No Bail for Anti-Islam Filmmaker
FEYERICK: Bottom of the hour now, welcome back, everyone. I'm Deborah Fereyick in for Randi Kaye.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thanks for starting your morning with us.</s>FEYERICK: Well we are just 38 days from Election Day now and the candidates are focusing on two things, the debate and the swing states. And one of those states is New Hampshire that's where we find our political editor Paul Steinhauser. And Paul, where do things stand right now in New Hampshire because it is critical?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It is a very important state. And everybody knows New Hampshire is the first in the nation primary but it's also a battleground state with four electoral votes up for grabs. And while Mitt Romney is back in Massachusetts and they are getting ready for the debate, his wing man, I guess you can call him, his running mate Paul Ryan the Congressman from Wisconsin is going to be right behind me here. We are in Terry (ph) New Hampshire and he's just got an even here in about an hour from now, a little less. And then later today, he goes out to Ohio as well so a full day on the trail for -- for Ryan. But this is going to be busy here today because not only is Ryan having this rally here Deb, there's also going to be a state party convention on the Republican side. And remember the Democrats are campaigning here too. Guess who's going to be here Wednesday? Bill Clinton, the former President stumping for Barack Obama. You ask about what the polls look like. Take a look at this, this is the most recent. It came out yesterday. This is from American Research Group. And you can see the President with a five-point advantage here in the state that's within that survey sampling error. Another poll earlier in the week had a slightly larger advantage for the president. But it's competitive here in New Hampshire -- Deb.</s>FEYERICK: You know, the debates are so critical. And it's hard to say whether these debates are more important than other debates that we've heard. But -- but what are the candidates doing and what are they going to have to accomplish in terms of really sort of hitting home their major points?</s>STEINHAUSER: Yes exactly. So much on the line on Wednesday night when President Obama and Mitt Romney show down for the first time in Denver, Colorado. What are they doing today? Romney is back in Massachusetts preparing and the President in Washington, D.C. as well. Both I would assume are doing debates preps right now with their stand-ins I guess you could call them. On the Republican side, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio he is playing President Obama in these mock debates with Mitt Romney. He's done it before for past Republican presidential nominees. And on the Democratic side well, guess what they go back to Massachusetts. Who better than a Massachusetts politician to play Mitt Romney and that person is Senator John Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts -- Deb.</s>FEYERICK: It is so fascinating to me. And I think that a lot of people around this country are going to be fixated on watching the debates, watching both sides really define where they stand and how they differentiate one from another; plus just the interaction. I -- I -- I'm ok, fine, I'm very excited for these debates. All right, CNN political editor, Paul Steinhauser thanks. And remember you can see the first presidential debate right here on CNN it is going to be Wednesday. You do not want to miss it 7:00 p.m. Eastern.</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We will be watching. A man who spent 15 years on death row for a crime he did not commit has been released from a Louisiana prison. Lawyers say Damon Thibodeaux is the 300th DNA exoneration in the U.S. He was convicted of raping and murdering his step cousin after he gave a confession which turned out to be false. He talked to the press about his new freedom.</s>DAMON A. THIBODEAUX, CONVICTED AFTER 15 YEARS IN PRISON: It's a surreal walk. It's -- it's not something you can prepare yourself for because you've been living in those conditions for so long.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel now?</s>THIBODEAUX: Free. Real free.</s>BLACKWELL: Attorneys say the case shows a need for police to videotape all interrogations in case of false confession. And in Philadelphia, a judge has issued a stay on the execution of Terrence Williams. She also granted him a new penalty phase in his 1984 murder case. The judge says his verdict may have been different had the jury heard evidence that the man he killed sexually abused him. And the man believed to be behind the anti-Islam film that ignited so much violence and bloodshed around the world is now behind bars. But for a different reason than you might think. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has been arrested for violating his probation by uploading the controversial video to YouTube. You see, because of a 2010 bank fraud conviction, Nakoula has not been allowed to access computers or the Internet without an approval from his probation officer. CNN legal contributor and former prosecutor Paul Callan is here with a closer look. Paul, the judge even denied Nakoula bail. I mean is this just a smoke screen for the video having nothing really to do with the probation?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well a lot of people might think that. Obviously this is one of the most controversial films that's ever been posted on YouTube in terms of the reaction of the worldwide Muslim population. So for the U.S. government to go after the guy and put him in jail, you might think that. But on the other hand, he was convicted of a federal fraud, very, very serious crime. He served a year in prison. And the fraud by the way involved him using phony names, 15 phony credit cards. He owes $700,000 in restitution on that charge. And now they find out he's using phony names again. He's changing his residence. He's doing a lot of things that you're not supposed to do when you're on probation and parole. So I don't think it's a smoke screen. I think there are legitimate grounds for him to be put in prison pending his hearing.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's go through some of his -- this rap sheet. 1997 he spent a year in prison for intent to manufacture meth. In 2010 convicted of credit card fraud and identity theft, spent a year in federal prison and has been on probation since then. His lawyers say that he should not be jailed because he could be attacked or in danger because of the Muslim prisoners. Does he have a case?</s>CALLAN: I don't think he's got a legitimate argument there. And you know he walks into federal court the other day, appears in front of a federal judge and one of the things he's charged with is using phony names. Well, you know what he did in front of the federal judge? He gave the wrong name and the judge had to correct him and then he gave his proper name. Then the attorney gets up and says you can't put him in, Muslim prisoners might attack him. Not a legitimate argument. These are federal prisons. They are protective custody areas. In a lot of respects I think he'll probably be safer in a federal prison than he probably is on the streets. So I don't think that's a legitimate argument.</s>BLACKWELL: Ok, let's talk now aside from the probation the crime. If it is a crime under hate crime legislation, this video, putting it out, is there a possibility he could be prosecuted as part of that?</s>CALLAN: I don't think so. And a lot of people raise this issue, I mean, when you think about it there are over a billion Muslims worldwide; 23 percent of the world population I think ascribes to the Muslim faith. So is this a hate crime by attacking Muhammad in this film? It would not fit under U.S. law. We have very, very strict laws protecting our free speech rights in the United States and making a controversial film even if it attacks a certain ethnic group or religion does not fit any hate crime in the United States. He can't be prosecuted under existing U.S. laws.</s>BLACKWELL: And let's go to free speech. The President talked about it today -- this week at the U.N. General Assembly. You just brought it up but there are laws against someone running into a theater and yelling fire, to incite something. This man had to have known that if you put out this type of video that that would incite a melee, attacks, something. Could it be attacked under -- under that provision?</s>CALLAN: Well you raise a good point. It goes -- you know it goes to that point directly. I'm sure when he made the film, he was trying to be provocative and he was trying to anger those over one billion Muslims worldwide. However, yelling fire in a theater, that's a crime but that's not an expression of a political view or of an art form. On the other hand, making this vicious film, which is an attack on a religion, is a form of artistic expression. Now we may hate it, we may disagree with it. But what makes us Americans under the First Amendment, we can express ourselves in any way that we want in this country as long as it's political, artistic and it's a legitimate form of expression. So it's not prosecutable in the United States. And I think the rest of the world has a hard time understanding this, but we protect even speech we hate in the United States. We let Nazis demonstrate. We let the Ku Klux Klan exist and demonstrate.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>CALLAN: And it's just part of freedom of speech in America.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, Paul Callan; more legal conversation to have about this one. Thank you.</s>CALLAN: Ok nice being with you Victor.</s>BLACKWELL: Deb.</s>FEYERICK: Well grasping the everyday struggles that face women in developing countries.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every person, every corner of this world needs to raise a voice and say this has to stop.</s>FEYERICK: Activists in a new documentary called "Half the Sky," a CNN exclusive with columnist Nick Kristof and "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera. That's coming up next.