Latest / Apple News Today / A landmark conviction for a school shooter’s mother

Transcript

A landmark conviction for a school shooter’s mother · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 0:04
  Yasmeen Khan, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, February 7th.
• 0:07
  I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today."
• 0:12
  Coming up, the conviction of a school shooter's parent
• 0:15
  could influence future prosecutions,
• 0:18
  the unusual and high-stakes election in Pakistan
• 0:21
  and why it matters that the moon is shrinking.
• 0:25
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:28
  But first, let's take a quick look at some other big stories in the news.
• 0:33
  In Congress, Republicans failed to impeach
• 0:36
  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
• 0:39
  over immigration policy.
• 0:41
  House Speaker Mike Johnson presided over the surprise loss for his party.
• 0:44
  [START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 0:45
  Mike Johnson: The yeas are 214 and the nays are 216. The resolution is not adopted.
• 0:50
  [CHEERING]
• 0:52
  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 0:53
  Khan, Narrating: A few Republicans crossed over to vote with Democrats.
• 0:56
  With the numbers so tight, sick lawmakers were dragged in to vote.
• 1:00
  Republican Hal Rogers appeared with a giant neck brace, after a car accident.
• 1:05
  And at the last minute, Democratic Congressman Al Green
• 1:08
  arrived straight from the hospital.
• 1:10
  He wasn't expected on the floor because he was recovering from surgery.
• 1:14
  Shoeless and using a wheelchair, Green's vote was the nail in the coffin.
• 1:20
  A separate vote on a standalone aid package for Israel
• 1:23
  also failed in the House.
• 1:25
  Opponents say it was an attempt to distract from Republican squabbles
• 1:29
  over a broader bill that would also provide money
• 1:31
  for border security and Ukraine.
• 1:35
  In Israel, officials say they've told the families
• 1:38
  of 31 hostages held in Gaza that their relatives are presumed dead.
• 1:43
  This comes as mediators, including the U.S.,
• 1:46
  are reviewing Hamas's response to a ceasefire proposal
• 1:49
  that would involve releasing Israeli hostages
• 1:51
  and Palestinian prisoners.
• 1:53
  Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in the region meeting with allies.
• 1:58
  [START AL JAZEERA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:58
  Antony Blinken: There's still a lot of work to be done but we continue to believe
• 2:02
  that an agreement is possible, and indeed essential.
• 2:05
  [END AL JAZEERA ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:06
  Khan, Narrating: This comes as Israel says it's moving ground troops to Rafah,
• 2:10
  the city in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border.
• 2:13
  It's been one of the last places civilians could escape Israeli attacks,
• 2:17
  with more than a million people sheltering there.
• 2:21
  Now to the U.S. presidential race,
• 2:23
  where President Biden won the Nevada primary, as expected.
• 2:27
  Nikki Haley lost in a race where former president Donald Trump was not
• 2:31
  on the ballot.
• 2:32
  Twice as many voters chose the option "none of these candidates" over Haley.
• 2:38
  The loss is technically meaningless, but still a psychological blow
• 2:41
  to her campaign.
• 2:43
  As we've reported on the show, Trump is expected to win all
• 2:46
  of the Nevada's delegates in a separate caucus on Thursday.
• 2:49
  Haley's not competing in that contest.
• 2:53
  Also, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution
• 2:58
  on charges of plotting to overturn the election.
• 3:01
  The ruling is a setback for Trump's defense
• 3:03
  in the federal election interference case.
• 3:06
  [RHYTHMIC MUSIC]
• 3:06
  The question over immunity could wind up in the Supreme Court.
• 3:18
  After eleven hours of deliberation, a Michigan jury found Jennifer Crumbley
• 3:23
  guilty of involuntary manslaughter
• 3:25
  for a mass shooting committed by her teenage son.
• 3:28
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 3:28
  It's a landmark case, the first where a school shooter's parent
• 3:32
  has been found guilty of charges this serious.
• 3:34
  Her son Ethan killed four classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.
• 3:40
  He is serving a life sentence.
• 3:42
  Jennifer Crumbley faces up to 60 years in prison.
• 3:46
  The prosecution argued that Crumbley knew about her son's declining mental health
• 3:50
  and should've gotten him support.
• 3:52
  The prosecution pointed to text messages where her son describes seeing a demon,
• 3:57
  a homework assignment where he wrote the phrase "blood everywhere"
• 4:01
  and a journal entry in which he said he wanted to see a therapist
• 4:04
  but his parents wouldn't help.
• 4:06
  Prosecutors say that Crumbley and her husband still bought
• 4:09
  their son a gun, failed to properly store it
• 4:12
  and failed to alert school officials about it.
• 4:15
  New York Law School Professor Kirk Burkhalter told "CBS"
• 4:19
  that he's not surprised by the verdict.
• 4:21
  [START CBS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:22
  Kirk Burkhalter: If you think about the standard, the criminal negligence standard,
• 4:24
  it is whether a reasonable person under these circumstances
• 4:29
  could have foreseen the harm.
• 4:31
  And when you take the totality of the circumstances here,
• 4:35
  purchasing the gun for the shooter, the drawings,
• 4:38
  and the history of mental health, this kid was a guided missile.
• 4:42
  And that guided missile was aimed at this school.
• 4:44
  [END CBS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:45
  Khan, Narrating: Parents of the victims were in the courtroom throughout the trial,
• 4:48
  including Craig Shilling, whose son Justin was killed.
• 4:52
  He said things might have been different if the Crumbley parents had taken action.
• 4:56
  [START THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:56
  Craig Shilling: Accountability on this level years ago could have stopped it.
• 5:01
  Y'know, it could have stopped what happened in Oxford, that's for sure.
• 5:04
  [END THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 5:05
  Khan, Narrating: Campaigners against gun violence say the verdict sets an important precedent
• 5:09
  about how parents are responsible for keeping guns out of children's hands.
• 5:13
  And legal experts say it could lead to more prosecutors going after parents
• 5:17
  of school shooters.
• 5:19
  Jennifer Crumbley's defense tried to argue that she didn't realize
• 5:22
  how bad her son's mental health was.
• 5:24
  And they tried to shift blame to the father, James Crumbley.
• 5:28
  He now faces the same charges, in a trial starting next month.
• 5:32
  [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
• 5:42
  Pakistan is holding nationwide elections tomorrow,
• 5:45
  at a time when voters are concerned about a longstanding economic crisis
• 5:49
  and the influence of the military.
• 5:51
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 5:52
  "Wall Street Journal" reporter Saeed Shah has called
• 5:54
  this moment leading up to the election: a "roller coaster ride."
• 5:58
  Saeed Shah: I think it is extreme, even by Pakistani standards.
• 6:02
  People are saying that this is the most controversial election
• 6:07
  since the 1970s.
• 6:10
  Khan, Narrating: To understand why it's so controversial,
• 6:12
  you have to look at some of the key players.
• 6:15
  There's the recently ousted, but still popular,
• 6:18
  former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
• 6:20
  He is in prison, convicted of corruption and leaking state secrets.
• 6:25
  He says the charges are political.
• 6:27
  Khan, who was once the country's most famous cricket player,
• 6:30
  is not on the ballot, but many still support his party.
• 6:34
  Meanwhile, another ousted and previously jailed prime minister,
• 6:38
  Nawaz Sharif, is back from exile
• 6:40
  and could very well be prime minister again.
• 6:44
  Then there's the powerful military, which has an outsized influence
• 6:48
  on Pakistani politics.
• 6:49
  Shah: Politics here deeply polarized between essentially those
• 6:54
  who favor Imran Khan and those who are against him.
• 6:57
  And it's hard to see that people will accept
• 7:00
  the result broadly speaking, so it is not at all clear
• 7:05
  that this election is going to lead to some kind of stability following it.
• 7:10
  Khan, Narrating: Shah, who's based in Pakistan, says even campaigning has been different
• 7:14
  this time around. It's been more muted, with fewer rallies.
• 7:18
  There are also fears of violence on election day.
• 7:21
  Today there were two separate bomb blasts at local election offices.
• 7:26
  At least 22 people were killed.
• 7:28
  And in the background of all this, is a dire economic situation.
• 7:33
  Shah says while ordinary voters may not trust the process,
• 7:36
  they still have a hankering for progress.
• 7:39
  Shah: Pakistan has never really found its feet economically.
• 7:42
  It's a country of 240 million people, so it's a big country.
• 7:46
  It has nuclear weapons. It has a huge army.
• 7:50
  But what has been missing really is any sort of economic development.
• 7:55
  And parallel with that is that its political system has not matured.
• 8:00
  Khan, Narrating: In fact, Shah points out that in the country's 76 year history,
• 8:05
  no prime minister has ever served a full term.
• 8:08
  [UPBEAT MUSIC]
• 8:18
  Finally, the moon is shrinking. Albeit, very slowly.
• 8:23
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 8:24
  New research shows that as the core of the moon cools,
• 8:27
  it is ever so gradually shriveling up like a raisin.
• 8:31
  Not by a lot, around 150 feet over a few hundred million years.
• 8:36
  So it's not expected to have a substantial impact
• 8:39
  on tidal cycles on Earth.
• 8:41
  But for astronauts exploring the moon, there are some risks.
• 8:44
  A shrinking moon means more fault lines on the surface,
• 8:48
  which could increase the risk of "moonquakes."
• 8:50
  Overall, scientists say the risk to astronauts
• 8:53
  and robotic landers is relatively low.
• 8:56
  But since the moon has less gravitational pull than Earth,
• 8:59
  moonquakes can feel much more intense than earthquakes,
• 9:02
  and they can be more dangerous.
• 9:04
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 9:05
  So, as lunar exploration continues, NASA and private companies will have
• 9:09
  to consider the possibility of moonquakes more seriously
• 9:12
  as they pick future landing sites,
• 9:14
  and as they build the next generation of lunar technology.
• 9:21
  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
• 9:25
  And if you're already listening in the News app right now,
• 9:28
  we've got a Narrated Article coming up next from "Sports Illustrated."
• 9:31
  It's about Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky.
• 9:35
  In 2013, he beat Roger Federer in one of the biggest upsets
• 9:39
  in Wimbledon history.
• 9:41
  "Sports Illustrated" looks at Stakhovsky's life now,
• 9:44
  after signing up to serve in the military in the fight against Russia.
• 9:48
  If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated
• 9:52
  to find that story.
• 9:53
  Enjoy listening, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
• 9:59
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]