. >>> he was known as one of the west memphis three now damien echols is adjusting to life as a free man. >> i was in a state of extreme shock and trauma. >> and how he survived 18 years on death row. >> it's absolutely nightmarish. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." >>> good evening, you're looking live at the white house where president obama has had one of those win some, lose some kind of days. the president and john boehner met for 50 minutes in a meeting being called frank. when basically translates to no deal yet. but the good news was, quote, the lines of communication remain open. the bad news, ambassador susan rice was withdrawing from the short list to replace hillary clinton as secretary of state. >> i withdrew my name because i think it's the right thing for the country and i think it's the right thing for the president. putting those things together, that makes it the right thing for me and my family. >> rudolph giuliani. you've been pretty vocal about susan rice. were you surprised in the end that she fell on her sword today? >> not at all. in fact i don't see that as

, chris biers and michael moore. >> the verdict that sent damien echols to death row. they were released last year i'm back with damien, his wife and the director amy berg. the documentary, you can't watch that without shaking your head really about the life that happened for you for nearly two decades. it's a completely wasted life until the stage of where you are now. really shocking. the other shocking thing, of course, you could have been executed by now. >> right. >> 53 people have been executed since you were released. 11 in 2011. 42 this year. when you hear that, given your knowledge and experience, of death row, given what we now know about dna with and the way it's been exonerating many people on death row, what do you think of it? >> it's absolutely nightmarish. you know, there's a lot of cases out there that don't have dna that the people could very well be innocent and even if they're not, you know, media sort of portrays this image to society that death row is full of, you know, criminal genius hannibal lecter type and they are not. they say they don't exe

. >> damien echols, thanks for being here of.[applause] >> you're watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. and tonight we're at the national press club in washington, d.c. for their annual office night and we're pleased to be joined here by robert merry, was the author of "where they stand." do we tend to like our president's? >> i think the american people love the president. they love the presidency. but when have a president that has not succeeded, as they judge a failure, they very unsentimental he cast them aside. that's her sister to that's what they were invited to you by the founders and by the constitution. >> we have short patients because we have patience with the american people understand that the constitution gave him hiring and firing authority over these guys every four years. so if it was six years or eight years it would be a lot of impatience and elected. but for years as a pretty good timeframe. so they can feel pretty comfortable making the