and injured seven others was sentenced to life in prison without parole. this is the harshest punishment possible. in the hours leading up to that very sentence, family member after family member, victim after victim recounted to the court how their lives had been irreparably shattered by the events of that day. and it was their words directed right at ethan crumbley that left the biggest mark, like those from the mother of madisyn baldwin, a 17-year-old senior who didn't live to graduate high school. >> i don't wish death upon you. that would be too easy. i hope that thoughts consume you and they replay over and over in your head. the thoughts won't stop. i'm sure you've heard that paraphrased before. i hope the screams keep you up at night. >> and the words from tate meyers' dad, who spoke of heartache after heartache since the loss of his just 16-year-old son. >> for the past two years, our family has been navigating our way through complete hell. what you stole from us is not replaceable. but what we won't let you steal from us is a life of normalcy, and we'll find a way to get there through forgiveness and through putting good into this world. >> and those from the father of 17-year-old justin shilling, who says that he struggles most days to even get out of bed. >> disturbing thoughts on life in general do not in any way warrant a second chance. my son doesn't get a second chance, and neither should he. >> and from the father of 14-year-old hannah st. juliana, who is mourning the memories that will never be. >> age plays no part. his potential is irrelevant. there is utterly nothing that he could ever do to contribute to society that would make up for the lives that he has so ruthlessly taken. >> it's all those words that will be remembered, words that overshadowed those of ethan crumbley, who did address the court directly today. it was minutes before finding out he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. >> i am a really bad person. i have done terrible things that no one should ever do. i have lied, been not trustworthy. i've hurt many people, and that's what i've done, and i'm not denying it. but that's not who i plan on being. whatever sentence it is, i do plan to be better than i am. >> i want to bring in megan and chad gregory. they're the parents of oxford high school shooting survivor keegan gregory, and also attorney van johnson representing families in the civil suit against oxford community schools. thank you all for being here. what a very emotionally charged day, i'm sure, for everyone in the community. it happened to be nationwide as well as we all were tuning in to see this sentencing today. if i can begin with you, megan, ethan crumbley now has become the first minor to receive an original sentence of life without the possibility of parole. now, i know your child was a survivor, but you're among a community of people where everyone was not as fortunate. i am wondering does this sentence bring you closure? do you have a reaction to what this feels like tonight? >> i don't think closure would be the right word. i'm not sure closure will ever happen, especially for the poor families. for us, i think it gives us a little bit of a sigh of relief, but i'm not sure we could ever feel complete closure until our kids were safe, and i don't know how you even explain it. if our kids were -- what's the right word? >> whole again. >> whole again. all of the kids in the community are forever changed, and i think that's a hard thing to swallow for most people. most people probably can't understand it until you ever go through it. but it does give us a little bit of a sigh of relief to know that we won't have to ever face him anywhere ever again. >> i'm so glad that you said that, both of you, because although your child is a survivor, and i feel uncomfortable as a mother even describing your child in that way because it diminishes in some respect for people to understand the depth of the emotion of what has happened and the ongoing, ongoing journey that everyone in the community is feeling. and so i'm so glad that you've pointed out the distinction and the idea what comes next. i will mention one thing that he said, and i was really, chad, leaning in to see what ethan crumbley may have said. what could he possibly have said at the sentencing? i want to play for you his message to the parents of the victims. listen to this. >> any sentence that they ask for, i ask that you do impose it on me because i want them to be happy, and i want them to feel secure and safe. i do not want them to worry another day because i really am sorry for what i've done, for what i've taken from them. i cannot give it back, but i can try my best in the future to help other people, and that is what i will do. >> chad, obviously there are more than the four victims who lost their lives. the community forever touched. there are some feeling a deep loss of safety. there are those who cannot sleep. there are those who are still battling with what they saw and the trauma of all of it in addition to these four shooting victims. what do you say in response to the message that he conveyed today? >> well, i think the first thing it it's too soon for many of us to forgive although some made the message of they'll seek forgiveness for themselves, but not for the shooter. i think trauma does not respect time. so it doesn't matter that we were in this place two years later, and he decides now he's going to say "i'm sorry." the trauma is very real, and it takes you back to that single day, and we don't get out of it just because he goes to life in prison without parole. so i feel for what he did say, but i think it falls on deaf ears at this point, and it's a means to an end to get him processed through the system. and now it's on to the parents and the school district. >> absolutely. it's the beginning, in some respects, of the next process here. that does include, as chad pointed out, it does include the criminal prosecution of this person's parents. there is an ongoing litigation and appeal process about the school district as well. you're representing some of the families and survivors trying to hold the school district and some of the employees accountable for failing to act when the signs appeared to be clear that this student was violent, was dangerous. where does all of that stand right now in terms of lit litigation? >> well, laura, as always you're spot-on. we have an appeal in the state court action for the michigan court of appeals. we have an appeal in the federal portion of our lawsuits, plural, many, in the 6th circuit court of appeals on various rulings, fighting governmental immunity, sove sovereign immunity. basically government saying you can't sue me. what i thought was so incredible today is the overwhelming comments not just by the defense but the prosecutor. they all agreed on one thing, laura, today, and the judge. that is we all know the school made multiple mistakes here, and then it was but for the purposes of today. so for the purposes of the civil k case, and yes, let's do one thing at a time. next will be his parents. then two cases. we have a long road to go. but everybody today, defense, prosecutor, and judge, all mentioned the school district admittedly, according to them, being responsible just like their own internal investigation showed that they're responsible. but, yet, they're still going forward with their appeals, laura, and they're not coming forwards and say, we give up. we're sorry. our own investigation shows we screwed up. nothing. >> what was your reaction that the parents were criminally charged? >> we believe that there needs to be accountability there, and what we're not trying to do is look inside the home and judge on what happened or didn't happen. the fact is they bough child a weapon, did not put it in a secure, safe storage environment. he had access. the fact is parents need to be held accountable if they do not keep their firearms safe. >> meghan and chad gregory, ven johnson, thank you all for your words tonight. it's so telling. thank you so much. >> thank you, laura. >> thank you. >> joining me now is senior crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz. i'm so glad you are here. shimon, you know what happens in these communities in the wake of mass shootings. your coverage of so many, far too many frankly, including of course makes me want to ask you about this idea of closure. even with a sentence like life without the possibility of parole, what is that like for a community to try to grapple with this? >> it's tough. look, i was in that community in the days after this shooting, and it's a small community. and everyone there, everyone there was so affected by what happened there. and the other thing that made it so difficult is there was warning signs. there were things that could have been done to prevent them and no one took action. so that is what also frustrated so many there. but i think for the community, in any community, when you're able to come into a courthouse and do those victim impact statements, it's very powerful. it's a very important part of our justice system for the victims to come in and tell a judge how they feel, how they were terrorized by what happened to them. so in that sense, i think it does give them some closure that they can come in there and speak about how they feel. but, you know, as you heard the family there say, they will never be whole again, and they still have a long road ahead because you have the parents, and then obviously you have the fight for justice and accountability on the part of the school. >> it's so true. thinking about the people we just spoke to, their child survived this attack. but for the parents whose children did not, people have to think about this being very expansive. those speaking today were not just the victims of those who have passed, but those who have been impacted by the actions and conduct of this particular defendant, now convicted defendant. it's something we need to focus more on, and also the judge. before the sentencing, shimon, the judge was unforgiving at best when he recounted the horrific acts that took place, how he planned, how he prepared for this rampage. listen to this. >> the court apologizes to the victim for the bluntness, but defendant shot and killed justin shilling at point-blank range after having him get down on his knees in front of another student. >> i mean when you hear that -- >> i was kind of surprised, you know, hearing a judge go into such graphic detail. but i think given the age of this defendant, 17 -- 15 at the time -- and the fact that he was going to be sentencing him to life in prison, i think he needed to set the record and needed to explain why he was doing something that has never been done before. think about this. this was a 15-year-old kid at the time, 17 now, who will never see the light of day again, will spend the rest of his life behind bars. so i think that's probably why the judge did it with the understanding that it was potentially going to affect these victims. this is something that they will live with forever, the sights, the smells, the noises, the sounds of gunfire, seeing their friends dying. this is something this community will live with forever. so for the judge to do that there, i mean he was trying to be sensitive. but, you know, i was taken a little aback by that, but it was necessary perhaps given what he was about to do. >> well, you know, there is the expectation when we're talking about a minor, that some level of leniency would be afforded and extended. i think he wanted to impress on that courtroom, that defendant, that that leniency and that mercy had not been shown the children who were killed that day. shimon, really extraordinary to think about this happening yet again in this country, and this novelty for the first time of this sentence. shimon, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me, laura. this is just in. the supreme court of the state of texas temporarily blocking a woman's emergency abortion. kate cox is 20 weeks pregnant, and she says that her unborn baby has a genetic condition with very little chance of surviving, and carrying a child to term would actually threaten her life. now, she sued to get a high-risk abortion, and a judge actually ruled in her favor. remember the medical information was provided by her own doctor. now, that is until the state's attorney general, ken paxton, threatened legal consequences and petitioned the texas supreme court to intervene in this matter. now her future and her ability to obtain her medically important, as she says, and emergency abortion is up in the air. we're going to stay on this story and bring you the very latest. up next, trump is going to testify, expected to testify, i should say, in court on monday. you never what could happen, or will he even go off the rails? a former trump attorney joins me next to weigh in. so we're like two days away, right after the weekend, of the former president possibly taking the stand again in his new york civil fraud trial. he's turned his trips to the courthouse, as you know, into, well, campaign stops. he's been blasting the judge. the new york attorney general. so will it be different on monday? what can we expect? we'll talk about it with the former trump attorney, tim parlatore. you know, we've seen this movie before. he testified once before. the judge was telling him to control himself. do you think it's a good idea for him to testify on monday? it's in his defense, the defense case. >> you know, that case has devolved into such a circus anyway, i don't know that it makes any difference at this point. i mean, you know, he's going to go in and say his piece. summary judgment has already been decided. this is a damages trial, and it's a bench damages trial too. so i mean really at this point, i think the lawyers are more working on building points for an appeal than expecting anything to actually happen. >> of course if you don't raise it at the trial level, you cannot raise it on appeal. you don't get to have a first bite at the apple on appeal. but, you know, when you think about what you just said, the judge has already decided that fraud has occurred. now it's about how expensive it's going to be, whether he'll lose parts of his businesses. his attorneys have been saying, though, that he would do so against their advice. i was surprised by that statement. weren't you? >> i was. i mean, you know, look, as lawyers we sometimes disagree with our clients because we don't go out and tell the whole world that, i advised my client of something and he disagreed. >> why? that's not about ego. >> that's about the ethical rules. you can't talk about privileged communications, and, you know, when you provide advice to a client, it's between you and the client, not between you and the cameras. it's insane. >> we're talking about a trial of showmanship. the notion that i'm telling you not to do this can ring very differently. if it were a jury, they might see this as -- how is it going to impact the ultimate decision here? >> not at all. it's not going to make any difference to the judge's decision in this trial. it could have some impact to the appeal, positive or negative, because, yes, he could build some more points for the appeal. but he could also end up hurting himself on the appeal. >> and for the other cases around him. you can imagine all the prosecutors in other jurisdictions who might be salivating at any crack of a door opening to say, please talk more about what i can now bring in because it will come in possibly in their own trials, right? >> sure. sure. i think that this case, because it is so untethered from everything else in the other cases, it's not going to be as much for that there. but, you know, if there's any testimony that he's going to do in these other cases, it's going to have to look vastly different from this. >> i wonder will he stay on track or be derailed? tim parlatore, thank you so much for your insight. it's been a wild week in politics, and it's friday yet again. it's been wild across the country. and with things only likely to get wilder in, oh, about 333 days. that's the election day, but who's counting? so who stood out in this crazy week? joining me now is comedian matt friend to talk about who made the biggest impressions this week. matt, trump gave us a little bit of a preview of his -- >> that's true. >> yes, he did, laura. ask the question. go ahead and do it, honey. ask the question. >> the question, i guess, former mr. president, is that the whole dictator for a plan that you unveiled just for a day. how is that going to work with the law? >> well, i will tell you what. i would be a dictator for one day. i knew mussolini. he was a great guy. we had golf last week at the great mar-a-lago. i will tell you look at the great criminals. you see al capone, a great guy. the god father was based off of me. we know the brando people. i consulted him on the role. but a dictator is a good thing. america needs it. thank you very much. china. >> the fact that it comes on that quickly. >> it does. i'm sorry. >> i close my eyes for a second and squinted like this -- b you know, it wasn't just him this week who made an impression. chris christie had quite the bone to pick with vivek ramaswamy at this week's debate in tuscaloosa. who one that particular battle? >> there was no winner in my opinion. i just love the fact chris christie used the same tactic as with marco rubio in 2016. ron desantis is a bigger threat than a.i. america, could we take a shot every time ron desantis says, let me tell you buckle up because there's going to be a new sheriff in town. also, laura, ron desantis couldn't admit that donald trump is not fit for office. he won't even admit that his heels don't fit. i don't know what's happening h now. also, laura, what is up with republicans holding up signs in the middle of debates? >> on a white legal pad? >> on the debate against newsom, desantis holds up the map of san francisco. >> well, they say retro is in. >> that's right. >> this is called handwriting, young voters. use this instead of our thumbs to do this. but at least maybe a yellow legal pad. i don't know. a little bit of color in the world. matt, i don't know why you do this to me every week. my cheeks hurt by the end of our conversation. >> one word of advice. i know kevin mccarthy is now out of a job. if you're looking for any advice, make sure you book a cameo from george santos. he's available. i'm sure he'll give you a lot of input. >> matt friend, a man who is not afraid to make a couple of enemies and make us laugh in the process. >> good night, everybody. i appreciate that. thank you. >> there's something wrong with you. coming up, cnn's presentation of hbo's "oveverti with bill maher."" the power goes out, and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book. who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up. plus, now through december 31st, eligible xfinity rewards members can get 25% off a storm ready wifi device. well, now let's turn it over to our friends at hbo because every friday after real time with bill maher, bill and his guests answer viewer questions about topic in the national conversation. here is "overtime with bill maher." [ applause ] >> okay. we're here on cnn with the ferguson. here are the questions that the people of america want to know of our cnn panel. you're often on the cnn panel. >> yes, i am. >> this is not new to you. what does the panel think of choosing taylor swift as "time" magazine person of the year? >> 100% for it. she totally deserves it. i'm not kidding. [ applause ] >> i mean, yeah, who c