america. rather. we pay our bills we honor our obligations we grow our economy we create jobs well that was a message out of the white house today but with lawmakers and no closer to a deal is it all just wishful thinking going to have more on the politics behind this crisis. but we've always going to be gathered here because he's always going to be a big seller well a convicted felon he may be but after spending a decade on death row for you may is finally a free man and we'll have an exclusive report on justice finally being served and we'll speak to one of the attorneys to make health to make that happen. we're

seeing around the world faces of it now rape murder and we see very rare cases in which those are actually criminal investigation or prosecution it's crimes like these that aren't offense contractors a bad name so why is business still booming for america's hired guns. thanks for tuning in this evening wednesday july twenty seventh eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of you watching our team. and the world is also watching as washington scrambles to avoid a default now less than one week folks in fact five days four hours less than four hours three hours and fifty eight minutes my goodness and counting until d.-day on august the second which is going to be downgrade of the u.s. credit rating default and even both of lawmakers can't let the fourteen point three

trillion dollar debt ceiling in time now despite the fact that congress has raised the arbitrary debt limit more than one hundred times since one thousand and forty it unfortunately looks like politics are getting in the way this time around should we actually be worried as the question i posed to legendary investor jim rogers now you may just be surprised by her response take a look. may i suggest you stop watching i know you have to report something because your own t.v. show it is it's a charade it's a spade is a scam they're not going to do anything serious they're going to announce something the day before the day ah but the day after and they're going to say everything is ok but in six months from now or year from now america's going to be in worse shape than it is now they're going to continue to spend and drive us old deeper into debt we've been doing this for forty years this is not going to go anywhere now jim to just bolster your point in fact we saw white house officials on thursday evening

calling all the top bankers essentially saying guys don't worry there's not going to be an actual default even if that cap cap isn't raised so that begs the question what's the point what's the point of this charade what's the point of you know worrying people i mean i'm glad i got something to cover here as a journalist but come on. they're trying to get publicity for themselves they're posturing that's what politicians do let's see the studies show that the people who are good politicians are the people who are good at a playground when they were in grammar school when these guys are at playground don't it's with our money and is driving america deeper into debt america's the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's just getting worse let's see we had something called the grace commission twenty five or thirty years ago that said we've got to stop this and then they passed a law congress graham rudman laws and we're no more deficit spending but they've also gotten out and ignore that we've been doing this annually for decades ignored them well it seems like not only do they have to behavior of toddlers but there

certainly seem to have the memory of toddlers to jump to go back to something you said earlier i mean when you say that even if we do reach this deal everything looks great for a little while but six months to a year gets worse what do you mean when you say get for us i mean if he didn't talk about these abstract terms but if you look at the facts fourteen point one million americans unemployed over half of all american families live from paycheck to paycheck clinton forty four million are. food stamps i mean what they're going to look like for those of us who can't lose a thing for we're all going to continue to get deeper and deeper into debt to see they've been spending a lot of money and the people who've been receiving that money think they're better off and they probably are they've got more money in their pocket but the overall situation lucy is getting more and more serious america's now the largest debtor nation in the history of the world this cannot go on forever yes then surely the creditors are going to say listen no more debts the end of the line you think the problems of bad now you wait so we don't have any more credit you wait to learn the

current fiscal lapse and you're right to live just rates are going through the roof and inflation is going through the roof it's not going to be a pretty picture there's going to be social unrest it's going to be a mess but we better deal with the sooner we deal with it the better if we deal with it now or last year or even this year we might have a hope after some periods about the very very painful period then we can start over but as you said jim you've been around a long time and they've been talking about this a long time and said they're not going to they're not going to take the massive kinds of cuts that they need to take to the spending in order to get the situation under control so i mean what's the future going to look like are we going to go back to agrarian economy i mean you know i thought i'd be teaching my kids science in chinese is going to be fire wood and steel plowing well i'm glad you're going to chant it lucy because i'm going to be that way in one hundred eighteen the u.k. was the richest most powerful country in the world within three decades they were bankrupt and they were bailed out by the by the i.m.f. it was not a pretty sight in the u.k. as three generations later we've got

a lost decade in america because we refuse to deal with reality prepare yourself for another lost decade or more depending on how bad things get down there but then i want to ask you a little more personal question i know you've talked about the so while you know in some ways you're sort of the the all-american golden boy you know you were born next door to us here in maryland bred in alabama but that you're doing now all the way in singapore i think that back here in. last but no i'm still a marathon citizen american voter an american taxpayer but listen the twenty first century is going to be the century of asia whether we like it or not i've got two little children i want them to grow up speaking mandarin and i want them to know a shout think the best skills that i can give them for their lifetimes is mandarin and asia i mean parents do a lot of thanks for their children some people move new sports camps or new york other schools we move here so our children can can grow up speaking mandarin knowing asia let me ask him and if you think say that things are so bad here and are politicians certainly can't seem to get their act together why not renounce

your citizenship why not wash your hands of this whole economic mess and move on but i haven't done that i mean i will go and consider that if that's your suggestion but i. don't see you doing that it times well if so then i think maybe not that bad that we have a chance of turning us all not around but i don't see any chance of our turning it around we will have rallies certainly along the way but unfortunately don't countries that have gotten themselves into this situation lucy never do anything until there's a crisis or a semi crisis when we have our prices or our semi crisis that i opened years away but it's probably not then maybe we will start taking some serious action or the market will force us to take seriously this isn't this what we're doing right now that's not a crisis fourteen point one million unemployed ass forty four million food stamps that's not that's not even the tip of the iceberg lucie the new argument the stock exchange the dow jones industrial average is near its all time high right kind of

prices is that when the financial markets are all fat and happy and most people well yes there are people that are better despondent and suffering right now but that's not a crisis wait the less a crisis look around the world look at what happened in iceland because some of the other serious crises we've had in the past three or four years then you'll understand what the word crisis means. all right well jim rogers may not be worried about economic armageddon come august second but certainly not the message out of the white house here's a jay carney at a press briefing just a few hours ago take a look time's running out we need to come together now we have only it is only a matter of the us before the august second deadline and while at midnight on august second we don't all turn into pumpkins we do as a country lose our borrowing authority for the first time in our history and i would be a very good thing so that lawmakers put aside their partisan bickering to play nice

and actually do the right thing of course not which is why we'll know we don't have to talk anymore but trench warfare unfortunately the two parties is still the name of the game and of course you and i the american citizens are the ones who are across caught in the crossfire it's no wonder the approval ratings for these lawmakers are to nearly six percent and that's the deadline what exactly are we going to see if there is no deal come august second and that's the question i posed to economist richard wolfe earlier today here's what he had to say. if the government cannot raise the debt ceiling all that it means is that the government cannot borrow the money that it had intended to borrow to do the spending that both parties voted into office last year and so the government will have less money than an end to subpoena it because it can't borrow and so it'll have to make cutbacks it is very clear that it will not cut back on interest payments to creditors so there's no question of a default on the united states cannot afford and will not what it will do if it's

starting to get an agreement by august second is start spending less money and so the pain will be thin felt by whoever they spend less on they could cut back on war expenditures that would hurt defense contractors they could back cut back on all kinds of purchases you know the united states government is one of the largest purchasers of many commodities in the world and if they cut back in those areas or if they give less money to states and cities they will suffer so it's a question of how the government will cut back if they can't borrow the money they were supposed to be able to borrow when everybody passed this year's budget during the good debates last year and let's be realistic that richard i mean you've been watching our washington and the economy for a long time really fan spending if you're going to make actual genuine cuts there. well if this continues if they really don't have the money they're not going to have much choice if they don't make defense cuts what are they going to do cripple the states and cities who need desperately the financial aid they get from the

federal government since they are already facing austerity cutbacks are they going to say no no to old people about their social security checks they're going to be in an increasingly difficult spot which is why so many people including me imagine that if they don't reach agreement by august second they will by august fourth or ninth or something because it's too much political pressure not to do it and this is a political struggle as you said yourself these are two parties positioning themselves for a presidential election next year trying to create an image getting lots and lots of publicity from you folks that they don't have to pay for and that's exciting for them and if that means if it damages some people for a while it screws up the economy it damages the reputation of the united states globally well that's not for them such a big problem they have a political project and that's what they're going to pursue it better seems very logical to me and yet yeah i understand washington is ruled by politics but this is

this is a game that we're playing and this is the united states of america i mean what if there isn't any country that has a fairly elected into office for i mean if you bring this to to the brink of the end how can you possibly win our voters really going to offer that argument. well i think you know if you take a page from history the great empires of the past collapsed most of the time and because their own leadership got cocky with their notion of being forever in that position didn't work out their disagreements didn't take the prudent course of action and there's no reason to believe that the american political system is in mulan to what has brought lost so many other empires and i think what you're seeing now is a an economic crisis that hit in two thousand and seven this country cannot get out of their crisis for the mass of people and you are now seeing the effects of an

unresolved economic crisis wobbling up into the political structure and hamstringing it from being able to deal with this society i do think for me and for many observers around the world you're looking at a united states which was the central center of world capitalism for fifty years since the second world war demonstrating to the people a level of inability to solve its economic problems now being can pounded by an inability to function politically and that has enormous ramifications for a system that thought it could always look at the united states as the key sovereign. under control leader of the pack and it can't do that anymore and that was economist and radio host richard wolffe weighing in. this next story is not one the election you see anywhere else it's a story about justice about race and class citizens in the deep south it's

a story about the real face of america's war on drugs so much of the consequences of a no knock flight rate aren't terribly terribly wrong that's a story of a young man who spent nearly a decade of his life on death row a guy who almost lost everything but for justice that's going to start with a name this is his story and artie is killing forty. to mississippi where it all unfolded. i think. it's a day corey made his we did nearly a decade. the day he could wrap his arms around his kid. i will wait a long time just to have a world. we don't have to see behind the walls like the say we're going to take the time room. there should be ready and eat his mother's cooking. it was great could only dream up from his cell on death row. bump the head to the

old chair with a roll call for. this but in his character it really took a full a real. he is in jail for murder but i always feel my will one day. he was coming home cory story begins here on december twenty sixth two thousand and one police executed a warrant against his favorite jamie smith before proceeding to his side of the duplex what happened next would change corey's life forever corey says he was asleep when police broke down the door looking for drugs came in the someone you know this is actually happened you know someone breaking your house you know the girl. was frightened defending his eighteen month old daughter corey says he hid behind her bed and fired three shots killing prentiss police officer ron jones he was right for his dad which is why. he believes

that's fair and poor he is black he's charged with feeling wrong police found enough marijuana for a one hundred dollars fine for corey was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in just two hours by a jury of ten whites in two black others mona boom you know saying that the listen to this. i feel like the truth will go soon for. i would never would have thought it would be what they'd done to. taking me to. come pick me like this so there was that. they had to do this just not mouse never would have the warrant for the raid was based entirely on a tip from this quote reliable police informant. that. they're very. proud.

that this entry did as huge favor bell even that racial story because it became very valuable in the pursuit of this but still spent nine and a half years in prison three on death row before he won his appeal and eventually his freedom when his mother came to me jorge happens to be the same age as my older son he wants to be. and i couldn't help but think you know that i could be muslim for defending corey evans says he was fired as prince's public defender today corey is among friends and family who are. never spouse amanda and i played a hero then against them because this is nature and he's been like that ever since he was a small town he was always smile. and up until he came home steals man to jesse you know. still haven't says it isn't safe for corey and jefferson

davis county call we've always known to be that yeah that you know because. even though we have certainly proven that there was no way to know his part you need any of that he's always going to be there yeah he's always going to be a convicted felon now thirty corey is eager to get on with his life or go to. laws . came with this the were the worst of like. probably the seven lot of you very confident that it was the truth that set him free. to work hard see to sell of the state. now so many important issues are wrapped up in this one story we have police a lot reads the inequality of our justice system racism death penalty for us not to mention the drug war some total say that you know corey story is a victory it's justice served while he was able to come home to his family how many countless other innocent americans are certain kind behind bars how many other

corey mays are there out there ones whose stories we have not heard now i don't know the answer those questions but let's see if my next guest can offer some perspective then bernie as one of the attorneys who represented corey may who helped bring bring corey to justice ben thank you so much for taking time to join us today so thank you for having justice served well it was a very bittersweet result because cory was innocent and he ended up taking a clear culpable negligent homicide which is a form of manslaughter in mississippi so. we were not happy about that at all on the other hand he was released with time served and so he's free to spend time with his children which is really what he was his top early was he wanted to get out so he could be a father right right of course now with all due respect i was reading a little bit about your bio and you seem like a pretty expensive high power washington attorney what made you see this case and say you know what this is this is something that i want to do something about it

and in fact the second chorus case for free well i have to give a lot of credit to my former law firm covington and burling it turned out there was there was an associate of covington a who is in the city of power for power for who initially brought the keys to the firm he read about it online as i did and i. saw through the e-mail traffic in the firm that the somebody had this case and i was very interested so i reached out to abe and we worked on it together along with several other attorneys including jessica gable who's now a professor in georgia and obviously some of our local counsel and several other covington and burling attorneys so it was it was a group effort in coming to really took the lead on some of bearing the cost for most of it until at least for me until i left the farms i mean this is you know we're talking about mississippi here which has a pretty ugly history to be frank i want to answer race relations still a lot of racial tension is talking about black man on death row for killing

a cop no less i mean it seems i'm not a legal expert but it seems like a pretty insurmountable task it was it was very daunting and i remember very well going up to parchment penitentiary which is a famous or infamous prison in northern mississippi and i spent hours talking to corey when he was on death row and it was now i think back and it's it seems really a miracle that we were able to get him out but you know it was a lot of hard work a lot of. a lot of hard legal work a lot of hard investigative work to do to make you know to reach this result. you know really happy with the result i want to read something that actually corey himself wrote in a letter to a supporter back in two thousand and six he wrote and i quote we as citizens sit back today and say well this could never happen to me but it's happened before and if we don't take a stand it's going to continue to happen to others do you agree with that and what is the bigger i guess issue is that he's referring to well i think i think what

he's probably referring to is that there is a for years now there's been this war on drugs and one consequence of that is is a use of a broad use of search warrants some of which are very questionable the the reason the informant was was important in this case is because. informant informants information his testimony we have to rediscover him did not match up with what the police told the judge when they obtained a search warrant and that was really your doing you were instrumental and getting that yeah i was it was a team effort but we we noticed that the the officer the the unfortunately deceased officer had written on his hand a telephone number and we spent several months a year trying to trace down who have phone number belonging to because we thought it might have been a confidential informant and really heard a private investigator and ran aground and. so he was saying actually well we're watching the piece he said that you got that message that we played in the story

just earlier from calan happen after you guys were banging on the guy's story the night before we walk us through what happened well the investigator tracked down randy gentry and it's this confidential informant that most of his messages bleeped out. around the rural home and. the investigator called me up and i flew down to mississippi the next morning and met with him and we drove out to gentry's home and tried to find him and you void us all day long he kept going from location to location we're always on a step or two behind him and finally we were banging on his door at about eleven o'clock at night to get an interview with another interview already talked to investigators already told investigator what had happened and. it was after that we left in frustration is after that he called. a local lawyer and left that unbelievable. message and without that went but quietly with his family today well

i think i think he would i think be the substance of the rhythm of the informant's testimony was the same what would bob was talking about really was that showed the kind of person that the police were willing to employ as a confidential informant the kind of person who would have such an i'm not. city towards black people that he would leave those kinds of messages and. you know it it's truly tragic the kinds of evidence on which some search warrants are based in this case you know this if the search warrant was never been issued in the first place what do you think is behind that i mean is it that simple as as racism where is there maybe i don't know a pressure to convict to boost carrier counts as a police officer when it's this kind of well i think i think the concern exciting the police are they they mean well they think they're protecting their community what they with what is a little bit race piece or class based about this is that they're willing to cut

these corners i think when it's the home of a poor black man or a poor white man probably for that matter they wouldn't do if it was if it was you know some middle class or upper class person and you know in in in corey's case there was there was a duplex apartment and we're there's a whole news divide in the middle of the two separate apartments and they had the war the foreman had gone to the left hand side of the house jamie smith's home and had purchased drugs he had never gone to corey's never going inside either home but he never going to corey's end and so the the warrants basically was for both homes so i don't think there were companies kind of corners if it was if it wasn't you know for wasn't disenfranchised person. and how much of a role or you know you talked about a little bit but did race play in corey's case or once he was an assistant i don't he's not in the interview that he hoped to the truth will set him free and ten

years later i mean it took ten years. for the truth to set him free i was off the ball during the during the trial i think what the role the race played was his trial was moved out of jefferson davis county which was majority african-american and it was moved to a different county which was majority was. and so this jury at his trial was was was a majority white jury and i think that it allowed the prosecutor the former district attorney tried this point to to make certain arguments that had resonance or appealed to white people that were not appealed to to have majority black drury which is what they would have had if it had been tried in county where this crime was alleged to have occurred which is corey's right and that's one of the reasons the court that's the reason the court of appeals gave us a new trial the supreme court gave us a different from a different ground and i think that that was there was an important factor as well that this regarded cory's right to be tried in the county where you live which was

majority african-american and i understand that every legal case is an individual case of the individual circumstances but generally speaking it how difficult is it to overturn what people claim to be a wrongful conviction when it comes to the death penalty it can be very difficult and one of the big problems is that in a lot of these cases there are they are noticed by by attorneys like myself far too late after the trial is is long over and after that well into the appeals we are fortunate in this case that and we're absolutely heard you know on death row where he was on death row but in this case interestingly the the trial judge i think felt that something was amiss and he allowed the case to remain at the trial level. for a very long time and that allowed us to get involved in the case and to investigate it and. you know when it was still at a fairly early stage in the trial in the case it was it was after the jury had

reached its verdict it was before corey was technically on appeal and just your i guess rough time so i don't know if you have stats on this but just in terms of your experience how is it if this could that could there be millions of americans who are innocent. thousands hundreds well it's a trend or is this just this one specific case and i think there are thousands of americans who are in some behind bars i think what's more tragic there was the use of these techniques more often than not really the know not reads the the belief that you know that marijuana arrests justifies the use of forcible entry for example. leads to the death of someone like order you know in a gunfight or something at the home that happens far too frequently is radley balko who's one of the journalists on the cases has documented. you know cory fortunately survived and was able to fight this conviction well we're almost out of time but

very briefly what's what's the takeaway message here what do you hope we're all glad that that corey is out but what what do you hope this story and conspires just keep in mind well i would hope i would hope to inspire people to look much more critically in our war on drugs and at the casualties and i think very often the casualties are innocent people and we have to really question whether it's worth the money in the lives the life of an officer ron jones in this case it's a tragic situation let's tragic situation and unfortunately if it wasn't for the work of a very few reporters like radley balko whom you mentioned i wouldn't even know about it and you likely would have not been on the case thank you so much for taking the time to speak with i think you are thinking all right well partially that is it for this hour here on r.t. america the news is not over just as the broadcast as a lot more stories and details on our website so that r t v dot com slash let's say you know our interview with scott horton who talked about contractors.