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CNN&Time

Republican National Convention: Death Penalty is Hot Topic in Texas; TV Changes Politics Forever; What Does Compassionate Conservatism Mean?

Aired July 30, 2000 - 9:00 p.m. ET

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

ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME.

Tonight, the Republican National Convention. Before the balloons, the confetti, and the speeches, a look at the men, the message, and what it all means.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARVIN OLASKY, GODFATHER OF COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM: Compassionate conservatism would say, "What's compassion? Let's look at the literal meaning of the word." With suffering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From one of the founder's of a campaign's philosophy to a party line that seems at odds with a kinder, gentler image.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BAIRD (ph), APPELLATE JUDGE: I served on the court for eight years. I saw more than 400 of these cases. I feel very certain that an innocent person has in fact been executed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Criticism and praise as George W. Bush prepares to accept his party's presidential nomination in the city where half a century ago television changed American politics forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MCCULLOUGH (ph), HISTORIAN: The place, the convention hall is hotter than blazes. It's Philadelphia in the summertime. And there was no air conditioning. And they brought in all these lights for television.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME with Jeff Greenfield and Bernard Shaw.

BERNARD SHAW, CO-HOST: Good evening, and welcome to this special edition of CNN & TIME. JEFF GREENFIELD, CO-HOST: Tonight, we're in Philadelphia on the eve of the Republican National Convention. But if you're anxiously waiting to see where Ohio's votes go on the third ballot, you're roughly half a century late.

The modern convention does not decide. It projects its nominees, its philosophy, and maybe most important an impression that it embodies the values of most of the American voters.

The impression these Republicans want to communicate is captured in a phrase that Governor Bush has been using literally from the moment he began his campaign, compassionate conservatism. George W. Bush is a champion of this philosophy. It will no doubt be echoed chapter and verse in the GOP platform and in this hall.

But what does Governor Bush mean when he describes himself as a compassionate conservative? And who's idea was it anyway?

A movement's unlikely architect from "Time" magazine's John Dickerson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OLASKY: And Bob's (ph) going to do four pages?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JOHN DICKERSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE (voice-over): Marvin Olasky has an unlikely resume for the man called the godfather of compassionate conservatism.

OLASKY: We have Andy Morales (ph) pictures.

Bar mitzvahed at 13, atheist at 14, and then kept moving to the left politically all the way into real hard core Marxism.

DICKERSON: As a student radical at Yale in the '60s, Olasky caused such a stir he made the pages of "Life" magazine. Now he blames the culture of the '60s for many of America's social ills.

OLASKY: My sense is that all of us have holes in our souls. In my case, I think I was filling that hole in my soul with Marxism.

DICKERSON: Those Marxist beliefs were soon challenged by Christianity. When he was in graduate school, Olasky practiced his language skills by reading the "New Testament" in Russian.

OLASKY: I just remember reading it and making enormous sense, turning the pages again very, very slowly and saying to myself, "This is interesting. This is true. And this is true. And this is true."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body of Christ.

DICKERSON: By the time he finished his Ph.D., Olasky had dropped Marxism and embraced God. He became an evangelical Christian and a political conservative. Olasky was still interested in social causes, but from a different perspective than during the 1960s.

(on camera): Tell me about where compassionate conservatism came from and how you got into it.

OLASKY: I have those same questions that other people have, that is if you see a guy or even touching our souls more, a homeless woman, by a freeway or by the Metro in Washington or somewhere, what do you do?

And then if you see studies that show that 90 percent or so of money given to such folks tends to go to drugs or alcohol, do you give the money knowing that it's going to head in that direction most likely? Or do you not, in which case what's the alternative? What do you do in that situation? Just turn your back and walk away?

DICKERSON (voice-over): Olasky felt he couldn't walk away. But the early '90s, he was editor of a Christian magazine and professor of journalism at the University of Texas.

Olasky dressed up as a homeless person and visited several shelters in Washington, DC. He says he found plenty of food but no spiritual guidance.

OLASKY: At one point finally, again just as an experiment, I said in my kind of gruff homeless mumble, "Can I have a Bible?" And a very sweet young lady couldn't quite make out what I said. So she asked, "Well, do you want a bagel?" That she had. Do you want a bag? That she could give me also.

But a Bible, no, because they didn't really think in those terms. They didn't make provisions for that because they thought, again, in a very kindly way I think, they thought of homeless people in a sense as almost like pets.

DICKERSON: Out of Olasky's research came a book, "The Tragedy of American Compassion." The book attacked the liberal welfare state and its programs.

OLASKY: The goal is to entitle people to a certain provision from the government. That essentially ends up enabling lots of people to stay in poverty, not really challenging them to move out of poverty.

Lord, we do thank you for giving us the privilege of worshipping you this morning...

DICKERSON: Olasky wanted to replace the liberal welfare state with something he called compassionate conservatism.

OLASKY: Compassionate conservatism would say, "What's compassion? Let's look at the literal meaning of the word." With suffering. That's what it means, suffering with personal involvement. And if you want to say you're compassionate, then get personally involved with a person who needs help. DICKERSON: Olasky felt the way to get people out of poverty was in part by saving their souls. It was something his own church in Austin was doing. He believed government programs were failing because they left out God.

OLASKY: Compassionate conservatism says the opposite, that people's faith is very important both for the people who are helping the people who need help.

As a Christian, I do understand and believe that when people become Christians, the Holy Spirit works in them, changes them, gives them more ability to stick to it and have faith in God and in that sense have faith in themselves.

DICKERSON: When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed Olasky's argument.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER CONGRESSMAN (R-GA), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I commend to all of you Marvin Olasky's "The Tragedy of American Compassion." Olasky goes back for 300 years and looks at what has worked in America, how we have helped people rise beyond poverty, how we have reached out to save people.

OLASKY: I was sitting in my living room just watching his first speech as speaker, and then suddenly he's talking about my book. It's very strange, but exciting.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I George Walker Bush do solemnly swear...

DICKERSON: Olasky has already attracted the notice of a fellow Texan, newly-elected Governor George W. Bush.

BUSH: Marvin has been a part of a group of social entrepreneurs who have caught my attention as governor, people who are implementing the compassionate conservative agenda, people that are rallying faith- based programs to change people's lives.

DICKERSON: The professor and the governor met for the first time in 1993.

(on camera): What struck you about that meeting, that first meeting?

OLASKY: He was interested particularly in ways to apply some of these theories.

DICKERSON (voice-over): Bush quickly found out how. A Texas state official tried to close down a rehab program that claimed great success converting addicts from drugs to Christianity. Bush sided with protesters who wanted to keep the program open.

OLASKY: This was his first year as governor. It was a real test for him. He could have done the easier thing and just said, "Well, here are the rules, and you guys have to stick with them." He didn't do that. BUSH: As your governor, I will use every resource at my disposal.

DICKERSON: Bush went even further. He became the first governor to implement a provision of the Federal Welfare Reform Act called Charitable Choice. That allowed more tax dollars to go to social programs with a strong religious message.

Bush even let a Christian evangelical group run part of a Texas prison.

OLASKY: But all those prisons were volunteers. You don't want to ever have a situation where someone is forced to even be involved or even listen to religious stuff with which they do not agree. That's why it's always important to have a secular alternative.

DICKERSON: Last summer, after more meetings with Olasky and others, Bush made compassionate conservatism a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

BUSH: In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to help people, we will look first to faith-based organizations, to charities, and to community groups that have shown their ability to save and change lives.

(APPLAUSE)

DICKERSON: Bush chose Indianapolis for his speech because it's home to programs like Jireh Sports, which combines gymnastics and Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for this lady, Father God...

DICKERSON: Religion is definitely the message for these inner city kids. And it's paid for in part with taxpayer dollars.

REVEREND TIM STREETT, JIREH SPORTS: We'll take any funds as long as it doesn't change the basic Christian message which is behind what we're trying to do.

DICKERSON: To Reverend Barry Lynn, that represents a dangerous constitutional mix.

BARRY LYNN, AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: I think that is completely opposed to everything the framers of our constitution thought they were doing. I don't think we want to find ourselves in a country where the majority religion is able to make decisions that require the obedience of every other person, religious or otherwise.

DICKERSON: But Marvin Olasky believes the framers of the constitution never intended there to be a wall of separation between church and state.

OLASKY: If we say there's a wall of separation, that means that people who have strong religious beliefs when they're involved with welfare activities, poverty fighting and so forth, that they shouldn't base their program, what they do, on their beliefs, people who are not really, just don't have that same bias against them. That's not something the 1st Amendment demands or even suggests.

BUSH: You've had a good week. Her family won the drawing contest.

DICKERSON: Olasky and Bush would like to see more religious groups take advantage of federal funds.

OLASKY: Let all these groups compete, Jewish groups, Islamic groups, Christian groups, Buddhist groups. I mean, if the American Atheist Union wants to do stuff, let them do stuff.

DICKERSON (on camera): Satanic groups?

OLASKY: I would say if there's a Wiccan group that wants to get involved in this, let them get involved too. Now there's going to have to be - if Governor Bush is elected - there's going to have to be a lot of thinking about where to draw the line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who did you guys have to trust when you were climbing the wall?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN (in unison): God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God, good. Who else?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN (in unison): Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jesus.

DICKERSON (voice-over): Critics of compassionate conservatism have problems with it that go beyond where to draw the line between church and state.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Thank you so much for coming.

DICKERSON: Arianna Huffington is a political activist who used to believe in Marvin Olasky's ideas.

HUFFINGTON: Even though, I mean, total agreement that without citizen engagement we'll never be able to solve the huge problems that remain in terms of poverty in the inner cities, I've also become convinced that we will not be able to solve them without the raw power of government appropriations.

DICKERSON: There have been very few studies on whether faith- based programs really work. One being unveiled this week by the Manhattan Institute says religious-centered programs do reduce drug use among inner city teens.

Olasky says it will be a long time before compassionate conservatism can truly be measured. OLASKY: I'm an historian. Four years is nothing. If the people who wanted to build the liberal welfare state has set after four years, "Well, this isn't going to work," that would have been in the 1920s. None of this would have happened.

DICKERSON: The important thing, says Olasky, is that if George W. Bush wins, compassionate conservatism would have a chance.

(on camera): What's it going to feel like for you to hear compassionate conservatism mentioned by the next president of the United States?

OLASKY: Well, I will like that. This is something that I've been working towards for many, many years. But again, this isn't my contribution. There are a lot of streams flowing into this river.

I will feel good being one of the streams. This to me is the way to transform America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Compassionate conservatism is just a part of the marketing of George W. Bush. Coming up, the message makers and why Republicans are betting that a winning personality will win them the White House.

ANNOUNCER: Want to know more about compassionate conservatism? Marvin Olasky will field your questions and comments online right after our show. Join the discussion from our Web site, CNN.com/cnntime.

Coming up, marketing the man from Midland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I'm asking for your vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, "TIME" CORRESPONDENT: The essence of the Bush message is we'll keep things the same, but you'll like us more, so vote for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: As CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, politics and punishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SHAVER, HARRIS COUNTY JUDGE: It seems to me we might be a little overzealous in what we're doing. But that's what the public wants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH SR., FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And this boy, this son of ours, is not going to let you down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: But next, politics may be in their blood, but be careful what you say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DUFFY, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "TIME" MAGAZINE: If you want to upset a member of the Bush clan, all you have to do is either say "dynasty" or "Kennedys" to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll see you at the White House.

G.W. BUSH: I'm heading that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: A kinder, gentler conservative, a nice guy. These are the images of George Bush that his campaign wants to present to the nation. It is a marketing plan that blends both personality and lineage. And it is one that Republicans believe will carry Bush to victory in November.

The selling of the man from Midland in tonight's "Dispatches."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I, George Herbert Walker Bush, do solemnly swear...

G.H.W. BUSH: I, George Herbert Walker Bush...

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I, Jeb Bush...

G.W. BUSH: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear...

DUFFY (on camera): When it comes to politics, the Bush family code has been passed down from generation to generation. It's a family duty to serve.

G.W. BUSH: So held me God.

(APPLAUSE)

DUFFY: First you make your money in the private sector. Make sure that your family is independently wealthy, can support itself. And then if you have that look, you go into politics.

You don't call it politics. You call it public service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll see you at the White House.

G.W. BUSH: I'm heading that way.

DUFFY: One time in Iowa, Barbara Bush said one in eight Americans are now ruled by a Bush. With your help, we'll make it all Americans. That was probably not the best thing to say.

The Bush family name is a classic American brand. It's like Nike or Campbell's Soup or Budweiser. It means something to people. It's a convenient tag.

One of the things George W. has done is try to extend the brand past his father to show that he's more down to earth.

G.W. BUSH: This is a moment when I'd better be eating with my mouth closed.

DUFFY: More comfortable with people, more from a real part of America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Have made you this ball, and you do bowl, don't you?

G.W. BUSH: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

DUFFY: And he's been very successful at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks for coming to Spartanburg.

G.W. BUSH: I'm glad to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George.

G.W. BUSH: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to meet you.

G.W. BUSH: My pleasure, thanks.

CARNEY: They're trying to tell voters that George W. Bush is not a Republican from the east coast establishment like his father was, that he's not an elitist. But he is in fact a west Texan from the sort of rough, egalitarian oil town of Midland, Texas, which is where in fact George W. Bush grew up, even though he was born in New Haven, Connecticut, when his father was at Yale.

G.H.W. BUSH: And this boy, this son of ours, is not going to let you down.

CARNEY: George W. Bush's advisors had to be careful about not allowing the memory of the father to overshadow the son.

DUFFY: He followed so many of his father's footsteps at Yale, at Andover, became a fighter pilot, went west to drill for oil. But every time he got there, he didn't do as well or as successfully as his father had done.

George W. tells a joke sometimes on the campaign trail where he says, "Can you imagine what it's like to go through life with your father thinking the perfect son is Al Gore?" And it's a joke. But in a way, he's kind of serious.

G.W. BUSH (speaking in Spanish)

G.W. BUSH: Thank you very much for coming.

DUFFY: The Bush family is so adroit at marketing itself that they have gone from what seems like the apotheosis of a WASP family just 15 years ago to now marketing itself practically as a family that can appeal to Latino culture.

Look at George P. Bush. This is the son of Jeb Bush and his wife Columba (ph).

GEORGE P. BUSH, SON OF JEB BUSH: I'm mostly just a family supporter, a loyal advocate of my uncle.

DUFFY: It's clear they are already rolling him out as the next generation of Bush politicians.

If you want to upset a member of the Bush clan, all you have to do is either say "dynasty" or "Kennedys" to them. They hate the comparison.

It's the quiet dynasty. It's the one that surprises us, the one we never expect, the one that's always there.

The Bushes have been in five of the last six Republican conventions. And I think that's a record that the Kennedys can't even match.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: For more on George W. Bush and the Republican National Convention, read "Time" magazine this week.

Next, compassion and capital punishment. When it comes to the death penalty, is there justice for all?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BAIRD: This was just pitiful, terrible representation that no person should have to have, whether tried for a traffic ticket or much less for a capital offense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREENFIELD: Welcome back to this special edition of CNN & TIME.

SHAW: While his supporters love to tout George W. Bush as a new kind of Republican, his critics question how compassionate the Texas governor's conservatism really is.

A favorite target is Bush's ongoing support for the death penalty, especially in light of recent reports that suggest capital punishment nationwide is sometimes arbitrary and fraught with error.

Aram Roston examines politics and the death penalty through the eyes of two judges, men who presided over cases that death penalty opponents say exemplify the system at its worst.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARAM ROSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The death penalty was an issue for Robert Cates (ph) when he first became a circuit court judge in Gainesville, Florida, 13 years ago. And it still is. Florida leads the nation in overturned death penalty convictions.

ROBERT CATES, CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: I am opposed to the death penalty.

ROSTON (on camera): Then how can you sentence somebody to death?

CATES: Because that's what the law requires me to do in certain cases. And I do. I have to do my job or I shouldn't be in this job.

ROSTON (voice-over): Cates has sentenced three people to death. Joseph Green was one of them. He almost died in the electric chair because of mistakes made in Judge Cates' courtroom.

JOSEPH GREEN, MAN CONVICTED IN CATES' COURTROOM: He said, "Mr. Green," he said, "Joseph Green, I sentence you to death by electrocution."

ROSTON: In 1992, Green, who had a long criminal record, was visiting the town of Stark in north Florida. Judy Miskelly (ph), a popular local society editor, was shot and killed as she was making a call on a pay phone near the hotel where Green was staying. Before she died, she told the paramedic her attacker was a black man.

Green, who says he was the only black man at his hotel, was arrested and charged with her murder. GREEN: They ran my name through NCIC. It come back I'm a bad boy. You understand? I'm an out-of-towner, you understand? And most importantly, I'm black. And that's when they started to pursue. That's my opinion, you know?

ROSTON: At his trial, prosecutors based their case on the testimony of an eyewitness, who said that at night from almost 300 feet away he saw Green kill the woman. The jury convicted Green and recommended the death penalty.

Cates says he imposed it because of aggravated circumstances. The murder was committed during a robbery. And Green's prior record included a conviction for second degree murder.

CATES: There were virtually no mitigating factors with Mr. Green. After reviewing the case file at length and writing an order, I decided that he met the qualifications for the death penalty.

ROSTON: The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the conviction, citing errors made by Judge Cates himself.

The Supreme Court also had serious questions about the credibility of the prosecution's sole eyewitness. The court said that his testimony was often inconsistent and contradictory. Before he identified Green, he had told police that the shooter was a tall white man.

Green's case ended up back in Judge Cates' courtroom for a new trial. But first, there was a hearing to determine the competency of the eyewitness.

This time, experts said he had an IQ of only 68, and the night of the murder he had been drinking and using drugs. Cates then ruled that the witness the jury found so convincing at the first trial was not competent to even testify.

CATES: He was terrible. He was a terrible witness. He had consumed alcohol and marijuana and possibly other drugs. And his intellect was not sufficiently strong to give him the power of observation.

But the way he looked on the witness stand was pretty strong. And the jury believed it unanimously.

ROSTON: In March, seven years after sending Joseph Green to death row, Judge Cates acquitted him. Green became the 19th person freed from death row in Florida since 1973.

CATES: How can I impose the death penalty knowing that there's a possibility that the person I'm giving the death penalty to is not guilty of the crime or guilty of the crime in a way that makes it subject to the death penalty? It's really tough. But you have to do the best you can with whatever you have and try to do it right. And it troubles me a lot when I have made a mistake.

ROSTON: In Texas, which leads the nation in the number of executions, the question of mistakes in Judge Doug Shaver's Harris County courtroom is a rallying point for opponents of the death penalty. They say he let a defense lawyer sleep during a murder trial.

(on camera): Did you see him sleep?

SHAVER: Yes. He fell asleep a couple of times. I had the bailiff standing behind his chair periodically, and he'd go over and kick the chair to try to wake him up.

GEORGE MCFARLAND, DEATH ROW CONVICT: Nobody would tell me when I was arrested for it first.

ROSTON (voice-over): George McFarland was facing the death penalty in the case, charged with killing a grocery store owner in a robbery. He hired John Benn as his attorney on the recommendation of a friend.

MCFARLAND: I'm putting my faith and my trust in this man, and he tells me, well, according to the records, all I got is someone that's saying that you look like the guy that done it and that's not going to be enough to convict you.

ROSTON: But as his case got under way, McFarland had serious doubts.

MCFARLAND: So I stopped to him, I turned to him, I said, "Say, you know what, man? I said, I don't understand what's going on with you," I said, "but you're dozing off. You're not asking these jurors no questions, and when you do ask them a question it's like a three or four-sentence question and you're through with them, and I don't understand that." He said, "Look, I told you they don't have no case against you, I can beat this case," and it went on and on like this, and I couldn't help but believe him because he kept telling me, "Look, I've done this before, I have a lot of years in this, this is what I do, I'm going to get you off." He kept telling me, "I'm going to get you off."

ROSTON: Even before the trial, Judge Shaver says he was concerned the defense attorney wasn't up to the job.

SHAVER: I knew his reputation and his reputation as to being a competent lawyer was not good.

ROSTON: So Judge Shaver gave McFarland a court-appointed lawyer to work with John Benn. Benn hadn't handled a death-penalty case in 19 years, and the court-appointed lawyer had never handled one at all. He admitted that he never went to the crime scene or interviews any witnesses, although he said he was limited in what he could do by John Benn, the lead defense attorney. Benn admitted he only spent three to four hours with co-counsel preparing for the trial.

(on camera): Did you ever say to yourself, "I'm going to get rid of him, I'm going to fire him"?

MCFARLAND: You can't -- no, I never said that to myself, to answer your question, no, I never said that to myself. I was disappointed and I kept telling myself, I'm going to try and make him do better, so on through the morning, or through the afternoon, I would nudge him and push him around, talk to him, trying to keep him going. I don't know, I think he sold me. I think he actually sold me on the fact that he could really help.

ROSTON: Did you say to Mr. McFarland, "My advice is not to use this lawyer, I can't let you defend yourself," and was it incumbent upon you to do that?

SHAVER: What I did do is I brought him out into the courtroom on probably two or three, maybe four occasions, and we go over with him, do you -- "Are you sure that you want Mr. Benn to continue representing you"?

ROSTON: Did he ever say -- the judge -- did he ever say anything like, "You want to rethink John Benn"?

MCFARLAND: No, sir, he didn't.

ROSTON: Did he ever say anything? Did he ever question you?

MCFARLAND: No, no. Nobody never spoke to me about anything pertaining to whether or not I should rethink about my hiring of John Benn.

ROSTON (voice-over): During the trial, Benn's dozing was noted by courtroom observers. When a local reporter asked Judge Shaver about it, he said, "The Constitution doesn't say the lawyer has to be awake."

SHAVER: I made some offhand remark that the Constitution says you're entitled to a lawyer, but doesn't say anything about the lawyer having to be awake. It's probably an unfortunate choice of words on my part, but I did say that.

ROSTON: McFarland was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to death on August 14, 1992. Three months later, a court-appointed appellate attorney presented a motion for a new trial, arguing that McFarland had not had effective assistance of counsel. The attorney failed to convince Judge Shaver. After the trial, a local reporter asked Benn about his sleeping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you ever go to sleep during a case?

JOHN BENN, ATTORNEY: No, I close my eyes, rest. In the McFarland case I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: yes, he said he heard you snoring.

BENN: Yes, well...

(LAUGHTER)

ROSTON: Yet, in 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld McFarland's conviction saying that although Benn slept through parts of the trial, McFarland was effectively represented because he had two lawyers. Appellate Judge Charles Baird, a supporter of the death penalty, disagreed and wrote the dissenting opinion.

CHARLES BAIRD, APPELLATE JUDGE: This was just pitiful, terrible representation that no person should have to have, whether tried for a traffic ticket, or much less, for a capital offense.

SHAVER: I am not as concerned about this case as other people are. I still think that he ended up with a fair trial and created his own problems.

MCFARLAND: True, it's my making because I hired John Benn, but then as penance of our society and as people elected to these courts, they should have stopped the proceedings and said, "Look, wait a minute, John Benn, this is a capital murder case. If you're not going to stay awoke, and you're not going to represent this defendant, then we're going to hold you in contempt." Why -- that you are lying. You sat there and watched that man sleep. You're the judge of this courtroom.

ROSTON: Shaver now concedes he could have taken action concerning McFarland's lawyer.

(on camera): Could you have cited him for contempt, for instance? Do you sometimes feel you wish you had done more to make sure that this hadn't happened in your courtroom?

SHAVER: Well, you have several questions there. One, yes, I could have cited him for contempt. I also -- looking back, sure, there is a lot of things that you wish you had done differently if you had, you know, 20/20 hindsight. I'm not convinced that the outcome would have been a lot different no matter who had been representing him during that period of time, but if I sat here and tried to tell you that it would look good, or be appropriate for a lawyer to be sleeping during the course of a capital murder trial, then obviously that would be a foolish statement for me to make. No, it's not appropriate.

ROSTON: It's not appropriate, but is it in a way incumbent upon you as a judge to make sure that doesn't happen in your courtroom?

SHAVER: Well, I had the bailiff stand behind the chair and kick the back of the chair and wake him up everytime he would doze off.

ROSTON (voice-over): George McFarland is still on death row at Texas Terrell (ph) Unit, one of 146 sentenced to death in Harris County, which has earned a reputation as the nation's capital of capital punishment. Harris County has sent more people to death row than most states have.

(on camera): What's going on here in Harris County then?

SHAVER: I have no idea. It seems to me we might be a little overzealous in what we're doing, but that's what the public wants. If you take a poll of the public here in Harris County, and I imagine it would be something in excess of 75 percent of those that want the prosecution to do exactly what it's doing.

BAIRD: I think politics has a -- just hovers over this like nothing else. I mean, that's the bottom line in all of this, is that Governor Bush, or Vice President Gore, they're afraid to come out and make changes and suggest changes, because they're afraid, in my humble opinion, that the public will think that they're for some reason soft on crime or they're not in favor of capital punishment. What they should do is come out and say, "We have flaws in this system, we need to fix it."

ROSTON (voice-over): But with 80 death-row inmates freed nationwide since 1973, Judge Baird, now co-chair of the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions, says there are signs of a political shift.

BAIRD: I think the national mood, with the exception of Texas, is changing and changing rather dramatically. Before, it seemed to me to be a debate on whether you're in favor of or against capital punishment? And now the debate has broadened so that, are you confident in this process whereby capital punishment is imposed?

ROSTON: Under Governor George Bush, Texas has executed 134 inmates, that's more than under any other governor nationwide since the death penalty was reinstated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you do about it?

ROSTON: He insists no innocent person has been put to death on his watch.

G.W. BUSH: We look at innocence and guilt of each person, and whether or not the person has had full access to the courts. And as far as I'm concerned, there has not been one innocent person executed since I've been the governor.

BAIRD: You know, I served on the court for eight years, I saw more than 400 of these cases. I feel very certain that an innocent person has, in fact, been executed. I can't tell you who the person was, but just looking at the system the way I have those eight years, I feel very certain that an innocent person has been executed.

ROSTON: On death row in Texas, George McFarland is hoping his new attorneys will get him a new trial.

MCFARLAND: I'm praying that somebody would step in and do the right thing, and decide, "Well, OK, McFarland didn't have a right trial, we need to do redo this. They had -- they need -- there are two plaintiffs that nobody got to hear, nobody got to see, nobody know nothing about, so why put this man to death until these things are heard?"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: Even as Republicans this week attempt to strike a softer, more inclusive tone, there is little chance they will reverse their party's stance in support of capital punishment. It is also important to note that when the Democrats hold their convention in Los Angeles in a few weeks, they too are unlikely to change their pro-death penalty platform.

We'll be back in a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, lights, camera, action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 1948 Republican Convention gets under way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCULLOUGH: I greatly miss the old-style convention. It was real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The last time we saw Philly, as CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Next, the last time we saw Philly was a first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY WIRSHBAW (ph), FMR. CBS RADIO PRODUCER: It was a very risky thing to be in television. You really had to be dragged kicking and screaming to get into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The convention will now come to order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREENFIELD: It's been 52 years since a national convention came to Philadelphia. In fact, both major party conventions were in Philadelphia in 1948. We remember that year for the biggest upset in American political history: Harry Truman's impossible win over Tom Dewey. But it now seems clear that 1948 also marked a watershed in campaign history. Because of what began that year, conventions and American politics would never be the same.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sidewalks of Philadelphia ordinarily stayed respectable and not too noisy after midnight, take on a carnival air. The biggest political show on Earth is coming to town.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): They had to patch up the big rubber elephant atop the old Bellevue Stratford (ph) Hotel, but Republicans were buoyant as they came to Philadelphia. An unpopular Harry Truman in the White House, post-war inflation, and a feeling that it was time for a change convinced Republicans that they'd win no matter who they nominated, and that's what made conventions compelling back then. You couldn't say who the nominee would be.

New York Governor Tom Dewey, who'd been nominated four years earlier, was the favorite, but Minnesota's Harold Stasen (ph) had a fair share of delegates and so did Ohio Senator Robert Taft, the conservative favorite. Dark horses like California Governor Earl Warren hoped that a deadlocked convention might turn to them.

For Joseph and Shirley Wirshbaw, two young producers working for CBS radio, that was what made the story so interesting.

JOSEPH WIRSHBAW, FMR. CBS RADIO PRODUCER: I think it was the game, how many votes did he have? Could Dewey take it on the first ballot? Could Warren and Stasen get together, and Taft, to stop Dewey?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 1948 Republican Convention gets under way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But in one key sense, the most important presence in Philadelphia that year was this new face: television. It was still a stranger in most American homes, only about 350,000 households had them, yet there was enough interest in this medium that it helped influence the choice of the convention site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Philadelphia trots out its famous Bummers (ph) Parade, as a parting gesture of welcome to the Democratic Convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Both Republicans and Democrats chose Philadelphia for their conventions because live TV coverage was confined to the Eastern seaboard. For the broadcast foot soldiers, like the Wirshbaws, television was uncharted territory.

S. WIRSHBAW: It was a very risky thing to be in television. They had to convince Doug Edwards to do television because, who had television sets in those days? A handful of people. You really had to be dragged kicking and screaming to get into it.

GREENFIELD: The political pros regarded TV warily. In fact, one Democratic Party official wrote a memo warning delegates not to sleep, or read newspapers, or scratch themselves in inappropriate places.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thousand ninety four votes for Thomas E. Dewey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But it was still a traditional convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS DEWEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In all humility, I accept the nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: It took the Republicans three ballots to nominate Tom Dewey, who didn't pick running mate Earl Warren until the convention's last day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EARL WARREN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And before you change your mind, I want to say that I accept the nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: And when the Democrats gathered in Philadelphia, it was still an old-fashioned kind of convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 30th national convention of the Democratic Party will now be in order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Even incumbent President Harry Truman couldn't tell the delegates, much less the then-powerful political bosses, how the convention would govern itself.

Historian and Truman biographer David McCullough.

MCCULLOUGH: He had almost no control. He had no real control over the platform. He had no control over the party. He didn't know who his vice presidential choice would be. He didn't even know for sure if he'd be nominated. Imagine.

GREENFIELD: As for TV, the new kid on the block...

MCCULLOUGH: The convention hall is hotter than blazes, it's Philadelphia in the summertime, and there was no air conditioning, and they brought in all these giant lights for television. The reporters sat up in the press gallery wearing sunglasses because the lights were so bright.

GREENFIELD: With television so new, party officials hadn't thought all that carefully about what kind of images viewers might be seeing. For example, one planner thought it would be neat to release doves as a sign of peace.

J. WIRSHBAW: But they kept being delayed when they were going to release them, so when they finally did open up, these poor doves -- some of them were in such terrible condition they couldn't fly. Others flew around and around, and speaker Sam Rayburn (ph), who then was the out speaker, said, "Somebody get those damn pigeons the hell off this...

S. WIRSHBAW: They were flying all around.

J. WIRSHBAW: They're flying all around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM RAYBURN, CONVENTION SPEAKER: The chair will not recognize any delegate until this convention is in order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: There were more serious disruptions reflecting the kind of serious debates within a party that were traditionally resolved at conventions. In 1948, Democrats adopted a liberal civil rights plank, and delegates from some Southern states walked out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we bid you goodbye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: And the balloting took so long that Truman's acceptance speech was delayed until 2:00 in the morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the election year begins...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Four years later, in 1952, nearly 10 million Americans had TV in their homes, and the political impact of the medium became clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here comes Mr. Republican himself, Senator Robert Taft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: When Republicans met in Chicago, Robert Taft was the clear choice of the party's regulars, so General Eisenhower's team turned outside the convention to the millions of Americans who now had the tube for support on critical credential spikes to decide whose delegates would be seated. "Watch what's going on," they say. "Call your delegations." Calls and telegrams flooded the convention, and Ike won the disputed delegates and the nomination.

That fight in 1952 didn't stop Ike and the Republicans from winning a landslide election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told those fellows down there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But in later years, the political parties came to realize that while convention brawls might make for fascinating television, they usually inflicted heavy political damage. When New York Governor Rockefeller was booed in 1964...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NELSON ROCKEFELLER (R), NEW YORK: Some of you don't like to hear it, ladies and gentlemen, but it's the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ABE RIVIKOFF (ph): ... how hard it is to accept the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: When Senator Abe Rivikoff was jeered by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in 1968...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVIKOFF: And with George McGovern as president of the United States, we wouldn't have to have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: ... the cost of bitter floor fights and chaos in the hall became clear. What's more, televised conventions that brought voters close to the process helped the fuel the voters' appetite for a voice in picking the nominees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't believe we've won the whole thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: After the chaotic Democratic Convention of 1968, primaries began to spread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll win together. We'll whip the Republicans...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: That meant that more and more of the delegates and thus the party nominees were chose months before the conventions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thanks a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: And ironically, the conventions that television had helped make compelling to viewers, now became a far less compelling, far less spontaneous event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sarah and Jim Brady.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Instead, the conventions have evolved into showcases for the party and its candidate; gatherings with a unified face and preselected themes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB DOLE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope I'm a better man...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Political infomercials with conventions showcasing reassuring images.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH DOLE, BOB DOLE'S WIFE: I'm going to be speaking about the man I love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Elizabeth Dole touring the convention floor, extolling the virtues of her husband for the Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

E. DOLE: These were the values that led Bob to risk his life on the battlefields of Italy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Christopher Reeve providing a sympathetic heroic image for the Democrats. A spontaneous gesture like Vice President Rockefeller in 1976 greeting some hecklers. It's almost unimaginable today, projects the wrong image for the television cameras.

MCCULLOUGH: I greatly miss the old-style convention. It was real. It was like watching anything that's happening in reality in front of your eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUBERT HUMPHREY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states' rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCCULLOUGH: You can't orchestrate as a marketing event a performance on the floor such as Hubert Humphrey brought to the 1948 convention. That was real, and that was from the heart, and that was history happening before your eyes, not skillful marketing by cynical people who simply want to put their product before the public.

S. WIRSHBAW: For the public you still need a pageant of some kind to say this is important. I wouldn't want to do away with conventions, I would maybe shorten them, get rid of a lot of the nonsense, clean them up a little, but have the pageantry. I mean, we have 4th of July celebrations, OpSail, it doesn't really mean anything except it's pretty and it pulls you together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Back in 1972, the press had a field day when it found the script for Richard Nixon's renomination, complete with minute by minute directions. These days, the campaigns proudly take the media through those scripts. The campaigns know what unscripted moments can do to a candidate's hopes, and they want no part of them. In response, the broadcast television networks, the very folks that brought the conventions into the American home, have now all but abandoned the events they helped so much to change.

And that's it for this edition of CNN & TIME.

I'm Jeff Greenfield.

SHAW: And I'm Bernard Shaw. Good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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