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Sentencing for Jerry Sandusky; Sandusky Releases Audio Tape from Jail; Mitt Romney Delivers Foreign Policy Speech; Weather Delays Space Extreme Jump; The "Real" Romney; Sentencing Day for Jerry Sandusky; Companies Use Election to Sell Products; Fans Behaving Badly

Aired October 09, 2012 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As the Jerry Sandusky sentencing gets under way, let's get right to Carol Costello, who's following the story from here.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Soledad.

Right now in the NEWSROOM, Jerry Sandusky in court and possibly on his way to a lifetime in prison. But the convicted child rapist says he's the real victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, CONVICTED CHILD RAPIST: They can take away my life. They can make me out as a monster. They can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged, disgusting acts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And that's not the most shocking claim in this stunning jailhouse recording.

Skydive of historic proportions. One man hopes to break the sound barrier in a jump from the edge of space.

A new poll shows Mitt Romney out front. The president's poor debate performance apparently giving the challenger a boost. But for how long?

New public relations stunts. Companies are now using the election to sell their products.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello.

Right now one of the most reviled men in the country faces sentencing. The hearing is scheduled to start right now for convicted child rapist Jerry Sandusky. The former assistant football coach at Penn State faces life in prison for 45 counts of child sex abuse. A jury found that he sexually abused 10 boys over a 15-year period. Some of those victims and Sandusky himself are expected to address the judge during this morning's proceedings.

But the most startling development may have come just hours ago. Sandusky released an audio recording from jail, saying he is the victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDUSKY: They can take away my life. They can make me out as a monster. They can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. In my heart I know I did not do these alleged, disgusting act as.

My wife has been my only sex partner and that was after marriage. Our love continues. A young man who is dramatic, a veteran accuser and always sought attention started everything. He was joined by a well- orchestrated effort of the media, investigators, the system, Penn State, psychologists, civil attorneys and other accusers. They won.

I've wondered what they really won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We are covering all the angles. Susan Candiotti is outside the courthouse where the hearing is now getting under way and veteran prosecutor and attorney Paul Callan will have more on Sandusky's audiotapes.

But, Susan, let's begin with you. We saw Sandusky arriving at the courthouse. Apparently he had a bulletproof vest underneath his prison clothing. Tell us what's going to happen inside that courtroom?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, you're going to be hearing from a lot of the victims and Jerry Sandusky himself. And those attorneys representing the victims in this case are saying after hearing that video -- that audiotape that Jerry Sandusky is either delusional, as they put it, or he truly believes that he is the victim of some sort of grand conspiracy, despite a verdict from a jury that was -- left no doubt that Jerry Sandusky is a victim, but he continues to insist that he didn't do it. Here's what another victim's attorney said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY FRITZ, ATTORNEY FOR SANDUSKY VICTIM NUMBER 4: I don't know what the strategy is, other than an a animal who's about to be placed in a cage and fighting out, and lashing out. Jerry Sandusky is in denial that he committed any crimes, which his typical for a serial pedophile, especially somebody who's as notorious as Jerry Sandusky.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CANDIOTTI: And here's the rundown of what's happening in court, Carol. First of all, the judge is expected to designate Jerry Sandusky as a violent sexual offender. It has to do with the sentencing procedure. And then Jerry Sandusky himself is expected to finally address the court, probably take about five to 10 minutes. After that, letters will be entered into the record, including one from his wife, Dottie, and some of his adult children.

After that, the victims will have a chance to either speak directly to Jerry Sandusky by taking the stand and -- reading their own statements, or their statements will be read into the record by -- into the record by prosecutors. Not all of the victims will be here. But some of them will be. And then, finally, the sentencing. Jerry Sandusky faces up to 400 years. It's unlikely those would run back to back to back but rather concurrently.

This whole procedure probably will take around a couple of hours. By the time it is over with. And then we're very likely to hear from the people who participated afterwards -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Susan Candiotti, reporting live for us this morning.

Now let's listen to more of those audiotapes from Jerry Sandusky. Here he says his wife of 45 years remains by his side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDUSKY: We must fight unfairness and inconsistency and dishonesty. People need to be portrayed for who they really are. We have not been complainers. When we couldn't have kids, we adopted. When we didn't have time to prepare for a trial we still gave it our best. We will fight for another chance. We have given many second chances and now we'll ask for one.

It will take more than our effort. Justice will have be more than just a word, fairness be more than just a dream. It will take others, somebody apolitical with the courage to listen to think about take the unfairness, to have the guts to stand up the take the road less traveled. I ask for the strength to handle everything and the willingness to surrender only to god regardless of the outcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Paul Callan is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. He joins us from New York. He's also a CNN legal contributor.

Hello, Paul.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So surely the judge in this case has heard this tape, do you think?

CALLAN: Oh, yes, I would say he has. I'm sure the judge is well aware of all the press coverage going on and all the drama last night when networks were trying to figure out whether this was for real or a prank or -- I mean, people were shocked that he would submit a tape a like this to a college radio station. So I think a lot of us were worried that it might just be a college prank but no, it's for real. And I'm sure the judge knows about it.

COSTELLO: So how will it enter into the judge's decision?

CALLAN: Well, you know, the judge looks at the entire picture when sentencing someone. He's going to look at, you know, a 45-count indictment and conviction. He's going to look at the fact that there are 10 boys who were sexually abused over a 15-year period, but he'll also look at Jerry Sandusky's background. And when this tape comes up, the context of this tape will be, a lot of times a judge will look at the defendant and say, is he sorry for the crime that he committed? Has he committed himself to try to rehabilitate himself?

Well, Jerry Sandusky in this tape says, number one, he blames the judge because the trial came too fast. He blames a huge conspiracy which he says consists of lawyers, prosecutors, psychologists to convict him of this crime. And then finally, and most startlingly, he blames the victims. He blames the boys who brought the charges, who of course are now adults, and says that they are part of a grand conspiracy to do him in.

So all of the things that he says are things that will hurt him with a sentencing judge, which is why I was frankly stunned that he did this. He could have given an interview post-sentencing, of course, from jail. He knows he's going to jail. And it wouldn't have affected his sentencing. But to do it on the night before a judge is going to hand down a sentence just -- it defies belief that he would do this, but he did.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll talk more about this in the next hour. Paul Callan, thanks for your insight this morning.

Before we break away from the Sandusky sentencing, just a reminder, we're covering it from all angles. We have crews inside the courtroom waiting on the judge's decision. Outside the courthouse we'll have the latest reaction and we'll return to the scene live if anything develops.

And don't forget, if you're heading out the door, you can always take us with you.

What a difference a debate makes. A new Pew poll of likely voters shows Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has edged ahead of President Obama 49 to 45 percent. This bounce comes after the president's lackluster debate performance last week. But Romney's four-point advantage is still within the survey's sampling error.

Now the same poll shows the candidates tied at 46 percent among registered voters. So what's a president's campaign to do? Answer, launch an ominous new ad featuring an imposing six-foot-tall figure, covered in yellow feathers, living in a nest, and then throw in a mastermind of corporate greed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, criminals, gluttons of greed. And the evil genius who towered over them? One man has the guts to speak his name.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Big Bird. Big Bird. Big Bird.

BIG BIRD, SESAME STREET CHARACTER: It's me, Big Bird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big, yellow, a menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about. It's "Sesame Street."

ROMNEY: I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitt Romney taking on our enemies no matter where they nest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: As you well know in last week's debate Mitt Romney said he would cut funding to PBS, which, of course, airs "Sesame Street" starring Big Bird.

In the meantime, the Obama administration is calling Mitt Romney's foreign policy inconsistent. Romney gave a major foreign policy speech to reboot the perception his campaign is weak on global affair as. Romney cited recent protest and violence in Arab countries as examples of a worsening security situation that he blamed on President Obama's policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: The blame for the murder of our people in Libya and the attacks on our embassies in so many countries lies solely with those who carried them out. No one else. But it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to use America's greatest power to shape history. Not to lead from behind. Leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Critics call the speech, quote, "difference without distinction," and said much of Romney's foreign policy game did not stray from the tactics used right now by the the Obama administration.

On to something that could be quite spectacular, or not. Imagine being almost 23 miles above the ground and then jumping. That's exactly what one extreme skydiver hopes to do today. Felix Baumgartner is trying to set a world record for skydiving an altitude of 120,000 feet, that would 82 and a half Empire State buildings stacked on top of one another.

The problem right now is the weather . Strong winds are delaying the attempt. Baumgartner's team is holding out hope weather conditions improve.

You're looking at a live picture now from the launch site in New Mexico. If everything goes to plan, Baumgartner will become the first person to break the sound barrier without the aid of a vehicle. He'll be traveling more than 700 miles per hour wearing nothing more than a parachute, helmet and pressurized suit.

Back in April I got a chance to ask him about that special suit he'll wear for this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELIX BAUMGARTNER, SKYDIVER: If you want to go up to an altitude of 120,000 feet you need to have a pressurized suit. The reason why is because as you cross the Armstrong line, which is about 60,000 feet high, the water in your blood starts boiling and the pressure suit keeps the pressure with you and it's not going to happen to you. But also at the same time it's very limiting. You have a lack of movement. So it's hard to skydive in a suit like this. It's hard to exit the capsule in a suit. So that requires a lot of practicing. And that's what I did in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We hope it worked.

Brian Todd will join us live from the jump site in Roswell, New Mexico, with an update on the launch and the final preparations.

Pizza Hut, JetBlue and 7-Eleven are engaged in a new publications battle and they're using the election to win the war for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Fifteen minutes past the hour.

Checking our top stories:

Former Penn State coach, assistant coach rather, Jerry Sandusky, is in court this hour for the sentencing phase of his trial. He faces life in prison for sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. Speaking out on a jailhouse recording, Sandusky says he is the real victim and did nothing wrong.

We have crews at the courthouse. We'll bring you this sentence as it happens.

And justice may be getting closer for a grieving widow who says her husband was killed on a lake that straddles the U.S./Mexico border. She calls the arrest of the 2-year-old case a complete out-of-the blue shock. Investigators say this man, a suspected Mexican drug cartel leader, is linked to the killing on Falcon Lake. The victim's body has never been found.

In money news, American scientist David Wineland and a Frenchman will share the $1.2 million Nobel Peace Prize in physics. They were cited for groundbreaking work on measuring and manipulating individual particles. The Nobel Foundation has lowered the prize money by 20 percent, citing turbulence in the financial markets.

Beatles fans will get a chance to see another side of John Lennon, with a new book out today. It includes personal letters of him scolding Paul McCartney and even a fan who criticized Yoko Ono. Ono, Lennon's widow, granted Beatles biographer Hunter Davies permission to publish the John Lennon letters.

The political blog "Politico" is calling it the "Romney Rebellion." Mr. Romney's son, Tagg, and his wife, Ann, are on a mission to expose the real Mitt. "Politico's" Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei say Romney's oldest son, quote, "has been making sure that his father's environment is such that he's relaxed when he goes up to do things and making sure that he's not over programmed and is protected from the cacophony of advice," end quote.

That was abundantly clear before the debate. You can see Romney playing Jenga with his sons and grandkids, and Romney does seem more at ease with campaign events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: People wonder why it is I'm so confident we're going to win. I'm confident because I see you here on a day like this. This is unbelievable. Thank you so much.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk about that.

Maria Cardona is a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist.

And Ana Navarro is a CNN contributor and a Republican strategist.

Welcome to you both.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, Romney's family finally trumped his professional strategist and demanded let Mitt be Mitt.

So, Maria, are we seeing the real Mitt as opposed to the man Obama has called an actor?

CARDONA: Well, that's the big question, Carol. I think that that is essential to, I think, what's going to be the Democratic message, which is we have seen so many Mitts during his political lifetime that who knows which is the real Mitt.

Look, he did appear more moderate, more human even, more likable during the debate. But it still stands that his policies have not changed. He stills wants to defund Planned Parenthood. He even wants to get rid of Big Bird. He wants to get rid of Obamacare, talking about how he would keep covering people with pre-existing conditions, but doesn't tell us how to pay for it.

And as much as he wants to deny it, he does have a $5 trillion tax cut for millionaires that will cost middle class families a bigger tax hike. So --

COSTELLO: But still --

CARDONA: -- that, I think, is the challenge for him.

COSTELLO: Still, Ana, conservatives always suspected Romney was moderate. Despite what Maria just said, he is kind of showing a moderate tone at least.

So, are Republicans willing to embrace what they call a RINO -- Republican in name only?

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think he is far from being a RINO. I think he is adopting a more moderate tone.

I am absolutely elated by it, Carol. I think it's a natural shift when you go into a general campaign and it happens on both sides of the aisle.

I think what we're seeing a multi-dimensional Mitt Romney. We had seen the businessman, the fix-up artist. But we had not seen the guy, the father, you know, the human, the friend.

I think we're seeing a will the more of that and it's helping. He had to do it. He had a huge likability gap. And I'm just very happy that Ann Romney and Tagg Romney have prevailed.

My question is, what took you so long? I think they're a great influence on him. We've known, we've heard that Ann Romney is called the "Mitt stabilizer". She -- they are very close family. They are very close couple.

I think the more of this Mitt we see, the better. And conservatives will be fine with it and are fine with it. You're seeing at his stump events, thousands and thousands and thousands of people. That's the base are showing up.

Look, if we win, if we can win, we don't care if it's the moderate or conservative, which one it is. We want Mitt Romney.

You know, we don't want President Obama reelected.

COSTELLO: Wait. I thought things were shifting, at least some conservative analysts say, oh, it's shifting. It's like it's no longer the Republican voters just want to vote against Obama, now they're really, really starting to like Mitt Romney.

Maria, care to address?

CARDONA: Well, I mean, yes. And clearly, that is because of the shift.

And I agree with Ana. It is a very smart thing to do. And the question is, why didn't he do it sooner?

But the bigger question is, will he be able to keep up that moderate tone and rhetoric that doesn't really match up with the policies? And that's going to be the challenge for the Democrats, for Vice President Biden going into this vice presidential debate, for President Obama and for all the surrogates to continue to point out that there is a big chasm between what he is saying and what he is actually proposing.

He still embraces the Paul Ryan budget. Let's keep that in mind. He still embraces cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires. And what is he going to do for middle class families?

So, I think that is the big challenge. And the focus for Democrats is that it is still President Obama, the one who wakes up every day, fighting for middle class families. Let's not forget the auto bailout, he wanted them to go bankrupt.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: We got to get Ana in here. Ana, go ahead.

NAVARRO: How many more talking points can you get into one segment? Listen --

COSTELLO: She was pretty good. She was like a politician.

NAVARRO: Yes. Well, I will tell you the big difference right now is that you can tell Mitt Romney is having fun. That's what you saw at the debate. You saw a Mitt Romney who was enjoying being there and brought his A game and you saw President Obama who looked pained, looked like he would rather be having a root canal than being at that debate.

And, you know, Carol, the thing is, we are now -- before, we could say to a candidate, tell us what you think. Today, we are also part of the Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil generation. We also want to know what they feel, who they are. We want to like them.

You know, so I think it is very important that Mitt Romney is showing more of his personal side.

We do know a lot about President Obama. That's one of his advantages. You know, we know all about his daughters, his dog, his grandma, his mom, his wife. And I think it's a very good thing that Mitt Romney is also showing us the real Mitt Romney.

COSTELLO: Except for the dog part. I know that was a low blow. I couldn't help it.

Ana Navarro, Maria Cardona, thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Talk back question for the day. It's a different one.

Do you believe in life after death? And why?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on the stories of the day. The question for you this morning: Do you believe in life after death? And why?

There is a fascinating article in the latest issue of "Newsweek" about the possibility of life after death. It caught our attention because most of us want to believe there's a deeper meaning to life and something out there for us after we die.

The latest theory comes from Dr. Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon who called himself a Christian in name only until he contracted meningitis and had his own near-death experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: After seven days of virtual brain death, Alexander emerged from the coma. Miraculously within a month, he was back to normal. But something happened to him while he was away.

DR. EBEN ALEXANDER, NEUROSURGEON: I had no body awareness. I had no arms, legs or anything, but I was aware that I was a speck on a butterfly wing. Absolutely beautiful butterfly.

I was there with that beautiful, warm awareness of the divine, which was clearly what we would call God in this place outside the universe.

Basically, I recall the whole multi-verse being out in front of me. It was very clear that love was a huge part of the constituent of this whole multi-verse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Sounds wonderful. It comes at a time when many Americans are becoming less religious.

In a new Pew Research study, nearly 20 percent of Americans said they had no religious affiliation compared to nearly 15 percent five years ago.

Still, the article struck a cord, which says to us, despite what the polls say, most people are looking for answers about the afterlife.

So, the talk back question for you, do you believe in life in after death? And why?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll be so interested to read your responses later on in the program.

One man's crazy adventure, a jump from the edge of space. But one thing has placed his attempt on hold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello.

Stories we're watching right now in THE NEWSROOM:

Many investors are waiting on third quarter earnings to come in after the opening bell on Wall Street. Ringing the bell today, executives and guests of Berry Plastics.

Jerry Sandusky in court today for his sentencing. He could get life in prison. The former Penn State coach and some of the victims are expected to address the judge.

Sandusky was found guilty of 45 criminal counts of child sex abuse. We'll bring you the sentence when it happens.

Thirteen thousand people may have received steroid injections contaminated with a rare fungal meningitis. That's according to the CDC. Steroid injection reached 23 states before being recalled. At least eight people have died. More than 100 people in nine states are now infected.

On hold. Right now, weather is delaying a man's plans to jump from 120,000 feet from the edge of space. Felix Baumgartner wants to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. This is Red Bull animation, and it's showing you his journey.

Once Baumgartner jumps from his capsule on the edge of space, he'll quickly reach 700 miles per hour. To put this all into perspective, Baumgartner will be traveling faster than a Boeing 747 airliner almost 23 miles above the Earth. Wow!

In case you're wondering, a traditional skydiver only goes about 120 miles an hour.

Brian Todd joins me now from Roswell, New Mexico, the site of the jump.

Ah, the weather!

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the weather is delaying things for now. But what we just found out from meteorologists here, they're going to stick it out for another couple of hours. This still has a chance to go today. The weather could be improving in the next couple of hours. They say they can launch as late as 11:00 or noon local time, 1:00 or 2:00PM Eastern Time.

As far as the window, whether to make call, they're going to wait another couple of hours to make the call. They may see more optimal conditions now that the sun has come up and they think that if that has happened, the winds may die down. The key height they're looking at is winds 700 to 800 feet above the Earth were a little bit too high, a little earlier today. But they think now that the sun has come up, that those winds may come down.

So, they're going to stick it out for another couple of hours and they may still be able to launch today. So, a lot of anticipation still for this mission. A couple of months ago, I talked to the daredevil, Felix Baumgartner, who's going to do this jump, and I asked him a fairly heavy question about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELIX BAUMGARTNER, SKYDIVER: Well, diving has always been part of my life. As a base jumper, you always face death on every base jump. And therefore, it is important that you do your homework, because you need confidence. You have to have confidence in your team, your skills and yourself.

And you always hope you're not going to die. It might happen but I'm going to put everything out there to make sure it's not going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And he's got a large team of scientists and other experts at work. They're all assembled here at mission control right behind me. Our photojournalist Mike Lock (ph) can take you in there. A lot of people gathered out there, watching the weather carefully here.

We were in the command center yesterday. They had a good sense of this mission, good sense that they could carry it off and that they can return Felix Baumgartner to Earth safely. But, of course, you know, we're all at the mercy of the weather in a lot of thy these things. That's the holding pattern right now, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So, I'm curious about so many things, Brian. Like once he jumps, how long would the jump last before his parachute opens?

TODD: You know, only about five minutes before the parachute opens. The entire thing is only going to take 15 minutes once he steps off that capsule. You compare that to the time it takes him to get him up there, two and a half to three hours, he's got to think about it when he's on the way up. That would be pretty excruciating for most of us.

But once he jumps of that capsule, 15 minutes total, about five minutes in freefall. And then at about 5,000 feet above the surface of the Earth, his parachute will open. Another 10 minutes, he'll cruise down and hopefully that's the way it goes.

But, you know, it's almost the blink of an eye as far as just the -- when you think five years in preparation for this, this thing got green lighted seven years ago. It takes three hours to get up there and then it's over almost before you know it.

COSTELLO: OK. So yes or no, would you do it?

TODD: Would I do it? Wow! Maybe if I had as much behind me as Felix does, as far as just the technology and equipment and everything -- sure. I would like to say I would do it. Sure. Wouldn't all of us like to say, sure, I'd do it?

COSTELLO: I would do it in a minute.

TODD: You know, I don't know. I think in that hour three-hour ride up there -- yes, I think in that three hour ride up there, though, might have second thoughts.

COSTELLO: Probably right about that. Brian Todd, thank you so much.

TODD: Sure.

COSTELLO: In the world of politics, pizza hut is offering free pizza for life. All you have to do to win is ask the candidates one simple question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is sentencing day for former Penn State coach and pedophile Jerry Sandusky. He's in court right now, facing up to life in prison for sexually abusing all those boys.

Sandusky and some of his victims are expected to address the judge. The former defensive coordinator has already been speaking out from jail, though. He says he's the real victim, as he proclaimed his innocence in an interview that aired on Penn State's student-run radio station.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, CONVICTED CHILD PREDATOR: They can take away my life. They can make me out as a monster. They can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged, disgusting acts.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Sandusky's sentencing phase comes three months after his conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse.

My next guest knows what it's like to spend time behind bars.

Larry Levine spent 10 years in federal prison. He's now the director and founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants.

Welcome.

LARRY LEVINE, DIR. & FOUNDER, WALL STREET PRISON CONSULTANTS: Good morning. Glad to be with you.

COSTELLO: We were wondering what life will be like for Jerry Sandusky behind bars. Can you give us a sense?

LEVINE: Well, let me start with something about his sentencing. Generally, the court is looking for remorse for your crimes. For him to come out and call himself the victim is a special kind of stupid. That's really going to work against him. And when he reaches custody, there's two kinds of people that are really hated inside. That's people that are snitches and informants and people that molest children and child pornography. He's not going to have a lot of friends on the inside.

And I've seen things that his lawyer has put out, saying that they believe he's going to go to minimum custody.

That's not true at all. Just the level of the sentence he is going to get, he's going to be a flight risk. So, he's going to behind a fence somewhere, possibly low custody, medium custody, not to mention the severity of his crime. He is a threat to the community. So he's going to hard time it.

And prison is like a social experience. You've made friends while you're on the inside, spend a lot of time with people. But these child molesters, kiddy porn people, they're outcasts. Nobody wants anything to do with them.

And I read some reports saying the state of Pennsylvania has indicated they're not going to give him any kind of special treatment.

Well, he is kind of a marked man on the inside. He's got notoriety. People know who he is. Maybe a regular -- well, there's no such thing as a regular child molester, but somebody who's been convicted of child molestation, people don't really know about it. These people go inside, they lie about their crimes.

This guy doesn't have a chance. I believe he's going to have to be in isolation.

COSTELLO: Isn't he in isolation right now, though? I mean, they're protecting him right now.

LEVINE: Yes, he is in a detention center, county jail setting, and that's for people that are going through the sentencing, trial process. Once you get inside a prison and have been sentenced, you develop a routine where you go to work and you have leisure time and athletic time and you have to go to the dining hall. You have more structure.

I mean, now, he is sitting in a cell. They can't let him go into whatever general population they have in this detention center. So, once he hits a prison, who knows? I don't see him in general population.

COSTELLO: So, what will his life -- will he be able to watch TV? I mean, what will his life be like?

LEVINE: Yes. He can buy -- Pennsylvania state prison prisons, I believe they allow you to buy a 13-inch TV, you get 15 channels. I believe he's not really solitary confinement, but some type of protective custody holding unit.

He's not going to have the regular type of social experience people on the inside have, interacting with hundreds of other inmates. They're going to have to protect him.

Let's look at it like this. He's going to be in an institution of high security where people are serving long sentences, life sentences and such. These people have nothing to lose. So for someone to kill him, someone to take him out, they'll become a hero. I mean, he's not a popular guy to begin with.

So he's going to have to watch had his back until the day he dies. He's never getting out. He's leaving in a box.

COSTELLO: Larry Levine, thanks so much for being with us today. We appreciate it.

LEVINE: Certainly.

COSTELLO: Wow, that was grim.

CNN has crews inside the courtroom, waiting for the sentence and outside, of course, waiting to get reaction. Keep it here throughout the day. We'll bring you the sentence when it happens.

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COSTELLO: Forty-five minutes past the hour.

One way to grab the undivided attention of undecided voters is to pull a stunt. A public relations stunt is more about promoting and selling products than promoting a specific candidate.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. So Pizza Hut is involved -- free pizza for life?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes isn't that what you've always wanted, like a free pizza party for the rest of your life?

COSTELLO: Yes.

KOSIK: But you could also choose -- well, this is an even better option in my opinion. Or you can choose the $15,000 in cash if you don't want the pizza. But if you want to win one of these things, you kind of have to go rogue. What Pizza Hut wants you to do is ask Mitt Romney or President Obama, do you like sausage or pepperoni on your pizza? Yes they want you to ask that question at the next presidential debate on October 16th, that's going to be a town hall style debate.

So but you know this could be kind of tough. The questions are typically pre-screened. And you know what these kinds of gimmicks, this kind of shtick is pretty typical for a lot of businesses. They like to come up with promotions that are tied to big events.

Think of the Super Bowl, that's a good way for companies to get in on the conversation and make money off of it.

Look what 7-Eleven is doing, it's running a seven election. What you do is you pick a candidate by buying a blue donkey cup for Obama or red elephant cup for Romney. This is of course when you go in to buy your morning coffee.

7-Eleven has done this in the past election. Did you know that this promotion actually lined up perfectly with the results of the 2004 and 2008 elections? Yes, 7-Eleven does keep a running tab on how many cups each color is selling.

One more to tell you about, this happens to be my personal favorite -- JetBlue is offering its election protection. So basically you go online, you vote for a candidate. If your guy doesn't win, you could win a ticket out of the country. Better yet, it's a round trip so you can come back, too.

So yes, go on. Vote for who is going to lose. I'm going to go on and vote for who is going to lose and I'm going to go to Barbados. You want to come?

COSTELLO: Usually it's Canada, but I like Barbados much, much better.

KOSIK: Oh yes the choices are pretty sweet. Go online and you can kind of click through the Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica oh yes go with me. We'll have a girl's trip together.

COSTELLO: Oh we'll have a great time. Little Margarita -- oh yes.

KOSIK: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Alison, for putting that image in my mind. I'm enjoying it.

KOSIK: You got it.

COSTELLO: College quarterback -- college quarterback team loses the game and his house gets TP'd, toilet papered and egged. Some football fans are going way over the line. We'll talk about that with Tiki Barber.

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COSTELLO: The Houston Texans are still unbeaten after a Monday night football game win over the New York Jets. The Texans fooled the Jets' defense on the first score of the game when their line went right, quarterback Matt Schaub rolled left, and he hit on Daniels. Houston never trailed on this one beating New York 23-17.

Before the game Tim Tebow tweeted to his followers, quote, "Looking forward to giving God all the glory in tonight's 666th Monday night football game." That's right, 666. Tebow had five rushes for 19 yards, threw one pass, an incompletion that really should have been caught but I guess God had other plans for the Jets.

On to decidedly ungodly behavior but let's start with the good. An offensive lineman's job is to protect his quarterback. Kansas City's Eric Winston did it on the field and in the locker room as well. In Sunday's game against Baltimore, Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel went down with an injury and some Chiefs fans, yes, Cassel's own fans, cheered. Winston teed off on them after the game. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC WINSTON, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS OFFENSIVE TACKLE: When you cheer somebody getting knocked out, I don't care who it is, and it just so happened to be Matt Cassel, it's sickening. It's 100 percent sickening. If he's not the best quarterback, he's not the best quarterback and that's ok, but he's a person and he got knocked out in a game, and we got 70,000 people cheering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's not the only recent case of fans behaving badly. University of Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray had his home egged and rolled after Saturday's loss. Angry fantasy owners sent Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams profanity-laced tweets and you, of course, remember Redskins receiver Josh Morgan who got death threats on Twitter.

Let's talk about this with former NFL running back Tiki Barber. Good morning Tiki.

TIKI BARBER, FORMER RUNNING BACK, NEW YORK GIANTS: Good morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: What's -- what's going on with these fans?

BARBER: Well you know what's interesting Carol is that the Internet, in the world that we live in now is completely open and accessible to athletes. You can interact with them in ways that you never could before and some people take advantage of that and sending encouraging messages.

But by and large the anonymity of the Internet has provided an opportunity to be vile and evil and racist and anything else in between and I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing for the sport. When it manifests itself on the field, as it did in Kansas City with Matt Cassel going down with a concussion and his home team cheering, it starts to get disturbing.

The -- the veil of a mob mentality is something that we've always been scared of as athletes because you never know what's going to happen when you get into a situation like that.

COSTELLO: Oh of course. You know, remember back in the day like maybe two years ago when someone was injured on the field, the whole stadium would become silent. People would start praying. Players from opposing teams would start praying that this guy was all right. And look at what happened at the Chiefs game, I mean, what happened to those kinds of fans?

BARBER: Well, you know, that's how it's supposed to be. You're supposed to cheer when he gets up and walks off the field not when he gets hurt because he's hurting your fantasy team or you think he's just performing badly and should be replaced. So there's not really a defined mechanism on how to handle these things in a lot of sports. So for instance, boxing. Boxing, we cheer for a guy to get knocked out. Not everybody is Wladimir Klitschko who's just trying to score points. You're cheering to the see other the guy knocked out.

In football in particular, because it's such a violent sport, you don't want to see guys get hurt. You don't want to see your stars on the field from a league perspective, from a team perspective because it takes fans out of the arena. But this is disturbing for how vicious it seemed from a home team. You're used to seeing this from Philadelphia fans or Oakland fans on the opponent not for the home team on their own players.

COSTELLO: Hopefully fans will behave. Tiki Barber, thanks so much.

BARBER: Let's hope.

COSTELLO: I hope so.

"Talk Back" question this morning, "Do you believe in life after death? And why? Your responses next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "Talk Back" question this morning, do you believe in life after death and why?

This from David, "Absolutely. One can't possibly think that we and this rock we stand on is all there is. The good Lord has given us enough information, all we have to do is listen."

This from Matthew, "People are becoming more spiritual and less religious why in my experience is a great thing."

From Jeremy, "No, I personally don't believe. He was only dreaming. If his heart had stopped, so would his feelings and visions of life."

This from Levan, "If some believe there is life without religion, it's not so much a stretch for those people to believe there may be an afterlife without religion."

And from Jay, "I'm 99 percent sure that when you die, you simply cease to exist. Hoping God is there to prove me wrong when my time comes."

Keep the responses coming. They're terrific today. Facebook.com/carolcnn.

The next hour of NEWSROOM begins right now.

Happening now, Jerry Sandusky in court likely on his way to a lifetime in prison, but the convicted child rapist says he's the victim. Hear it for yourself in a stunning jailhouse recording.

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