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Thousands Forced to Free Capsizing Cruise Ship; Outrage Over Inmate Pardons
Aired January 14, 2012 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Run for your lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We scrambled around the ship looking for the best way to go. We made ladders out of ropes to climb down.
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LEMON: One minute a luxury vacation. In an instant, a nightmare. A cruise ship runs aground. A hole ripped in its hull. How did they survive? How would you? In just moments, the survivors share their horror stories.
Free at last?
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think he should have been let out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEOCLIP)
LEMON: Almost 200 criminals, some convicted murderers, hardened by Mississippi's outgoing governor. The public now in fear for their safety, even their lives. That and more, right here and right now on CNN.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us.
As we go on the air tonight, more than 4,000 people are no doubt celebrating life like they never have before. They escaped death by drowning in a doomed, gigantic cruise ship that nearly became their floating coffin when it suddenly and unexpectedly ran aground off the coast of Italy.
And just a short while ago, we learned that rescuers pulled two more survivors out of the Costa Concordia, more than 24 hours after the ship hit rocks. That's according to Italy's Ansa News Service. At this moment, the ship is capsized with 160 foot long gash right on its hull. It is that damage that forced passengers to scramble for the lifeboats. The last count, three people are dead, another 20 people were injured. Investigators say as many as 50 people could still be unaccounted for. An estimated 126 Americans were on the cruise, but none of them was hurt.
The Italian captain is under arrest. He could be charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship. We've been talking with some of the Americans who had to flee the cruise. For some, the ship turned into a dangerous obstacle course. Others got out quickly but had to leave everything behind.
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VIVAN SHAFER, CRUISE SHIP SURVIVOR: We thought it was part of the act in a way, because all of a sudden the boat listed and curtains. Everything was just totally sideways.
BENJI SMITH, CRUISE SHIP SURVIVOR (via telephone): The people manning these boats were just, you know, cooks and shopkeepers in the boat. They weren't the sailors. It wasn't the captains or the officers. Never heard from any of those guys. Never heard their voices. They saw any of them. They never helped us to evacuate. It was -- we were totally abandoned.
MARK PLATH, CRUISE SHIP SURVIVOR: When we got to shore, we were never told where to go. We were never told to gather anywhere. People curled up in churches and in shops, and then in the morning, boats came and we were just told to get on the boats but were given no reason why. We weren't told where we were going or what the next plan was. We were never told who was in charge or what was going to happen to us. We didn't know who was alive. We didn't know where we were going.
The angle of the boat was so steep, they couldn't get us out. So they brought us to the down side of the ship, real close to the water, and we -- they had a life raft that they blew up, but it got caught under one of the cranes and the boat started moving very quickly. There were maybe 200 people there, and the life raft exploded because the boat was on top of the life raft. And then at that time the water was only two meters from us so we jumped in and swam to shore, it's about 300 feet, or about 100 meters from us. So there are 200 people that swam to shore and climbed up onto the rocks.
SMITH: Everyone was rushing up to get to the lifeboats, and people were pushing and shoving. There was no order. There was no lines. There was no system in place. And there was no one in charge.
It was every crew member who walked past would shout instructions but the instructions contradicted each other. We were told to go -- at one point we were ordered to go back to our bunks and wait for the orders. But when we went to the stairs to go to our bunks, we were ordered not to go back to our bunks and to get back out to the boat.
The orders were contradictory, and children were shouting and panicking. The boat had turned up on its side and people were sliding on the slippery decks, they were landing in broken glass from wine glasses in the cafeteria.
PLATH: We were helping the staff more than they were helping us. They weren't in control. There were very few that knew what were going on. Only one person, he was shouting, don't jump, but the boat was turning so fast that if we wouldn't, we would have died. So everybody jump and swim to shore. And it turn so fast that the place where we are at is far under water right now.
SMITH: It was the Marks brothers watching these guys try to figure out how to work the boat. They couldn't coordinate. They are shouting at each other. They are -- one of them would suddenly drop one end of the boat and everyone would scream. And then they would reel that side of the boat back up and try to get it even.
I heard that there were other boats that twisted and turned so that the passengers were falling down into the ceiling parts of that boat. I felt like the disaster itself, you know, hitting the reef, the capsizing of the boat was manageable, but I felt like the crew was going to kill us.
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LEMON: Do you know that saying, "The captain always goes down with the ship." Well, apparently not this time.
Journalist Barbie Nadeau tells us what kind of trouble the captain of the Concordia is in. Barbie?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBIE NADEAU, JOURNALIST: The captain of the cruise ship that ran aground here on the coast of Tuscany has been stopped by the Italian authorities. He's being investigated for manslaughter and for abandoning ship. These are two very serious offenses in maritime law.
A number of the passengers today that we spoke to will not be surprised by the fact that this particular captain of this cruise ship has been found culpable in some manner.
There were numerous, numerous complaints about the way the evacuation was conducted, about the lack of information on the cruise ship for these people. They basically self evacuated in a number of ways because the ship was listing and they still hadn't called people to their muster stations which is where you go when your ship is in trouble and where you find your lifeboat.
The people took it upon themselves to help each other and to find the way off that ship. The divers who are looking under the water level of the ship at the Coast of Giglio, which is about 18 miles from where I'm standing right now, have stopped their search for tonight. They have not found any more bodies other than the three dead who were recovered from the water earlier this morning.
Their investigation will continue again tomorrow morning. They have a huge area of the ship that's underwater that they need to really take a look at. The divers have only finished a fraction of the search of that area. They are looking for bodies at this point. There are still 51 people unaccounted for. Whether that's an administrative error in terms of the lists of the passengers or whether those are actual fatalities from this accident, we are yet to find out.
This is Barbie Nadeau in Porto Santo Stefano, for CNN.
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LEMON: Barbie, thank you so much.
Here's why it is so tough to stop a cruise ship of this size. The Costa Concordia is 950 feet long and it can move as fast as 26 miles per hour. When it was christened in 2006, it was believed to be the biggest cruise ship in all of Italy. It's owned by a company called Costa Cruises whose parent company is Miami-based Carnival Cruise, the biggest cruise line in the world. Costa had a bad 2010. One of its cruise ship slammed into a cargo ship in China injuring three people. And another Costa ship smashed into a dock in Egypt, killing three crew members.
Make sure you check out CNN.com for more stories from passengers aboard the Costa Concordia. Plus, more incredible pictures of the ship that once sailed the seas but is now on its side, partially under water.
Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has created quite an uproar in the last week. Well, coming up, he's defending his decision to pardon several convicted murders.
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LEMON: Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour says he is at peace with his decision to pardon several convicted murderers but it's hard to find anyone who agrees with him.
CNN's Martin Savidge has more tonight from Jackson.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nearly a week after Governor Haley Barbour pardoned so many in this state, there is still a lot of anger. But nobody is more upset than the families of the victims.
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SAVIDGE: When Ronald Bonds wants to see his sister, this is the only way -- a photo album.
RONALD BONDS, JENNIFER MCCRAY'S BROTHER: That's Jennifer. Yes.
SAVIDGE: Jennifer McCray was murdered in 2001 by a man Ronald knew, her husband.
BONDS: We grew up together.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Really?
BONDS: We were good friends.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Anthony McCray shot his wife in a back, in front of a room full of witnesses in this after hour spot on the outskirts of town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would have stood right here, and his attorney right here.
SAVIDGE: McCray admitted the killing in court and the Judge Michael Smith sentenced him to life in prison.
Last Sunday, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour set McCray free after less than 10 years.
(on camera): Do you think he should have been let out?
BONDS: If you kill somebody, you need to do time, you know? He took somebody's life, you know what I'm saying?
SAVIDGE (voice-over): As a prisoner, McCray worked at the governor's mansion. The governor got to know him and came to trust him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, governor. How you doing?
SAVIDGE: And this week, Barbour pardoned him -- which means in the eyes of the law, the murder never happened.
BONDS: You are going to give a murderer, you know, somebody who shot a female, you know, person that they said they love and shot them in the back? You know what I'm saying? You wipe his slate clean?
SAVIDGE: For Bonds, there is no fresh start. He misses Jennifer every day, especially as he raises her now 18-year-old son, also named Anthony McCray.
(on camera): Let me ask you, as the son of a man who was convicted of murdering your mom, what do you think of all this?
ANTHONY MCCRAY, 18-YEAR-OLD SON: I just -- when I think about it, I just have to forgive him and the fact that he did it and she's gone. And I got to move on in life.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): And that's where this story might have ended, if it weren't for what happened next.
(on camera): So, we were actually led to this street here. It's an area where Anthony McCray used to live. And as we drove by, another person who was in the neighborhood pointed out that Anthony McCray was inside the house. We're going to go look.
Hello?
(voice-over): I knocked on the door. McCray came out and I couldn't believe it.
(on camera): And you are the man who was convicted of killing Jennifer McCray?
ANTHONY MCCRAY, PARDONED BY GOV. BARBOUR: Yes, sir.
SAVIDGE: The man who has been pardoned by Governor Barbour.
MCCRAY: Yes, sir.
SAVIDGE: He told me it was like to be free.
MCCRAY: I've been saved. I've been baptized. I've been reading the Bible for 12 1/2 years, so this is truly a blessing. I didn't do this. God did this. God touched Haley Barbour's heart to do this for us.
SAVIDGE: Do you think people should be angry at Governor Barbour for pardoning you?
MCCRAY: No, sir. We treat us like we his children.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): But Judge Smith is angry at former Governor Barbour. He says it's wrong to overturn his ruling when the murder was so blatant.
JUDGE MICHAEL SMITH (RET.), FOURTEENTH CIRCUIT COURT: There is no question, they have witnesses they had in the McCray case. I don't think that the governor should have authority to pardon the defendant.
SAVIDGE: Do you think because of the public anger, you may have to go back?
MCCRAY: There is a great possibility.
SAVIDGE: Judge Smith hopes he's right, not just in his case but in the case of the other three murderers Barbour freed as well, saying the pardons would only brought back pain.
SMITH: Now they will back where they started from.
SAVIDGE: The families you mean?
SMITH: The families and the victims.
SAVIDGE: Back in what sense?
SMITH: Back in the grief and the misery that the murders caused.
SAVIDGE: If you could talk to Governor Barbour, what would you ask him?
BONDS: Did you think about it? You know what I'm saying? Did you think about how many people it would effect?
SAVIDGE: Former Governor Haley Barbour continues to defend the pardons. In fact, he was on television locally and nationally yesterday although he declined to talk to CNN. He said the pardons were the right thing to do. There are many in this state who would disagree. Martin Savidge, CNN, Jackson, Mississippi.
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LEMON: Here are your headlines right now.
Political boos for Rick Santorum as he campaigns across South Carolina. A group of high profile Christian conservatives are endorsing Santorum for president. Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Gary Bauer were among those who met and came to a consensus at a Texas ranch. Perkins told CNN that Santorum merge as the group's preferred candidate after three rounds of voting.
A California man is in custody and police say he fits the description of a serial killer who's been preying on the homeless. Witnesses led police to the suspect after a man was killed last night. He hasn't yet been linked to the three other killings of homeless men in the Los Angeles area last month.
A man suspected in a series of rear end slashings last year in Virginia is in custody in Peru. Fairfax County police issued a warrant in September charging Johnny Guillen Pimentel with malicious wounding. He was captured Friday in Lima. All the victims, women, in their teens or early 20s. In each attack, the victim was distracted before being cut on the back side.
Every parent wants their child to achieve their goals. Coming up, meet a CNN hero whose goal is changing the world and he's barely 18 years old.
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LEMON: Millions of young people say they want to change the world. Well, tonight, "CNN Heroes" recognizes someone who did. His name is Justin Churchman. He's just 18 years old but he's already changing lives in Juarez, Mexico. How is he doing it? Well, one house at a time.
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JUSTIN CHURCHMAN, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: To give someone a home is from your heart and it's to their heart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).
CHURCHMAN: You really change their life forever.
My name is Justin Churchman. I work with an organization called "Casas for Cristo" and they build houses in Juarez, Mexico.
After I built my first house, I just fell in love with it. It changed my heart and it changed the way I saw the world. It's an addiction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He organized a team and at 13 years old led a group of Americans across the border. He built a home and he handed the keys of that home to that family in need. CHURCHMAN: This is our first house that we built. We met this wonderful lady and I've just fallen in love with it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had a goal pretty early on that he wanted to build 18 houses by the time he turned 18.
CHURCHMAN: And my parents got behind me and supported me, and "Casas for Cristos" supported me, and on my 18th birthday I completed my 18th house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's absolutely a young wonder. He's changing the world one house at a time.
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LEMON: Do you know someone who is making a big difference in the lives of others? Go to CNNHeroes.com now and nominate the 2012 CNN Hero today.
Harry Potter fans, well, think this next guy looks very familiar. No, it's not Harry's pet Hedwig, but these Snowy Owls, ones like this, well, they just look like they are popping up in the heart of the U.S. all over. What's that all about? We dig deeper next in our "Saturday Night Mysteries" with Jacqui Jeras.
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LEMON: That's scary. I love it. We got Jacqui's time now for "Saturday Night Mysteries with Jacqui Jeras." We have some great ones. We're going to start with a Harry Potter owl eruption. What's that all about?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Can you believe this? It's a Snowy Owl. You know, normally you would find these things somewhere up in the tundra, right up towards the Arctic Circle. This is what we call an eruption or basically it's a huge surge or a sudden burst in the natural population, and they've been showing up in places that you normally wouldn't see. Really far south. They've been spotted in Canada, Oregon, Washington, New York, Kansas, Oklahoma.
LEMON: Really?
JERAS: Really. That far south. Now we know why they're there, for the most parts. They're looking for food. But we don't really know how long they're going to stick around or why there's so many of them.
Now CNN meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, we know her as a meteorologist, but she's also a wildlife photographer.
LEMON: Oh my goodness.
JERAS: Yes, and she took some amazing photos, just got back from a trip from the Pacific Northwest. Here's what she has to say about the eruption.
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KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The Snowy Owls love lemmings, and lemmings are like the main course and dessert. They live off of this in the Arctic. They're like little hamsters, only they look a whole lot better than that.
There was a great lemming explosion, the owls are eating, they're fat, they're happy, they are reproducing. There are lot of eggs so there are a lot of young. The young are competing for food with the adults, and that's why we have seen this eruption here. They are leaving this arctic region and coming and foraging out to other areas. And this particular area, it was called Boundary Bay, Canada, just across the border.
JERAS: So you just got back from this trip. How exciting was that for you to go and see so many owls?
MAGINNIS: You are not going to see this again. And maybe never again in these kinds of numbers. For five or six years, that's about how cyclical it becomes.
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LEMON: So cool to look at. Yes.
JERAS: She's such a great photographer. Love them.
LEMON: Yes. All right, so we have another them. The Marlboro man. What's this? Was it Mayan? Is that the original Marlboro man?
JERAS: No, no, no. It's not the same kind of tobacco. Kind of an interesting fact. We have the first physical evidence now basically of tobacco use from the Mayans. It likely wasn't the kind of tobacco that you and me are talking about. We're talking about a powdered substance here. But basically there are a bunch of these vessels, right, kind of clay pots and they have hieroglyphics on the outside of them. There you see some pictures of them. And traces of nicotine have now been confirmed on the inside of them.
Now what's kind of mysterious and interesting is that the images and the depictions of the hieroglyphics on the outside for the most part haven't matched the chemical tests of what's been on the inside of the pots. But that one that you see right there in particular, the translation is the home of tobacco and that's the one that they actually found the nicotine in. So they're hoping that this could potentially help them discover and learn a little more about hieroglyphics.
LEMON: Wow, you have some cool stuff in "Saturday Night Mysteries."
JERAS: Yes, so much more. There's never enough time.
LEMON: That was great stuff. Thank you, Jacqui. JERAS: Thank you.
LEMON: We'll have one next week for you. Do you promise next weekend? Jacqui Jeras, thank you.
LEMON: Up next here on CNN, we have a special report for you. A journalist goes undercover inside a Syrian City that's become a battle zone between rebels and government forces. That begins in 2-1/2 minutes.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'll see you in a bit.
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