[Daryn Kagan, Cnn Anchor:] Good to see you guys in New York City. You guys have a great day up there.
[Soledad O'brien, Cnn Anchor:] Thanks, likewise.
[Rick Sanchez, Cnn Anchor:] Thanks, guys. By the way, we're going to have things exploding today, more on that later.
[Kagan:] OK. I'm looking forward to it.
[Sanchez:] Implosions.
[Kagan:] Because I don't know what he's talking about.
[Sanchez:] It's plan, though, folks. It's not terrorism. Here's what's happening right now in the news. Sentencing for defrocked priest Paul Shanley's gets under way this hour in suburban Boston. He was convicted last week of repeatedly raping a boy at a church in the 1980s. Now, prosecutors will ask the judge to put the 74-year-old Shanley in prison for the rest of his life. A South Carolina jury is deliberating right now in the double murder trial of a teen accused of killing his grandparents. Now, defense attorneys say that Chris Pittman was influenced by the anti- depressant drug Zoloft. Essentially that he didn't know what he was doing at the time. Prosecutors say Pittman knew exactly what he was doing. If convicted, Pittman faces a maximum 30 years to life in prison. New abuses in the Oil for Food scandal being revealed. A Senate panel is holding a hearing at this hour into the defunct Iraqi program. The committee alleges corruption by a U.N. inspector hired to monitor approved oil shipments. The Portuguese contractor is accused of taking over $100,000 in bribes. This is the hearing as it goes on right now, by the way. These are live pictures that we're going to be dipping into throughout this newscast. Investigators say the deal enabled Saddam Hussein to smuggle half a million barrels of oil out of his country at a time when he wasn't supposed to. And President Bush is calling on Congress to approve his request for nearly $82 billion in global funding. Most of the money would go to cover military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite concerns over a soaring federal deficit, lawmakers are expected to argue, but then eventually approve the request. And good morning, everyone. I'm Rick Sanchez.
[Kagan:] And I'm Daryn Kagan. Good morning. There's no question about who pulled the trigger. It was 15- year-old Christopher Pittman, readily admits that he shot to death his grandparents. But his attorney says it was his anti-depression medication Zoloft that provided the prescription for disaster. Now that argument is in the hands of the jury. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, following the trial in Charleston, South Carolina. Elizabeth, good morning.
[Elizabeth Cohen, Cnn Medical Correspondent:] Good morning, Daryn. Daryn, the jury deliberated for four hours yesterday afternoon and evening. And now they've been back at it for about a half hour this morning. At issue, did Chris Pittman know right from wrong, morally and legally, on that fateful night three years ago?
[Cohen:] Chris Pittman may have been only 12 when he killed his grandparents, but the prosecution argued the boy, now 15, did so out of, quote, "malice, meanness, wickedness."
[Barney Giese, Prosecutor:] Now either he shot first grandma first or grandpa first, we don't know. But we know one thing is found, the one bullet in her head, by his statement. He pumped it again, fired another shot. Pumped it again, he fired a fourth shot. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I don't care how old he is. The state submits that is as malicious a killing and murder as you are ever going to find.
[Cohen:] The defense claimed the anti-depressant drug Zoloft for sending the child's mind spinning out of control.
[Paul Waldner, Defense Lawyer:] In this community, in this state, and in this country, we do not convict children for murder when they've been ambushed by chemicals that have destroyed their ability to reason.
[Cohen:] Prosecutors called the Zoloft defense a smokescreen. It's been tried before in other murder cases and always failed. But never has there been a case with a defendant this young. The trial judge defined the issue this way in a law school class.
[Daniel Pieper, Judge, S.c. Circuit Court:] An act does not make one guilty unless the mind is guilty.
[Cohen:] The jury got no clear-cut help if a parade of psychiatrists. Defense experts supported the defense.
[Unidentified Male:] The drug has caused a problem.
[Cohen:] Prosecution experts favored the prosecution.
[Unidentified Male:] Very angry.
[Cohen:] No matter what the jury verdict, it may never answer exactly why Chris Pittman did kill the two people he says he loved most in his life. The defense insisted his grandparents would forgive him.
[Unidentified Male:] This is my beloved grandson, pray for him and do right by him.
[Cohen:] During deliberations, the jury asked the judge two things. One, they said, "Is Chris Pittman being tried as an adult?" The answer to that is yes. The other question was can we have some magic markers. The answer to that also was yes.
[Kagan:] Hmm. But no clue as to what they wanted those magic markers for?
[Cohen:] No, we imagine we haven't been allowed to see the room. We imagine there's a white board up there and they're allowed to take notes or make diagrams, or lists, or whatever they would need to deliberate.
[Kagan:] Now, the question of his age. We heard his defense attorney talk about do you try a child for an adult crime. And you also heard the jury asking about that. Is Chris Pittman's age, which was 12 at the time of the murders, as big a factor as the Zoloft?
[Cohen:] You know, his age is a factor even though he's being tried as an adult. And the reason why it's a factor, Daryn, is that in South Carolina the presumption is that your brain cannot form criminal intent if you're 14 or under. So even though he's being tried as an adult, the judge said to the jury look, have you to keep that in mind that he can't form criminal intent. Well, if you can't form criminal intent, you can't be found guilty. But the judge also sort of let them know that if they felt the prosecution had overcome that presumption, then they could find guilty.
[Kagan:] Elizabeth Cohen live from Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you.
[Sanchez:] Here is a story where officials are really not sure who did it. A massive bombingassassination in Beirut yesterday is bound to have international repercussions. And at the center of those, Syria. CNN's senior international correspondent Brent Sadler was shaken by the bombing. And he's been covering it ever since. He's joining us now live to bring us up to date. Hello, Brent.
[Brent Sadler, Cnn Sr. Int'l. Correspondent:] Hello. Good morning, Rick. Latest developments on the ground here, Lebanon's interior minister says they suspect, repeat, suspect that a suicide bomber may have been involved in the blast that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Just a short distance behind me is the bomb blast site. I was able to go in that location earlier this day and saw Lebanese army officials sifting through the debris there, trying to establish how this very large explosion was detonated. Was it the work of a lone suicide bomber, perhaps with the explosives might have been buried underground. Still no clear certainty about it. But the indication at this date, say Lebanese authorities, pointing towards a suicide bomber. In addition to that, we have also had continuing reverberations of this assassination, of the prominent Sunni Muslim politician here from many political quarters, Christian and Muslim leaders of the opposition to the continuing presence of Syrian troops in this country. And the relationship between the Syrian authorities in neighboring Damascus and the prominent role it plays over the Lebanese political scene here really at the background to what's going on in the scene on Lebanon this day. In addition to that, we saw earlier today one of Rafik Hariri's sons, Saadeen Hariri, walking through the wreckage. The grieving family saying that they will continue to lead efforts to help rebuild Lebanon to get over this devastating political assassination Rick.
[Sanchez:] Yesterday we saw some of the people there basically taking to the streets, Brent, and protesting against the Syrians. Do we expect to see more of that today?
[Sadler:] Well, there have been sporadic demonstrations, breaking out in parts of the central district of Beirut. Also other showings of support for the killed prime minister in Sidon; that's his hometown, about an hour's drive south of the Lebanese capital here. Certainly tensions are high. Political leaders are not warning of a possible eruption of the kind of civil war years we saw here that ended some 15 years ago. But tensions are high. There is palpable fear in some quarters, some sectors of the society here. And Lebanon really now is bracing itself for the funeral of Rafik Hariri, the family turning its back on offers by the Lebanese government to stage a state funeral. The family insists that this will be a popular funeral so that supporter, the many tens if not hundreds of thousands of supporters, the Hariri family say, can express their sorrow for the loss of someone they respected and someone they are grieving the loss of Rick.
[Sanchez:] Brent Sadler in Beirut. We thank you Daryn.
[Kagan:] A law banning butane lighters on airliners is creating some heat. The ban to go into effect today on all commercial aircraft, but the Transportation Security Administration will only say the law is currently under review. The TCA is declining further comment but passengers saying that passengers will be able to carry the lighters, at is accused of trying match use a match to light a shoe bomb aboard a transatlantic flight. The nation's Central Intelligence Agency is said set to deliver a key report to the White House tomorrow. It will detail plans to dramatically boost the numbers of intelligence officers and analysts. The president issued the demand to increase staffing, 50 percent in three areas and the full doubling in a fourth, to focus on terrorism and weapons proliferation. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
[Sanchez:] We want to take you to Columbus, Ohio now, because we've got some video coming in that we'd like to share with you. This is that implosion we told you about. Let's watch. These are live pictures that we're looking at. And I think we're about to see it happen.
[Kagan:] There it goes.
[Sanchez:] I'm not sure "timber" is the correct term, but they certainly came down hard. Let me tell you where this is. It's in Franklin County where the skyline is certainly going to be affected by this. Those are smokestacks at the old trash burning plant in the south Columbus area that have been coming down. They stand about 270 feet in the air. They're equipped with more than 40 pounds of dynamite to make that happen. The company says it's going to be taking the facility down, tearing it down to salvage the scrap metal. There you go. Sometimes pictures are worth many, many words.
[Kagan:] There they go. Come tumbling down. Picture this. The witness list in the Michael Jackson trial, lawyers reading it, it's like a who's who in the world of sports, news and entertainment. What do Stevie Wonder, Larry King and Kobe Bryant have in common? And what do they have to do with this case? We'll ask a former U.S. attorney.
[Sanchez:] Also still to come, the saga of a Florida baby his mother didn't want. Where is Johnny now? And we're going to have this for you.
[Unidentified Male:] It broke my heart. I don't like being still. I like being in motion. And to say that you're going to take away one of my feet just it just hit me.
[Kagan:] How one U.S. soldier got his military life back despite being an amputee.