banned substance. yesterday, petit conceded that there is a 50/50 chance he misunderstood clemens. court watchers say if the case falls apart the justice department is going to take more heat for the money time and personnel it s invested in trying clemens twice. having five prosecutors, visible prosecutors i m sure there are others working behind the scene, is virtually unheard of and certainly in a case where you are talking about a very simple allegation of having told a lie in front of congress. attorney general eric holder says because the charge is so serious, lying to congress that alone justifies the resources spent on this prosecution, shep? shannon bream in washington tonight. thanks. seven people charged in the hazing death of a florida a.m. a and m marching band member have turned themselves into police now. in all police charged 11 people with felony hazing after a drum major died on a banned bus trip after
11 participants, that s one of them with hazing. in convicted the maximum anyone could face would be six years in prison. again, the question is why not murder or manslaughter charges? one answer says state prosecutors is that it would be tough getting convictions with the evidence that they have. the testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder in that it does not contain the elements of murder. we can prove participation in hazing and a death. we do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed mr. champion. it is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the florida statute as written by the legislature. well, that statute was written seven years ago with the best intentions to hold people accountable for hazing deaths. you have to wonder, though, does the very fact that it s on the books allow some people to pay lighter penalties for causing someone s death than would otherwise be the case? the attorney for the champion family says so. he
ac 360 starts now. piers, thank you. good evening, it s 10:00 here on the east coast. we begin tonight, keeping them we begin tonight keeping them honest with the question that seems to have no simple answer. how can someone be fatally beaten, kicked and suffocated, allegedly by more than a dozen people, and yet none of those people, not one, face murder or manslaughter charges. that s one key question in the killing of florida a&m band member robert champion. he died from a brutal hazing, and he died from crossing bus c, where the victim is made to walk down the aisle of the band bus while bandmates hit him. in convicted the maximum anyone could face would be six years in prison. again, the question is why not murder or manslaughter charges? one answer says state prosecutors is that it would be tough getting convictions with the evidence that they have. the testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder in that it does not contain the elements of murder
while bandmates hit him. today florida prosecutors charged 11 alleged participants with what s called felony hazing. they charged two others with misdemeanors. if convicted, the maximum anyone could face for beating someone to death would be six years in prison. again, the question is why not murder or manslaughter charges? one answer, say prosecutors, is that it would be tough getting convictions with the evidence that they have. the testimony obtained to date does not support a charge of murder in that it does not contain the elements of murder. we can prove participation in hazing and a death. we do not have a blow or a shot or a knife thrust that killed mr. champion. it is an aggregation of things which exactly fit the florida statute as written by the legislature. well, that statute was written seven years ago with the best intentions to hold people accountable for hazing deaths. you have to wonder, though, does the very fact that it s on the books allow some people
number two, the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. $1.3 trillion at this moment. a distant third, the president s stimulus plan, $831 billion. never thought $831 billion would look cheap. well, here s another powerful number. right now this country is paying $224 billion a year in interest on our debt and that number is mushrooming. it becomes an exponential problem. by 2020 we will be paying $544 billion in interest alone. if you want to see something really scary, let s compare that $544 billion to medicare. by 2020 in the year we re paying $544 billion in interest, medicare will cost a mere $279 billion. we ll be paying almost double that just in interest on our debt. now, you may say that s clearly foul and bad and terrible things, but some people believe that spending more is the best way to get this country growing again, to grow out of our problem. paul krugman said the stimulus plan was not big enough. he wants here $800 billion on top of what we already spent