American Morning
Lawyer: Jackson case now manslaughter probe
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/23/callan.paul.cnn.art.jpg caption="Paul Callan calls the search at Dr. Conrad Murray's office a 'major development.'"]
Detectives searched the Houston, Texas, medical office of one of Michael Jackson's doctors on Wednesday for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter," the doctor's lawyer said.
The search warrant at Dr. Conrad Murray's office "services part of the ongoing investigation into the death of Michael Jackson," Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Gus Villanueva said.
Murray was the doctor who was at Jackson's home when the pop star died on June 25.
Paul Callan is a former New York City homicide prosecutor and is currently a criminal defense attorney. He joined Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Thursday.
Kiran Chetry: Again, this was confirmed by the attorney for Conrad Murray and they're saying that they raided the clinic looking for evidence of manslaughter. How significant is this?
Paul Callan: This is a major development in the case. I mean here we have Conrad Murray’s attorney admitting that there's an ongoing manslaughter investigation. And we know that a Los Angeles judge has issued a search warrant. Now judges can only issue a search warrant where there's probable cause to believe a crime has been committed – in this case, manslaughter – and there's probable cause to believe that evidence of that crime is at Dr. Conrad Murray's office. So I think we can safely say that authorities are looking at him probably as a suspect. They're certainly hostile to his position at this point.
Chetry: What's the difference between looking for evidence of an accidental overdose – if you're dealing with drugs or if you're dealing with prescription medication that was given – what is the difference in terms of whether or not it crosses that line and turns criminal?
Callan: Well there's a major difference here because we know from the attorney's statement that they're looking at this as a manslaughter. So we would have to assume that if a doctor – and in this case if it were Conrad Murray – prescribed the drug, he prescribed it in a reckless or grossly reckless manner, knowing that it might cause the death of the patient. That's where it crosses the line. I mean you can have ordinary negligence where a prescription drug is given to a patient and the patient gets hurt. That's a medical malpractice case. But where it's gross or reckless conduct it crosses the line into criminality.
Commentary: Bad idea for Honduran president to return
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/01/intv.casas.zamora.art.jpg caption="Former vice president of Costa Rica says Zelaya's return to Honduras would make the political situation there worse."]
Leaders from nations in North and South America are telling those behind the recent coup in Honduras to put their deposed president back in power. President José Manuel Zelaya is vowing to return. What does this mean for the future of Honduras and Central America?
Former vice president of Costa Rica and senior foreign policy fellow with the Brookings Institution, Kevin Casas-Zamora spoke to John Roberts Wednesday on CNN’s “American Morning.”
John Roberts: President Zelaya is vowing to return. Originally it was going to be tomorrow. Now it looks like he’s not going to be back until at least Saturday. But Roberto Micheletti who's assumed the presidency there says if he sets foot in Honduras, he's going to be arrested, tried and thrown in jail. He’s really playing hardball here.
Kevin Casas-Zamora: My sense is that President Zelaya's idea of returning to Honduras immediately is probably a bad idea and it’s likely to make a bad situation worse. I think that some groundwork needs to be laid out before that happens. By groundwork I mean that the return to Honduras of President Zelaya won't solve anything in and of itself. There's got to be some kind of political deal brokered before the underlying issue is tackled and the underlying issue is how to make Honduras governable. Because in the end, it was not governable when President Zelaya was in power and it is not governable now due to the immense international pressure that the new authorities in Honduras find themselves under.
John Roberts: Zelaya was seeking changes to the constitution. He was trying to write them himself. He wanted another term in power but he has pledged that he's not going to pursue that any longer. Do you think that might open the door for his return? Or is Micheletti hanging on so hard and fast to power that he's never going to even let him back in the door?
Ex-con: Bernie won’t be too popular behind bars
Going from a Park Avenue luxury apartment to a federal prison is going to be quite a change for Bernard Madoff. He was sentenced yesterday to 150 years in prison. What's life going to be like for him behind bars?
Larry Levine served ten years in prison and is now a consultant for white collar criminals preparing to go to jail. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Tuesday.
Kiran Chetry: What do you fill people in on as they get ready to go to prison?
Larry Levine: Well, I do damage control. Once the judge slams down the gavel and sentences you, the lawyer has no idea what's going to happen. So I prepare people for going into custody. I teach them everything they need to know from the time they go in, until they get out. If they get in a jam while they're on the inside, their families can get a hold of me and we can straighten things out.
Now in Madoff's case, he doesn't have an out date. What, 150 years from now? So he really has nothing to look forward to. I see them possibly putting him on suicide watch and/or protective custody because people are going to want to get to him. On a lighter side, he will get about 19-and-a-half years off on good time. They will give him that even though it'll never apply.
Chetry: In a way you're saying he doesn’t have hope for an appeal or hope to get out if he does well?
Levine: You have to prove that the judge abused his discretion by sentencing him to 150 years. Well, Madoff's off the charts as far as the dollar loss and the U.S. sentencing guidelines. They could have given him 200 years, although it wouldn't really make a difference. The judge had the latitude to do that, so an appeal really is going to go nowhere.
Chetry: What's daily life going to be like for Bernard Madoff in a federal penitentiary?
Madoff sentenced to 150 years
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A federal judge sentenced Bernard Madoff, the convicted mastermind of the largest and most sweeping Ponzi scheme ever, to the maximum sentence of 150 years in federal court Monday.
Judge Denny Chin of U.S. District Court in New York announced the sentence just moments after Madoff apologized to his victims.
Chin, who called Madoff's crimes "extraordinarily evil," said the maximum sentence was important for deterrence, and also for the victims, many of whom erupted into applause after the judge announced the sentence. Many hugged and some of them broke down in tears.
Shortly before he received his sentence, Madoff offered an apology.
"I live in a tormented state for all the pain and suffering I created," he said. "I left a legacy of shame. It is something I will live with for the rest of my life."
Turning to face some of his victims, Madoff addressed them directly: "Saying I'm sorry is not enough. I turn to face you. I know it will not help. I'm sorry."
Victims: Life term for Madoff
Bernard Madoff will step into a federal courtroom Monday morning to hear his sentence for running what appears to have been the biggest investment fraud in history.
Allan Chernoff has been covering the Madoff scandal from the start and reports victims who lost virtually everything to Madoff want the court to show no mercy.
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Commentary: America's drug problem got so bad because we didn't raise the alarm
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/29/am.intv.gil.drug.czar.art.jpg
caption="Kerlikowske says drugs that come out of parents’ medicine cabinets are just as deadly as other drugs."]
Michael Jackson’s alleged addiction to prescription drugs has been part of the ongoing investigation into his death. Dr. Conrad Murray is said to have given Jackson the powerful anesthetic Propofol to help him sleep. Police believe that drug may have contributed to his death.
Director of the office of national drug control policy at the White House, R. Gil Kerlikowske spoke with CNN’s John Roberts Wednesday
John Roberts: I wanted to ask this, not as a law enforcement question but from a substance abuse perspective which falls into your arena. To use the drug Propofol, which is used either as a sedative for surgery or a general anesthetic, to use it as a sleeping medication would that constitute the abuse of that drug?
Director R. Gil Kerlikowske: You know I’m not an M.D. I can tell you the prescription drug issue is really significant throughout the United States. And of course, we've seen that in paper after paper after paper. I don't have the facts about the Michael Jackson case, the very sad and tragic loss that occurred there, but I can tell you that prescription drug problems are a problem in this country.
Roberts: The police and drug enforcement administration are looking to whether or not he used aliases to try to get drugs, whether he was doctor shopping. We hear about people doctor shopping and prescription drug abuse. How did it get so bad in this country?
Kerlikowske: I think it got so bad because we didn't raise the alarm. It's been bad for a while. If you look, the most recent data, which unfortunately is 2006, tells us that more people have died from overdoses than have died from gunshot wounds in this country. And frankly, this is something that in many ways can be prevented.
Roberts: So, when you talk about prevention, you talk about trying to curb demand and education from that standpoint. And then there's also enforcement. How do you effectively enforce something like this? You take a look at the fact that more than 56 million prescriptions were written for sleeping medication in 2008 alone, that's up 54% since 2004.
Kerlikowske: Well, there are two things. One is that 38 states have prescription drug monitoring programs. These are electronic databases and they help health officials and in some cases depending on how the law is written, law enforcement. And they can look at over-prescribing by a physician but they can also look at patients who are, as you mentioned, doctor shopping. The other thing, of course, is that a lot of this comes out of parents' medicine cabinets.
Parents can do an awful lot. We have a website, http://www.Theanti-drug.Com. Parents can get a huge amount of information. We've seen significant problems with kids that have experimented thinking that, ‘hey, these are prescription drugs, these are safe,’ and, in fact, they are just as deadly and just as addictive as anything that comes from anyplace else.
Roberts: You came to this job from your former job. You were the police chief of Seattle. Was it possible in Seattle to effectively police this?
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