporter for cbs's tucson affiliate. he witnessed the execution today, he was there in person. thanks for joining us tonight. i appreciate you being with us. >> of course. >> i understand that this was the first execution you witnessed, what can you tell us about what you saw today, and how different it was from what you might have been expecting?

>> i was trying to prepare myself for the execution, trying to talk with reporters who dealt with this in the past. they told me a lethal injection would take 10 minutes or so, to be in the execution room, see him laying down for nearly two hours was just -- to watch it was just incredible. i couldn't believe the execution took two hours by lethal injection. >> was any attempt made to stop the execution or revive him? could you tell in terms of the way the medical team was attending him? >> looking around in the witness room, you could see some concern on the faces of the people in charge there, looking on the other side of the glass where he was laying. we saw at least four times that there was medical staff to check in on him. they checked his vitals, they're looking for his heart rate, looking at his eyes, if he was still sedated or not. those four times we checked him,

he was sedated and finally 4:00, the order came in and said that wood had died. >> i imagine this is a difficult day for you. thanks for joining us. >> thank you, good night. >> we have lots more ahead. on this and a number of other stories tonight. please stay with us. really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share.

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we're covering breaking news out of this botched execution tonight in arizona, the prisoner they were trying to kill took nearly two hours to die. we just this moment received word from federal court in arizona that says, a judge in response to a request from the man's lawyers has just ordered the state of arizona, just ordered the arizona department of corrections to preserve this man's body and draw blood from it immediately. it's an emergency motion for preservation of evidence, granted by federal court in arizona, they're ordering the

department of corrections to immediately preserve all evidence related to the body. specifically the medical examiner's office is directed to make an immediate draw of blood before 8:00 p.m. local time tonight from the following locations, left and right femoral veins, left and right subclavian veins and left and right ventricles in his heart, preserve tissues from his brain, liver and a muscle from a location other than from the leg or arm where the iv was set. the man's lawyers -- he's dead, but the man's lawyers are looking to preserve evidence here, because they see this case, at least between them and the state of arizona as not over in terms of what happened here, governor jan brewer of arizona has ordered an immediate investigation into what happened and what went so terribly wrong here. one of the lawyers for the prisoner joins us next. so we're all set? yyyup. with xfinity internet your family can use all their devices at once. works anywhere in the house.

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it was very disturbing to watch. joe wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die, and to watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air, i can liken it to if you catch a fish and throw it on the shore, the way the fish opens and closes its mouth. the two drugs worked he eventually died. i can't imagine this is what the criminal justice system hoped for when they came up with this new drug protocol. it was tough for everybody in the room. at a certain point you wondered if he was ever going to die. it was serious. >> that's trey hayden, he witnessed the execution of joseph wood tonight in arizona.

the execution is the latest in a series of botched lethal injections in a number of states. again, as he said, it took nearly two hours for this man to die. mr. wood's execution follows a dramatic legal battle in which the united states supreme court and the supreme court of arizona were both ruling on whether this execution could go forward right up until the last minute, including the issue of the source of the drugs that were used to try to kill him being kept secret by the state of arizona and the state of arizona also keeping secret the medical qualifications if any of the team who carried out what seems to be a horribly botched effort to kill this guy. one of his attorneys was there to witness this tonight. i'm sure this has been a challenging day, thank you for joining us. >> tonight you said after this happened, i have never witnessed an execution that took that long. the state of arizona today conducted a failed experiment. why do you say that, and what did you see? >> this was the 11th lethal injection that i witnessed, and i had never -- i have never seen a lethal injection procedure

take this long. it was an experiment because the state of arizona decided to follow the lead of the state of ohio and use the mixture of hydromorphome and medazalan to carry out this execution, when they were fully aware of the problems that had occurred in ohio. >> we've just had word from the district court in arizona, federal court in arizona that they have granted an emergency motion for the preservation of evidence in mr. wood's case, obviously he has died after this long, long process. tonight they're ordering an immediate blood draw before 8:00 p.m. local time tonight. from six different positions in the man's body, they're also ordering the medical examiner to take tissues from his brain, liver and muscles.

what is this preservation of evidence about, and what will this information be used for? >> well, we will have experts review the results of those tests. but, you know, we hope that the pima county medical examiner complies with the court order. we're getting word that the medical examiner says he doesn't have time to get it done. >> wow! >> and he's not going to comply with the court order, so that's something that we'll be working on as the night goes on. >> how do you work on that, if the court has made the order and the medical examiner is going to flout it, what's your recourse? >> we will go back to the judge

and ask him to issue an order to show cause as to why the medical examiner is not complying with the order of the federal court. >> midway through this execution, which again you know was the longest one you've ever seen. it's certainly the longest one i've ever heard of, and i just have a layman's understanding of this stuff. you file, you and your team filed papers asking the federal court to intervene in the middle of the execution, he had already been injected with these drugs, something was clearly wrong, it was taking a very long time. that emergency stay request asked for the execution to be stopped and for the state of

arizona to try to bring him back. to try to induce -- i guess, to reverse the process, life saving measures at that point. is there a protocol in place wherein arizona has agreed to do that? is that what you were hoping or expecting the corrections department to do? >> well, under the protocol, there is a procedure for resuscitating the prisoner if he is in distress during the process. and about an hour into the proceeding, i asked two of the lawyers, who were in the room with me to go out and contact our office. and we filed papers with the federal district court, the ninth circuit, and the arizona supreme court. the arizona supreme court issued an order that the labels of the drugs be preserved as well as any residual drug that exists. so there's a lot of work to do. there's evidence there, and we need to collect it now. >> one of mr. joseph woods

attorneys, a man that was killed tonight, an execution that took nearly two hours. he was a witness to that execution. thank you for helping us understand what happened. please stay in touch with us as this ongoing legal fight takes place, particularly as you try to get the arizona officials to agree -- to comply with those court orders. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> thank you. it will be fascinating to see in arizona as the governor of arizona has ordered a review after this process, it will be fascinating to see if arizona officials who are part of the chain of custody here of this body, including the medical examiner's office, whether they comply with this direct order from a federal judge that this man's blood and tissues are to be preserved so there can be some inquiry into what happened here. the lethal injection process in this country, whether or not you are in favor of the death penalty or against it, the logistical process of killing

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it is a major news day today. it's an important update on the malaysian airlines flight believed to be shot down by a missile. a key part of the investigation

into that crash will concern the plane's two black boxes. the dutch safety board is the agency that's heading up the investigation now. the dutch took custody of those two recorders yesterday, they sent them to the u.k. for expert testing. there was some concern that those black boxes may have been tampered with while they were in the hands of the pro russian separatists who control that ground, recovered the black boxes, but who are also the people who are accused of culpability for having possibly shot down the plane. the important update today is that the investigators looking at those boxes today, they have no reason to believe that any tampering has happened. after examining the first of those black boxes, the investigators say there is no evidence that it was tampered with in anyway. they were able to successfully download the information on that black box recorder. they will begin examining the other black box tomorrow.

a full analysis of both of them may take weeks, at least they have started and they say so far it's working. and that is good news. a very small piece of it, on a day when there isn't much. more ahead, stay with us. that it's given me time toabout reflect on some of life'seen biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view.

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[ male announcer ] the nissan pathfinder, with intuitive four-wheel drive. an adventure worth sharing. nissan. innovation that excites. a poet once said, life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it's never easy when there's so much on the line. >> herman cane is a person who ran for president in 2012, he was the republican front-runner for president, in that presidential candidate's debate, what herman cain cited as the words of a poet were lyrics to the pokemon movie. he later said they were the closing song of the 2000 olympics. no, they really were from the pokemon movie. who can blame him? at least he didn't preened it the lyrics were his own work. they were pokemon's work. that was the mistake made, claiming the words were his own.

that was the mistake made by joe biden when he ran for president in 1988. his presidential effort was derailed largely by the revelations that he had plagiarized a campaign speech from a british politician. mr. biden at the time said it was an honest mistake, but that plagiarism revelation killed the campaign for him. then there were allegations about rand paul, we first broke the news on this show that senator rand paul had given a speech in virginia. he read out loud whole paragraphs long sections of the wikipedia entry for gattaca. he delivered it as a speech. it soon emerged that rand paul had given a different speech where he just read outloud from the different movie.

people realize that rand paul had a real plagiarism problem, he had plagiarizes a right wing think tank, plagiarized part of his state of the union response from the associated press. whole huge sections of his most recent book, had just been lifted verbatim, directly copied from other people's work, rand paul is a serial habitual plague arist. he's been stealing stuff for years, even since he's been a senator. no one realized when he said he was a free market guy, he meant he's a thief. at least when it comes to other people's words. now there is a into one, a new plagiarism scandal, this time it's a democrat in the senate. one who is up for a tough re-election campaign this year. it's montana senator john walsh, the democratic junior senator from montana, appointed to the

seat in february, when max baucus stepped up to become ambassador to china. john walsh has to run for the seat now in purple state montana, against a well funded republican challenger against steve danes. danes is pretty conservative for a statewide as montana. he's been trailing in polling so far. senator john walsh is the only iraq or afghanistan veteran in the united states senate. he led combat operations in iraq in 2004 and 2005. the new york times broke the news today, that after he returned from iraq, when he was pursuing a graduate degree at the u.s. army war college in 2007, the general turned in his final paper at the war college. turns out whole sections of that masters thesis were lifted without attribution from think tank reports. the new york times confronted senator walsh with the evidence

of the copied material, yesterday on capitol hill, he told the paper he didn't believe he had plague arized if he did it wasn't intentional. the senator's campaign gave us a statement about it, this was unintentional and this was a mistake, there were areas that should have been cited differently, it was unintentional. he received every evaluation he received during liz military career, which shows an honorable and stellar record of service to protecting montana and serving his country in iraq. admitting that it was a mistake, admitting that it happened and saying it was unintentional is obviously the right way to try to find a path out of this, the evidence he did it is very clear. and it's extensive, this wasn't an incidental site here and there, it's throughout the paper. the war college may face the question of whether or not they end up rescinding his degree. since plagiarism is against the

rules of the school. the people of montana will have to decide if this will affect who they want to be their junior senator come november, when they get their first chance at voting on the man who is now serving as their senator, john walsh. apparently nobody minded when rand paul did it over and over and over and over and over again. will people mind about senator john walsh having once done it too? we'll find out. and the ethics scandals are your field of interest today, senator john walsh plagiarizing his master's thesis, that's one of a list today, the even bigger story is not just an ethics scandal in today's news, it's an ethics scandal about ethics and that big weird story is next. stay with us. can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class.

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that this nation is more a tale of two cities than it is just a shining city on a hill. maybe mr. president if you stopped in at a shelter in chicago, and spoke to the homeless there maybe mr. president, if you asked a woman who had been denied the help she needed to feed her children because you said you needed the money for a tax break for a millionaire or for a missile we couldn't afford to use. >> that speech more than anything else elevated mario cuomo to presidential contender status. he did not end up running for

president, this was very early on in his governor days and he ended up just becoming a long serving governor of new york state instead. everyone thought he was going to be a democratic president. to the extent new york has a political family dynasty, it is mario cuomo's family. andrew cuomo is the current governor. he was elected in a landslide in 2010. he's leading by a mile. but hanging over governor cuomo's entire first term has been a slew of government corruption cases in new york state. one after another. you remember, andrew cuomo took over. he took over for the guy who had to take over for the guy that resigned in the hooker scandal. that's right, that's how he got there. that was the environment andrew cuomo was coming into. the state legislature was a different style of utterly corrupt, within a two-day span last year, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, announced that his office

was bringing federal corruption charges against a new york state senator, a new york city councilmember, two party leaders for trying to sell the mayoral race, he was bringing bribery charges for trying to sell legislation. all in the space of 48 hours, that was accompanied by this footage. it's not the kind of thing that engenders confidence in government. newly elected governor of new york, maybe with presidential aspirations, was going to clean up his state. the corrupt state of new york politics, he was going to reform the disgusting mess that is new york state politics and its ethics. that would be part of his political leg agency, right? he tried to get good government reforms passed in the state legislature, that legislation failed. and then andrew cuomo decided he would create a commission and making recommendations about what new york state needed to do differently, to avoid having half the state legislature

getting arrested over the last couple years. the commission was made up of district attorneys, former prosecutors, police commissioners and others. they had a year and a half remit for doing their work, they had subpoena power, that could commission -- the commission could compel anyone theyen watted to to turn over documents. and no one was supposed to be above the mandate of this commission. when the governor announced he was creating it, the mandate was broad, everyone was fair game from top to bottom in new york state government. >> the governor has this power to direct me to investigate and inquire into any matter relating to the public peace, public safety and public justice of the state. that covers everything. there's jurisdiction to look at

any aspect of the state government. it's not specifically directed at the legislature by any means. the commission is impowered to investigate any and every aspect of the state government that relates to the issues the governor has pointed to in his executive order. this is going to be a commission uniquely empowered to take a full top to bottom review and identify wrongdoing and make recommendations for reform. >> a full top to bottom review, the commissions empowered to investigate any and every aspect of the state government. a fully top to bottom review, this is clearly something the governor thought would help his re-election bid two weeks after he announced the creation, his campaign began running these ads about how governor cuomo was going to restore trust. today the new york times published a massive, multipage

story, the result of a three-month investigation that found that governor cuomo's office to bed that ethics commission from doing its work, when its work got even close to touching the governor. the governor's office deeply compromised the panel's work. as the times describes, when investigators were looking into a media buying firm, according to the times, when the governor's office heard about that subpoena, a senior aide called the commission and issued a directive, pull it back. and the subpoena was swiftly withdrawn. there was the time the commission sought to subpoena the real estate board of new york, whose members happen to be the governor's most generous supporters. the governor's office again stepped in to shut that subpoena down. this is a stunning litany, documenting how, according to "the times," the governor's office stopped the commission

from doing the work. nine months after the governor created that commission, he shut it down unceremoniously. and that left a lot of people with unanswered questions. one of those happens to be the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, who brought the public corruption cases last year against that huge list of new york state lawmakers. he announced in april of this year he's going to be looking into the work of this ethics commission. he says he's looking into why the commission's work was cut short nine months into its tenure. the governor's office gave a 13-page statement, calling the premise of the story legally, ethically, and practically false. they said it was incorrect to presume that the commission was legally independent of the governor's office. we cannot interfere with the creation we created, staffed and controlled and that reported to us. can't be independent of us. it is us.

it is rarely a great day to be a governor of new york who has aspirations for higher office. but today was a particularly bad day to be a governor of new york with aspirations for higher office. joining us is one of the reporters on this story for "the new york times." congratulations on persuading anybody in any publishing business to let you publish that my words on any one subject. >> thank you. >> let me ask about the governor's response. he said this was his own commission, he therefore wasn't interfering in its work, he was preventing it from doing something which would have been inappropriate. >> legally, he's right in some ways. he established this commission with an executive order. but when he described it when he created it, it was a different story. he called it independent. he went on a barn storming tour

of the state to promote it. he called it totally independent. he said it could investigate whatever it wanted to investigate. at one point he said it could investigate him. he named himself. so that is a very different portrayal compared to the way he describes it now. >> do you know, why didn't members of the ethics commission squawk publicly about these calls they were getting from the governor's office steering them away from people at entities close to the governor? >> this was a lot of discussion about this internally. a lot of the members of the panel were elected districts of attorney. some talked about forming a group and resigning in protest. but governor cuomo is very powerful. it would have been picking a fight with the most powerful elected official in new york. i think ultimately a lot of these commission members felt their best approach was to try to push back internally but publicly to kind of keep a

steely face. otherwise, they would have sort of lost credibility and the whole purpose of this would have gone up in smoke. >> we have known that the u.s. attorney has taken in records on this case, has been pursuing an investigation. we know it's a very aggressive u.s. attorney in this jurisdiction. in terms of what you were able to document at "the times," there do seem to be ethical questions raised about the governor's behavior here. does this appear to be here plainly illegal in what he did? >> that's the big question. it's clear the u.s. attorney is very interested in this. it was highly unusual, he went on the radio a few months ago and sharply criticized the governor. when do you ever see a u.s. attorney do that? he's clearly looking at this. his office issued subpoenas. so they're clearly looking at

this. but what their investigation will find we just don't know yet. >> did the commission accomplish anything before it was cut off at the head? >> well, lawmakers did agree to mass some new ethics laws. nothing major. some tougher bribery penalties, better enforcement of state election law. and they did begin some investigations, which now have been turned over to the u.s. attorney's office and some other prosecutors. it's possible that those case also turn into something. so we'll see. but it certainly did not accomplish anything to match the way it was described with such fanfare when it was started. >> thomas kaplan, thanks for helping us to understand it. a most incredible thing happened today at the new york stock exchange that has nothing to do with stocks or politics but it's incredible and it happened on tape. and that's sort of a moment of zen we have coming up. stay with us. that's goohhh.o go right in your glove. see that? great job. ok, now let's get ready for the ball... here it comes... there you go... good catch. perfect! alright now for the best part.

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you know how jon stewart ends his show with the moment of zen? this is my plagiarism of mr.

stewart, my shameless rip-off nominee for today's moment of zen in america. it took place at the new york stock exchange today. one of the things that happens there is they use the closing of the exchange as an honor. basically the stock exchange arrives at its closing time and they ring the closing bell, which goes on for a long time. then the guest of honor bangs the gavel to formally close the trading day. today the guest of honor was army staff sergeant ryan pith, given the medal of honor for heroism fighting in afghanistan. but here is what happened when this medal of honor recipient gaveled the session shut today. watch what happened. watch. [ applause ]

>> then a second round of applause comes from the crowd. the man does not know his own strength. i realize it's not quite zen, but it was a moment of something. it was all good. we needed that today. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence.