and together, they join the jehovah's witnesses, an austere christian sect that demands strict rules of behavior. their daughter lizz is now in her late 20s. what was it like growing up as the only child in the melgar family? >> you know, i always had a lot of love and attention. i think i might've taken that for granted as a teenager when, you know, you go through your rebellious years. >> reporter: lizz's cousin marissa remembers looking up to them as role models when she went to visit. >> sandy and jim were just very loving towards each other, respectful. you could just tell they always had each other's back. they were always helping each other out. i liked watching them together. >> reporter: as daughter lizz grew up, she became especially close to her mom, sandy. what was her personality like, in general? >> she's just very caring and loving and nurturing. she was also a lot of fun. she knew how to joke around, tell a good joke. you know, i just felt like she was the embodiment of a mother, just the kind of person that you would picture when you think of that word. she was just

hopefully let's be clear, jehovah witnesses are not promoting edgy ideology. [laughter] i'm just using your ideology of people opening the door. i think a lot of it is about examiner hard to standardize. a lot of it is about the personal circumstances. it's probably why efforts to solve this problem i'm trying to offer in the bigger scale, like some sort of national or international response of these things, i generally think that work because of how localized and specific these issues are. if you want to push back against radicalization and a lot of it is about the relationships than in the community and when you see it or when someone opens that door do they have the support to make sure that they're not kind of fully bought in and immersed in that world that's on the other side. or, are they subject to such little support that whoever opens or is on the other side of the door that is everybody or everything they were looking for. >> 's was all up to having more youth leaders and people working with young people especially young men. i'm going to ask you abo

they'd joined the jehovah's witnesses early in their relationship, but by her early 20s, daughter lizz had left the church. newly independent, she rushed into a marriage. a bad one. >> true that he was involved in heavy drugs? >> yes. >> that was the end of it? >> that was it. i didn't want to live that kind of life. >> reporter: but her parents' marriage just kept going through sickness and health. in fact, in recent years, jaime was looking younger than ever on a vegetarian diet and exercise regimen. >> he realized he was getting older and he just wanted to make sure he was in the best physical shape. >> your mom. your poor -- >> mom. meanwhile had a constellation of health problems, didn't she? >> yes. >> lupus? chemotherapy involved in that? >> at times, yeah. she also had epilepsy. >> did she have the seizures? did you ever see her -- >> yes. yeah, she did. >> reporter: then december 2012 rolled around. their 32nd wedding anniversary. sandra was ill on the actual day. so they went out together ten days later, on december 22nd. >> she was finally feeling well enough to go and have

it is indeed permissible under the first amendment to or not permissible to force jehovah witness children to salute the flag. >> in his opinion just as jackson later famous as the service nÜrnberg said very purpose of the bill of rights is to place certain things beyond the reach of a jury majorities away from the politics. in a way, i am arguing about is whether america is about a process, major rollr about a condition which is liberty. i come down from liberty. then in a way this started in my mind before princeton, grew up in central illinois where you could grow up there and is marinated in the spirit of abraham lincoln. i grew up in champaign county in the champaign county courthouse according to local lore, the prosperous railroad lawyer abraham lincoln first learned about the passage of the kansas breast act which 1850. a product of another illinois in. stephen douglas, and it was lincoln's retracted recoil against the kansas back stake in the idea of it the popular sovereignty should be settled the slavery in the territory. it was not that launched his career, the greatest in worl

a movie that is appropriate for my parents to see [ laughter ] and what's funny -- cause my dad's jehovah no, no, no that wasn't -- >> all y'all slammed the door in his face, huh [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause >> jimmy: oh my god. oh my god. >> don't trip. there was days my mother would be like, "who's at the door? it's your father get down." [ laughter ] >> jimmy: he went to your door >> and so my parents actually did get to see this. >> jimmy: oh my gosh >> and i went by my mom's house, so i told her, "i'm going to come hook up netflix. she said, "where can i see the movie? i said, "netflix." i said -- she goes, "i ain't got that what is that?" i said, "i'm going to buy you a apple tv." "i don't want no apples in my tv." i said, "no ma, apple tv." "i already got a tv, it's a tube i don't like them things that hang on the wall where i'm looking at pictures. i want a tube on my television." i said, "ma, it's a little box i come attach it to your thing. she said, "i don't want no damn little box, you do what you do i'll see the movie when i can. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: so that's the rev

we had jehovah's witness, we had white folks, they could've been catholic or atheists. we don't know, >> we did have a couple. >> but you know what, they stayed in the circle when we played prayed, and they held hands with everyone else when we prayed. it had to do that togetherness and purpose. that is what we had you know? that respect of your religion, regardless. it was what we were doing that was what in was important. >> i came back in 2001, to be vice president of historic area, one of the first things, i remember doing publicly, was a gathering of the fire department and police, and everyone, after 9/11 because there are people here that were visitors who really didn't know how to take what was happening, our entire world changed during 9/11, and i remember colin campbell who was the president then said rex, i want you to lead at the ceremony on the steps of the capitol. that was a courthouse. it was a place that we opted it. and we invited visitors and everybody came, i didn't know what to say. i ended up saying at the beginning, we might have come to this coun

now we had jehovah witness and we had white folks. and cathy. and could be atheist. you know what?hey stood in the circle when we played. they held hands with everybody else when we prayed. it ain't their prayer but it had to do with the togetherness and purpose. and that's what we had, you know and it's a respect of your religion regardless. it was what we were doing that was important. >> right. >> i came back in 2001 to be vice president of the historic area. and one of the first things that i remember doing publicly was a gathering of fire department and police and everyone after 9/11, because there were people here who were visitors who didn't know how to sort of take what was happening. our world changed. our entire world changed during 9/11. and i remember colin campbell, the president then, said rex, i want you to lead the ceremony on the steps of the capitol that was the courthouse was the place that we all did it. and we invited visitors and everybody else came. i didn't know what to say. and i ended up saying at the beginning, we might have come to this country on differ