time with this case. >> all those years i worked at court tv, i remember fridays we used to call in the biz verdict day. >> absolutely. and you never have verdicts in the morng. they always want the free lunch. >> that sounds crazy, people, but it's -- >> you never see verdicts in the moning. almost never. >> hopefully i'll see you within the next half-hour. don't leave the building. jeffrey toobin on stand by. >> i'm under orders. >> from me. so top of the hour. >> a lot of news today. he lost five years of his life in prison and a promising football career as well. all of that derailed and because of a crime he did not commit. >> dismissed the case. >> that is brian banks, overcome with joy, emotion, when he hears a judge throwing out a conviction of rape. when banks was 16, he was a rising football star. he had a full ride to the university of southern california, and then one day, in the year 2002, a 15-year-old classmate accused him of kidnapping her and of raping her. her word against his word. and instead of realizing his dreams on the football field, he instead ended up in a prison cell. and that was his home for five years. five long years behind bars. and that wasn't the end of it. another fife years as a parolee. and not just any parolee. a registered sex offender. so then out of the blue, banks gets a message on facebook from his accuser. and wouldn't you know it, she admitted that she lied and she kick started a chain of events that finally, finally cleared his name. and i'm happy to say brian banks joins me live now. he's with the director of the california innocence project, which did a lot in the effort to get him out and clear his name. >> how do you feel, my friend? >> ecstatic. today it started to sink in a little more. i'm overwhelmed. >> i watch these pictures in the courtroom, your head fell on to the table. i could see the tears falling, literally falling off your face. you knew you were going into that courtroom. you knew this was happening and still it had that affect on you. >> yeah. it was one of those situations where i was overcome with relief and still reminded with the pain and suffering that i went through with prison and parole. just all the false accusations made against me. it's just a tough reminder. >> brian, there's so many things for you to be angry about. i have to be honest, i watched part of your "today's show" interview. you said you want to look forward and be positive. but there's a lot of wrong that went here. ju juanetta gibson, do you not want to see her charged? >> my main focus has been just being free. being a regular citizen in america. and now that i have that opportunity, i'm open overwhelmed with that. and that's my sole focus. getting a tryout for the nfl and just doing what i can do. >> and you he any inclination to having further conversations with this woman? >> no, none whatsoever. my life is just moving on and moving strong and i'm thankful. >> maybe not a conversation, but what about a civil lawsuit? because god knows, you're owed. >> you know, for me, like i said, i just want to be positive and i just want to be -- i want knob a better position than what i was yesterday. and the only way that can happen is eliminating any negative ill will or feelings towards anyone. as far as any compensation goes, i haven't given that on any thought. i'm just on cloud ten right now and i'm thankful to justin and the california innocence project for all they've do forme. >> brian's realized. >> tell me how many more brians are out there. how many other people have been falsely accused and for whatever reason, maybe an unjust verdict or they did what brian did and they took the deal because they feared the 41 years. >> brian realized what a lot of my clients have is that anger is going to eat you pup and they don't want to lose any more of their life to anger. but brian's case, stlr there are a lot of guys out there in that situation. the plea bargains have become the 95% of solution. 95s for of cases are adjudicated by plea. and a lot of guys get in ha situation like brian where they're told look, somebody said you did it, you're saying you didn't do it. you can go to court and roll the case and you may die in prison. or you can take this deal. brie kbran is a 17-year-old kid sitting there making that decision on his own. so what's tragic about this case is, if we hadn't gotten that recanation, brian would have gone through this the rest of his life. >> and had that hanging over him. because the registered sex offender doesn't go away easily. so -- >> exactly. that's why we took this case. >> brian, tell me about your five years behind bars. and this is going to sound like a weird question, but did you learn any lessons that you can now apply in your life as an innocent man locked up? >> most definitely. just to flefr give up. for me, my passion and dream were to be free. and my soul focus was to be free and that's all i worked on for these many years that i also suffered. as well as wanting to better myself and become an active member in society by giving back from my hardship and my story. i want to help someone or show someone, no matter what you go through, you can get through it and be a better person than you were the day before by staying positive. >> and what about your hopes and dreams when it comes to playing in the nfl? where might that take you? >> i hope it takes me far. i feel very confident and, you know, getting that tryout and producing on the field. i've been working extremely hard for this opportunity. i just pray to god every day, i'm prepared to meet you halfway with a blessing. i'm confident and ready to play. i'm ready for an opportunity. >> we're lucky to have brian. he's got unbelievable heart. >> for sure. >> i hear you. i want you on my team. i don't play football, but i would love to work with you. brian, you heard what justin just said about the work that he does. and i'm curious, i've done a lot of work in criminal justice and i've got to be honest with you, i don't know very many inmates who tell me you're not innocent. so while you were in there, how many people did you really believe were innocent? >> you know what, i rarely would enter any discussions with other inmates on what they were incarcerated for. just because i didn't want to really indulge my own personal information for my own safety reasons. but i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one that has gone through something like this or something similar. >> you know, it's -- i'm glad this has happened. i'm a better person for seeing you speak and for seeing just how forgiving you are and i wish you the best luck as you move forward with your life. and good luck in the nfl. you will turn me into the football fan if you get on the field. >> hey, i'll send you a jersey for sure. >> now you're talking. thanks for joining us you two. and good luck to you. >> thank you for having me. >> my pleasure. >> i want to turn to another story. this is just into cnn. vice president joe biden making some very emotional comments. you can see the look on his face. comments about suicide, comments about being in a dark place. you're going to hear what he had to say and who he was talking to. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. a family of troops made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. he opened up about the very dark days after his wife and his 1-year-old daughter died in a car crash. that happened back in 1972. and the vice president confided is that it brought him to thoughts of suicide. >> for the first time in my life, i saw how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide, not because they were deranged. not because they were nuts. but because they had been to the top of the mountain and they knew in their heart they would never get there again. it can and it will get better. there will come a day i promise you, and you parents as well, when the thoughts of your son or daughter, husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. it will happen. so moving. that was the vice president in arlington, virginia, today. now to new york. and the arrest of a man in a decades old missing child case. we are waiting for this man to be charged on murder charges in connection with a disappearance of a child named aton patz. a man confessed to killing that boy. he came a national obsession after vanishing on his way to school 33 years ago on this very day. i want to bring in gil alba. i' been looking at the headlines today. our newspapers here, daily news splashed right across the front. the post says the case solved. i'm not so sure the arrest of one man means solved, do you? >> not at this point, but being in the same and interviewing that person, after a while, you bring them to the scene and he'll show you what he did and you keep talking to him and you'll find out whether he's telling the truth, whether he's lie or making up stuff. i think the detective felt confident he's telling you the kroout. >> so you're saying you get a different spidey sense when you get him out of the interview room and on to the street? >> yeah, because he's showing you where he was a the time, reacting the whole thing. not many people could do something like that and telling the same story. he's been saying since 1981 he killed a kid. >> to family members, right? >> yeah. and yet that never made that back to the nypd? >> i'm not sure and if anybody ever complained or something to this effect. but since they did the search, that's when it really came out. >> you worked during this time and this choked the department. they were transfixed by this. >> this was a big deal at the time. that's a big deal in new york city or any city. a kid just waiting for a bus and he disappeareds. where does he disappear? nobody knows. >> remember elizabeth smart. a little i can kid who should not have disappeared from her bed and she did. >> yeah, that was really -- it literally seeped like the boogey man. you were on the major case squad with the nypd. it was the missing persons squad dealing with this case. yet you would walk into work and see etan's face on the walls. >> when you have a kid missing in any police department, but especially the new york city police department, you get obsessed with that. everybody has kids and you really do everything, all your efforts are into finding this kid. but the big thing, why this kept going and i have to say this, the parents really kept pushing. they never stopped. they kept, you know, finding out, you know, what happened to their son. that's what really kept the case going all these years. >> a i think a lot of people would be astounded to hear that people have come to the nypd before and confessed to this killing. not just one but several. and this is the kind of thing that .has all the time. how do you know when you really got the right guy? and it's not just some crack pot? >> that's why the police department says many times we can't talk about that or we have certain things we can't talk about. specifically for that reason to find out who's who. but after a few minutes you tell who's telling the truth and who can't. >> do you remember john mark card, jonbenet ramsey. he was nutty. i know you didn't work on the case but your friends did. do you think the nypd held back at least one detail that only the killer would know? >> i'm sure they tried to do that. you don't have a body, you don't have a murder scene. you don't have dna. they only did canvases around the area, talked to everybody. even talked to this 19-year-old kid that was in there at the time. a huge brush fire shutting down major attractions in orlando, florida. it's a thick-lying fog. you can see the traffic moving along but wow, brush fire smoke, you never want to hear about that. it can get thick and fast. just ask chad myers about that. it's caused serious problems in florida in the past. traffic accidents have piled up and killed a number of people as well. we're watching i-4 there near world center drive near disney, folks. also, we have word of an active hostage situation as well. very busy day. it's inside the prudential building. a man apparently holding hostages there. i'll take a quick break, collect what i can and see what i've got for you. [ male announcer ] we imagined a vehicle that could adapt to changing road conditions. one that continually monitors and corrects for wheel slip. we imagined a vehicle that can increase emergency braking power when you need it most. and we imagined it looking like nothing else on the road today. then...we built it. the 2012 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ transforming sounds ] [ male announcer ] transformers. the ride. ride it at universal studios hollywood. happening right now, a hostage situation unfoding in valparaiso, indiana. we've been told a man walked into the plu prudential building located in downtown valparaiso. apparently he was looking for someone who owed him money. he pulled a gun and he's currently holding at least two people hostage. again, this is in valparaiso, indiana, in the prudential building. police are in touch with him, we are told. so it's good that communication is happening at this point. we're monitoring the situation. and as we find out more, of course, we will bring it to you right away. there's more news headed your way. "rapid fire." roll it. the fbi is questioning a man who tried to storm a cockpit door. he refused to take the seat when told. according to the airline, when snyder moved towards the front of the aircraft, that's when he was detained. passengers watching all of this go down on the plane. >> it was frightening the way terrorism is these days. it was like it was terror sitting in the seat so we were a bit worried. also, hurricane bud smining towards the west coast of the mexico as we speak. take a look at the picture. yeah, it looks ugly, big. but it's losing steal. it's weakening to an 80-mile-an-hour category 1. just enough to ruin your vacation there. there is also another system that could turn into a tropical storm along the east coast. and that could affect the east coast, including florida by sunday. >> scan. the vatican of all places. a man is under arrest, it's believed he apparently leaked some information, confidential stuff to the media. and get this, the italian media is reporting it's the pope's butler. we were told he was caught red handed with some illegal and very private documents. after months on the loose and plenty of people around the world trying to track him, japan's fugitive penguin, that's him, that's the offender right there. he's back in custody. darn it. the 1-year-old penguin escaped from a tokyo aquarium in march. somehow he sdaped a 13-foot wall and barbed wire fence. i think i see a new episode of "madagascar" coming out. and he was captured last night. now we go to brush fires down in the orlando area. you can see the traffic. it seems to be moving along okay. i mentioned chad myers being the expert in all of this, because i remember you telling me about another brush fire. things can change very quickly, can't it? >> it can. we talked about how dry florida has been. we we talked about the sinkhole in northern florida caused by the drought and lack of ground watter. this proves how dry parts of florida really are and have been for a long time. i can find the fire on the radar. the radar doesn't know what's in the air. it's just looking for something. rain drops, hailstones, whatever. it's seeing smoke particles in the air. a very large plume of smoke, all the way down towards poke city. if i look at it, i can actually tilt my radar people up, it's about 6,000 to 8,000 feet in the sky. so this smoke is really movinging. the wind is really blowing and clearly this is completely out of control, ashleigh. >> so one of the things we're gathering is that this is the kind of weekend, memorial day weekend where disney likes to debut new rides. as if a long weekend didn't bring in big crowds anyway, the potential for debuting new rides might bring in greater crowds. does the traffic look out of sorts to you at all? >> you never want to stop traffic on a friday. i don't think very many people are there yet. they won't leave until 3:00 or 4:00 from the east coast cities. then here's the celebration. i owned a home right there for a while. all of this area here is kind of old swampy area. so it's kind of -- it's dried, although maybe underneath it if you tried to walk open it, it would be soft enough like a bog that you could walk through it. but above it is some type of tree, some type of brush. firefighters can't just drive their trucks into some of these areas because the trucks will just sink into the bog. you can see the flame on that picture. i can see the red flame in the middle of that have smoke. >> yeah, i can see it. also see there aren't a lot of cars on the other lanes that are getting closer towards those flames. we each keep an eye on that, chad. appreciate it. >> we've got this just into cnn as well. did i say it was friday and often times verdicts come on friday? we've got breaking news in the john edwards corruption trial. you will want to come back for this. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx. this is the next chapter for lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, where the costs to both repair your home and replace your possessions are covered. and we don't just cut a check for the depreciated value -- we can actually replace your stuff with an exact or near match. plus, if your home is unfit to live in after an incident, we pay for you to stay somewhere else while it's being repaired. home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance. because you never know what lies around the corner. to get a free quote, call... visit a local office, or go to libertymutual.com today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? another sign that newspapers may be on life support. also nasa hailing the capture of a dragon. true. and fleet week hits the big apple. hello, sailor. it's time to play "reporter roulette." we begin with some pretty serious problems facing major newspapers. "the times" in new orleans is no longer going to be in print every day. and that is catastrophic. alison kosik has the story. this is one of four newspapers that made an announcement like this. big, big cutbacks the last couple of days. >> exactly. this is a sign of the finals, isn't it? we're talking about the new orleans times picayune" cutting back this fall. same with other papers in huntsville, mobile, birmingham as well. sadly, this is really the trend for newspapers in these smaller cities. as we watch this ad revenue in print plummeting because people are getting their content in digital form online and not in paper and ink. so the focus for this newspaper is really going to be putting content online. >> and warren buffett just making a big investment in newspapers. wants to buy more. that does not equate. >> he's doing the opposite. going in the opposite direction. but it's warren buffett, he can