newsroom" begins right now. this is las vegas, nevada. this is the site of the first democratic debate. the very first time all five candidates will be on the same stage at the same time to face off on the issues. how are they similar? how are they different? it all happens here tuesday night. i'm john berman out in front of the wynn las vegas. just two days from now this face-off. the first time we've seen them debate in this election cycle. a crucial moment. just a short tyime ago, we unviled the lectern set up on stage. hillary clinton will be center stage. so her right, vermont senator bernie sanders who is leading in the key state of new hampshire. on her left, former governor martin o'malley, a lot at stake for him. jim webb and lincoln chafee,

they will book end the stage. there's a brand-new poll out today which does show hillary clinton out on top 19 points ahead of bernie sanders right there. if vice president joe biden enters the race, he would be in third place. the other candidates far, far behind. the biden candidacy is still an if as we sit here this afternoon. no word out of delaware yet. that is where joe biden has been gathered at his house with family, with friends potentially, with advisers talking about a potential run. we sim ply do not know what he has decided or if he has decided yet. but back here in las vegas, the preparations are being made inside the debate hall either way. jim acosta is in the wynn las vegas right now where you can see the beautiful room, the beautiful setup. all cnn staff in there working to get it ready.

>> you can see it unfolding behind me right now. our cnn team is hard at work setting the stage for tuesday night's debate, the first democratic debate of this presidential season. there's the lecterns up on stage right now. the one in the middle, that will be for former secretary of state hillary clinton who is the obvious democratic front-runner but to her right bernie sanders. he will be on stage. that will be one of the big flash points that everybody will be watching tuesday night. bernie sanders, he's been filling stadiums and arenas and auditoriums. he had 9,000 people in colorado over the weekend. he's really taken this democratic field by storm and surprised a lot of people by capturing the imagination of a lot of people in the progressive wing of the democratic party. but just to show you more of what's happening in this room, behind me is a giant screen where cnn's don lemon will be helping co-host the festivities tuesday night. he's going to be taking questions from facebook users who will be participating in the debate. then up on stage behind me

there's more of what you could see in terms of our cnn host anderson cooper. he'll be behind that lectern right there, then cnn's dana bash and juan carlos lopez will join in with other questions. you mentioned it, the one person who might have the most at stake on tuesday night is the former maryland governor martin o'malley. he's really struggled to rise in the polls. he hasn't gained much traction in this race but he's a candidate that people thought would do better at this stage of the campaign. and he said earlier on "state of the union" what he has to do on tuesday night. >> 15 years of executive experience which i alone will have on that stage of actually accomplishing progressive things. it's not about the words, it's about the actions, things we did in maryland to pull together, new consensus, to pass a living wage, to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation, to pass the

dream act and marriage equality. >> the potential flash points on tuesday night, vermont senator bernie sanders has been talking in recent days about his opposition to the iraq war back in 2002 noting that hillary clinton was in favor of the iraq war, echoes of that battle royale between barack obama and hillary clinton back in 2008 and also that transpacific trade deal, john. that's also a major flash point, hillary clinton used to be in favor of it, now she's against it. bernie sanders saying he's against it. those are two issues to watch. the x factor on tuesday night is vice president joe biden. he's in delaware trying to decide whether or not he wants to run for president. a lot of tea leaves that perhaps he might jump in. the rules are written as such he can basically show up here in las vegas almost at the last minute, perhaps not the last minute but virtually the last minute and join this debate. and i think i saw lurking off stage, john, a lectern.

doesn't have joe biden's name on it but there's an extra waiting in the wing just in case. that will be very interesting if perhaps a sixth lectern is moved up on stage tuesday night. it will make for fascinating political television, john. >> i am sure they will have room for him if he decides to come here by tuesday night. jim acosta, thank you so much. the candidates looking for ways to differentiate themselves from each other right now. one issue that will come up -- gun control. gun violence sadly is an issue very much front and center in the nation right now. one candidate who has a more complicated path than some would imagine on the issue, senator bernie sanders. he says if elected he would want to strengthen and expand an instant check program. >> we keep shouting at each other, for 20 years and ain't going nowhere and children on campuses and children in schools are being slaughtered.

what i think there needs to be is a dialogue. i believe what i would call commonsense gun reform plus a revolution in mental health making sure that the people having a nervous breakdown or are suicidal or homicidal, they get the care they need when they need it, i think there are vast majority of the american people can support an agenda composed of those features. >> bernie sanders is from vermont, a state where you have a lot of gun owners, a lot of hunters there. he does have a varied record on gun control legislation. he's had votes to ban assault weapons. he's also voted against that. he voted to close the so-called gun show loophole. he opposed a five-day waiting period for gun purchases. he voted against the brady bill in the '90s which did mandate federal background checks. how will this play into the democratic debate, the democratic primaries? i want to bring in david shalian

and nia malik ka henderson. you talk about gun control. typically among democrats there's a lot of agreement, except for some hunting states. vermont is one of those hunting states. you don't get much more liberal on many issues than bernie sanders except for gun control. >> people in vermont in many ways credit bernie sanders with sort of putting him on the path to where he is now. he's always been against a waiting period, a federal waiting period for gun purchases. he feels like it's been up to the states. what you've seen from hillary clinton is really an attempt to highlight this issue. she's come out for tougher sort of closing the gun show loophole. obama has said that he's going to consider that even though he put it aside in 2013. this is very much an issue she wants to highlight. she knows it's bernie sanders' weakness. that's why you've heard from him

in these recent speeches talking about gun control. >> how much, how far and how much do voters care about it? terms of the differentiation you might see from hillary clinton? >> the issues are going to be narrower where they differentiate. such as for example libt from gun manufacturers, that's something that bernie sanders throughout much of this campaign has defended his position that gun manufacturers need not be liable. that's like saying if someone uses a hammer, the person that uses the hammer to hit that nail is responsible. however, this morning on "meet the press" he all of a sudden said, oh, maybe we should take a look at that. bernie sanders, his whole brand is consistency even when not in step with the party like this issue on guns. yet this morning before this debate where he knows hillary clinton's going to want to draw a contest, maybe we should be hooking at that, too. >> how much does hillary clinton want to be talking about bernie sanders?

does she want to be on the stage and highlight his record or veer the conversation to what she wants to do. >> i think a little bit of both. she wants to come across as the establishment candidate and in some ways the moderate. she thinks that bernie sanders, the socialism tag doesn't work for him. she thinks that she's nor of a pragmatist. the practical democrat that can actually govern and get things done. she's never going to go on the attack against him because they know it doesn't work for her, it doesn't work for her when she was up against obama. >> she can't afford to offend his supporters. that's the key. hillary clinton won't win by destroying bernie sanders. that's not her battle. >> let's talk about the podium that's backstage, the lack tern, the just add water lectern that if joe biden wants to show up here, he can use here. he's meeting with his family this weekend. they're having this discussion. i won't ask you, david, whether

he'll get in or get out, because we don't know. do you know if there's a decision announced or leaked or discovered by tuesday night? >> i'd be surprised. mostly because, "a," his meetings this week have been with the family. that is very difficult to leak. what happens in that very close-knit family conversation i don't think gets leaked. i don't think he wants -- he's not participating in this debate. i don't think if he decides to get in, he wants to announce and then not be here. i think he'd rather sort of step on the debate after the fact and say, we've got a whole new chapter now of this race. you disagree. >> i don't know. i think if he were to leak it beforehand, he could be this unassailable presence looming over the debate. let me show you the latest polls. hillary clinton out in front of bernie sanders by 19 points nationally. and joe biden is running third right now. he really hasn't changed. his position in the polls despite all this talk about joe biden getting in hasn't changed

in a month. >> which has been somewhat surprising. he's a sitting vice president. his argument, i guess, for running would be that he would be really strong against hillary clinton and could take the wind out of her sales to rescue the democratic party from her but he's only at 16%, and he hasn't really moved. he's gone down but he seems to have a ceiling at 20%. if he gets in, it would probably drop. these are probably the best poll numbers of his life and he's only 16%. >> great to have you here with us. we'll have you here all week leading up to the debate. the very first presidential debate. it is here on cnn. 8:30 p.m. eastern time. a lot of other news today.

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a "washington post" journalist imprisoned in iran

has been sentenced. the islamic society of north america reports that a judiciary spokesman told them a verdict had been handed down against "the washington post" jason rezaian who remains in prison despite an international outcry for his release. cnn investigative correspondent chris prince joins me with the latest. what more are we learning? we all want to know what's the verdict here. >> that's the big question, martin. what we know is that there isn't much there there. he didn't release a statement. they didn't tell us what the verdict was. and we don't even know what this sentence was. now, we know rezaian was the post-tehran bureau chief. he was detained in july of 2014. he was held there for months without being charged and he was eventually charged with these espionage charges. he's been detained longer than any journal nis the country's history. he's been there longer than any

of the hostages in the iran hostage crisis. now, we do know a state department spokesman said officials there have seen news reports about the verdict, but they haven't received any official confirmation or details themselves. so not even the state department has any idea what he's been sentenced to. in a statement they said, quote, we're monitoring the situation closely, and we continue to call for all charges against jason to be dropped and for him to be immediately released. now, jason's brother put out a statement where he said jason was just doing his job. he was doing -- he was reporting. he did nothing wrong. there's no proof as to what has happened here. and he talked to cnn just recently. let's listen to what he had to say. >> jason's innocent. he hasn't done anything, hasn't been confirmed even in iran. i don't know why the united states would have to do anything for them to do the right thing.

that being said, i don't have an opinion about the legal status or how that would be done. i just want my brother home. i know the other families want their families home. this is a situation that's been horrible for all of us. >> so there are a total of three americans being held in iran. and secretary of state john kerry has been talking with officials in that country about a possible prisoner swap. so martin, lot a lot to know other than he has been sentenced. we don't know whether or not he's even gotten the verdict or whether his lawyer has to be able to appeal it so there's a lot of things that we need to continue to monitor here over the last few days but certainly people with "the washington post" and his family hope this will bhe sorted out soon. >> let's continue this discussion on the sentencing issue and bring in brian stealther. you had the opportunity to speak to the editor of "the washington post." what do they say about this and the way it's been dragged out?

>> absolutely. we're talking 15 months now, longer than the iranian hostage crisis. we've seen some politicians even go so far as to call jason a hostage. "the washington post" has not gone that far. this morning, the foreign editor calling this entire treatment of jason a sham. he also said that he gets the sense that jason is less of a prisoner, more of a bargaining chip by the iranian government. here's what he said about the importance of keeping the story in the public sphere. >> i think it's important that this case remain very much in the public sphere. we believe it's important that the president, the secretary of state and others repeat and put in the public sphere the fact that jason has been held unconscionable long, longer, as you said in your introduction, than the u.s. hostages were held during the hostage crisis of

1979. >> the "post" has been trying to cover this story and they would like to be able to go visit jason in jail but all those requests by "the washington post" to be in the country have been denied. in addition to the personal toll this has taken on jason and his family, we should also mention this has become a symbol of the dangers that journalists face all around the world in countries all around the world where they're trying to report on governments that are repressive, governments that are hostile toward journalists. unfortunately, jason now a symbol of that. and we see the # free jason thankfully trending today. >> brian stelter thank you very much for that. pressure building for this man to run for speaker of the house. but why is paul ryan saying no? our political panel will weigh in next.

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pressure's still on paul ryan to run for house speaker. he said today his answer is still no. he's heard just about every pitch to take the speaker's job. most of the gop members say that they need him to resurrect the party that's in shambles. but that hasn't deterred congressman jason chaffetz of utah who said he's still in the race to replace john boehner. >> you may be a fresh face, but

do you really think you can bridge this enormous difb i'd? >> well, somebody's got to do it. i would hope that paul ryan would do it. he's said repeatedly that he won't. i do think there are people that are better qualified, but i do think i bridge that gap. that's the case i'm making. if there's somebody better who can unite us, i'll support them. but you're either part of the solution or part of the problem. i right or wrong have thrown myself in there and said, hey, i think i can do this. >> he's right, somebody does have to do it. with me now adam goodman in tampa, florida. we should give you full disclosure here. you're a member of florida congressman daniel webster's inner circle and you work for him. and he too is running for speaker. ryan says it's still no from him, so does that mean that chaffetz and your man, mr. webster, have a good shot? >> possibly but you know, first we have to consider that the packers apparently won that

football game that ryan attended to. so maybe ryan will reconsider exactly how he feels about life again. what really happened last week was a reflection that i think americans want not just a change in name for speaker. they want a fundamental change in the way congress does business. they want things to happen again, they want things to get done again. it's less than a struggle over ideology than it is to try to find an answer to making that institution work. and what harry truman, 67 years ago referred to then and it would be accurate now, the do-nothing congress. there are a lot of reasons. we have to, as republican, deal with the president of the opposite party who seems to stymie congress at every turn. but the fact remains we are not where we need to be in getting things done out of that institution. i think this could give us a shot at breaking new ground. >> so give me the 15-second pitch for mr. webster here. besides just what you've outlined. >> bottom line is dan's been there before.

he did the very same thing in the florida house of representatives as speaker of the house. it was a time when everyone was kind of down on the institution, things weren't getting done. he passed major reforms. everyone was at the table. one of the most productive periods in modern-day history. so he understands on the process itself how to actually reform things to make everyone feel empowered in the institution and actually things started to move in florida. i think he could do the same thing in washington, d.c. >> with no disrespect to the congressman, but if paul ryan may have a change of heart thanks to the outcome of that game, doesn't that completely wipe him, meaning mr. webster, out of any contention or reality? >> that's something that's a great question. that's something for the members of the house of representatives to debate and obviously come to a resolution on. i do think it's very important that we do the long game here and not just say, well, if we elect this person over that person, ryan over a webster or a

webster over a gowdy, that we've solved a problem. we need to fundamentally change our approach and, yes, if ryan gets in, i think he's going to be a very strong play. but if he does not, i think this party really actually has a chance to turn the harry truman adage around to a get it done congress. >> some have suggested -- we only have 30 seconds left so i apologize for that -- but this is really to take power away e from the speaker's position, that they can't be there the way they have in the past. >> the speaker should be there for the thought thinkers in congress. paul ryan has been there on financial markets, gowdy on oversight. you go down the list. the role of speaker doesn't have to be the titular leader of congress as opposed to the person who facilitates the talents that are already there to actually get things done. a different kind of speaker. >> that may very much become the

crux of the entire debate or standoff, depending on how things go. adam goodman, thank you for helping us in the conversation of florida. >> thank you. when it comes to being honest or trustworthy, polls show hillary clinton might have trouble with voters. how much this could hurt her. and how big of a part the benghazi issue plays in that.

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las vegas, nevada, where so many dreams are made, but so many fortunes lost. will that happen on the cnn debate stage, the very first democratic debate of this election cycle. five candidates take the stage tuesday night right here on cnn. one new development today that could play on that stage, new

allegations about the house select committee on benghazi. a former republican investigator is accusing the panel of targeting hillary clinton. this is what major bradley podliska said in an exclusive interview with cnn's jake tapper. >> what do you say to any viewers out there who thing that you might have an ax to grind but you're only talking because you were fired? >> as i said earlier, i have a conscience. there's wrongdoing here, and i think it needs to stop. and i do not want the investigation to end. i want the investigation to be are focused back to its original purpose. the victims' families are owed the truth. hillary clinton has a lot of explaining to do. we, however, do not need to shift resources to hyperfocus on hillary clinton. we didn't need to de-emphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals. >> so the chairman of the benghazi committee, trey gowdy, responded with a statement. he said, one month ago this staffer had a chance to bare his

soul and raise his claim this committee was focused on hillary clinton in a legal document, not an interview, and he did not do it, nor did he mention secretary clinton at any time during his counseling for deficient performance when he was terminated or via his first lawyer who withdrew from representing him. so that is the side from the benghazi committee itself. joining me to talk about what this might mean in the first democratic debate, patty solis doyle, van jones. and so patty, clearly the clinton campaign and what you're hearing from democratic officials, some of it is i told you so. this just goes to show. kevin mccarthy two weeks ago said, we have political gains against hillary clinton. now we have a republican investigator inside this committee saying it was targeting hillary clinton. >> right. >> is this just what you've been saying all along? >> it is. it's not clear that this -- nowr

that this is a political witch hunt. what the republican major in the air force has done is put the onus on trey gowdy when hillary clinton testifies. arguably before this came about, before kevin mccarthy's remarks and before this soldier's petition, the onus was on hillary clinton to answer these questions transparentally, and she will still do that. but now the onus is on trey gowdy. he needs to remain credibility here because he's lost it. >> there are people for whom this was not political. there are people touched directly by what happened in benghazi. last hour here on cnn, martin savidge spoke to patricia smith, the mother of sean smith who was killed in benghazi. one of the four people to die. she still thinks hillary clinton has questions she sneed needs t answer. >> because she's not answering

anything. if she would have opened up her e-mail thing so we can find out what she said at that time. i understand she was talking to obama while this was going on. i want to know was she talking to obama. i want to hear from her lips what she said. >> so van, is just bashing the committee a good strategy for hillary clinton or does she still need to go to that committee and testify on october 22nd just like these promised all along? >> she needs to do and she's going to do that. you hear that mother's voice, and it just breaks your heart. you can imagine, you know, how frustrating it must be not to be able to know. but the reality is there have been seven investigations so far. we have as much information about this horrible, horrible accident -- incident as we have about pretty much anything. and she's still cooperating. i think it's horrible to imagine the pain of that mother being exploited by political operatives. you have people like elijah

cummings, who is a strong democrat. he joined the committee in good faith. he's now saying that he feels that this committee is -- >> trey gowdy, in his defense, says he's not politicizing anything. trey gowdy says he's just investigating and he doesn't want to exploit this mother's pain. he just wants answers. that's his side of it. >> the political implications or the political sort of fallout that already does exist. because hillary clinton, from the minute she got into this race has had to answer questions about benghazi b the e-mails, a lot of which have come to light because of the benghazi investigation. i want to show you the toll this has perhaps taken on her, some of her poll numbers. the issue is she honest and trustworthy. if you look at the nation overall, registered voters, look at this. hillary clinton 35%. just 35% say she's honest and trustworthy. 61% say no. that's among registered voters. among democrats, 61% say she is honest and trustworthy.

30% say no. you support joe biden. is this one of the reasons? >> i think that most millennial women right now are asking themselves the same question. she's not polling well with millennial women. i'm a millennial woman. she does represent the '90s. it's one scandal after another. whether these scandals are true is another question. a problem of having a candidate who has been under scrutiny who has so many obstacles. before she runs is doing opposition research on her. has been doing opposition research on her for ten years, it will be a fight. joe biden is a good candidate for us to unify, come together, you know, yes, he has a record but he's been able to work with the other side. to be fair here, let's look at this. this is the first time in history that you've had two front-runner, donald trump and hillary clinton come in as the least trustworthy candidates. that's insane. you see the republican party

saying we don't want that in our candidate, they're trying to work with donald trump and work with other candidates, pushing more trustworthy candidates to be their front-runner. we're a party who -- >> how do you answer it, though, if she's the least trustworthy, although the democrat numbers, 68% say she's perfectly trustworthy. 30% say no. how do you square that with the fact that she's leading by a fair amount, 19 points. and the guy you support, joe biden, all the way back in third. >> well, he's not running. let's start with that. he hasn't been campaigning. the issue here -- i'm a supporter of hillary. i like hillary. she's a groat role model. i just chose joe biden because i think he's the most viable candidate at this point. the issue for hillary is when she starts to lose the nonwhite voters. they'll deliver her the democratic primary. that's indisputable. when she starts to lose the nonwhite voter, then we have to say are those untrustworthy

numbers affecting her key core base. >> i want to ask you about debate prep for hillary clinton. because you've been in the room when she's prepared for democratic primary debates. this one is different. eight years ago she had barack obama, john edwards. >> joe biden. >> a different caliber of candidate on stage. here she has bernie sanders and martin o'malley, barely registering in the polls and lincoln chafee not registering in the polls. does she have to be careful about diminishing their importance on the stage. and how does she do that? >> hillary clinton is a strong debater. she's wildly knowledgeable. at heart she's a policy wonk. so she knows she's issues, backwards, forwards, sideways. she also the front-runner. and when you're the front-runner, you have a big target on your back. bernie sanders said he won't go

after her personally but he'll contrast with her on the issue. but when it comes to lincoln chafee and jim webb and martin o'malley, they need to break out of their 1%. the best way, in my opinion, if i were advising martin o'malley, to go after hillary clinton with all these got. that's the way he'll make noise. hillary clinton has to be prepared for that. she needs to answer all those attacks but without apparent condescending. >> thanks so much for being with us. again, that debate, we'll see how hillary clinton does on that stage with bernie sanders and the three others tuesday night right here at cnn, 8:30 p.m. eastern time. again, this is the first and clearly the most important democratic debate happening just two days from now. we'll have much more from las vegas at the top of the next hour. first, though, martin savidge will be back from atlanta with more news.

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cnn's senior international correspondent arwa damon is live there for us. i'm wondering what really led to those clashes and have they died down now? >> they have died down. look, the police here are notoriously heavy handed. almost every single demonstration will end up getting tear gassed or water cannoned except when it happened under these circumstances it doesn't bode well for the already pre-existing tensions here. it was the leader of the pro-kurdish hdp party as well as other members of the parliament that were trying to access the scene of the attack from one of the routes that leads there to lay down red flowers where they scuffled with police and they eventually were led through after a little bit of tear gas was fired, but again, given the circumstances and everything that the country has been through, it really is not

helping out the government in terms of the government's argument that people should be standing together and that they should stay away from inflammatory actions and rhetoric. the government is saying that this was an attack on the state but the pro-kurdish hdp leadership was saying that the state was responsible for these attacks, at the very least for failing to protect the population. there are absolutely heartbreaking scenes today as families and loved ones collected the bodies of those who were then taken on to their final resting place. the entire nation is really struggling trying to come to terms with the violence, with the emotional toll and, of course, of all the concerns that the future's going to hold both in terms of security, of stability of turkey as well. this was the deadliest attack in this country's modern history. >> the fact that it was a demonstration for peace to be torn apart by such violence is horrific to contemplate. our arwa damon, thank you.

today, two experts say that the police shooting of a 12-year-old boy in cleveland was reasonable. next, a closer look at the controversial report on the death of tamir rice and what investigators are saying about it. ♪ the way i see it, you have two choices; the easy way or the hard way. you could choose a card that limits where you earn bonus cash back. or, you could make things easier on yourself. that's right, the quicksilver card from capital one. with quicksilver you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. so, let's try this again. what's in your wallet?

two newly released reports saying the police shooting death

of tamir rice, he was 12 years old, was, quote, reasonable. those reports as well as a third one by the ohio highway patrol were posted on the prosecutor's website saturday night. a cleveland police officer shot rice last november saying that he was holding a pellet gun which looked like a handgun. cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson joins me now from new york. let me read you a bit from one of the reports to get your reaction to it. this senior district attorney in denver says, quote, officer loehmann is believed that rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat. do you buy that? >> well, what i think, martin, is that it's a jury question. and good afternoon, by the way. if just stepping back a little bit. a few thins have to be kept in perspective. number one the ultimate decision

will be made bay grand jury. understand and remember that a grand jury doesn't determine the ultimate issue of guilt. they're merely there to assess whether there's reasonable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that, in fact, officer loehmann committed it. the other thing is a grand jury doesn't have to be unanimous and with a standard that low it will go before the grand jury and they'll assess that really ultimate conclusion, was it reasonable. the second thing to remember is that an expert opinion or any opinion can differ and vary. and being in this business, i can tell you that you can get an expert to basically say -- and you know not really pooh-poohing it at all but you can get an expert to say whatever it is you need them or want them to say. that's not a matter of being cynical. that's a matter of having people that have varying perspectives and opinion. these happen to say this. the third factor is if you look at it and it will ultimately come out if it goes to trial is the people that wrote the reports. very closely tied with law

enforcement. a chief deputy u.s. attorney working with law enforcement all your life and a former fbi specialist and agent working with law enforcement. i only say that to say that all of us have perspectives and sometimes our perspectives are driven by the nature and the quality of the work that we do every day. just putting it all in perspective, i think that, again, ultimately a grand jury will determine not these particular experts who rendered an opinion. >> and by the way, what you said, which is that these are law enforcement people that you might be able to get to say what law enforcement wants, the family clearly agrees. they find that this report is reprehensible. they just say that it really needs to be decided by a grand jury. so my question is, if you got these sort of two, quote, unquote, experts, one former fbi, that has to weigh pretty heavily on a grand jury because this is now saying, it's reasonable. >> there's a couple of concerns, martin, about that, and i think you're right, it will. because grand jury number one is largely driven and controlled by

a prosecutor. you've heard the expression over and over that a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. that's largely driven by the notion that the grand jury is really controlled and, yeah, the judge, the jury and the executioner when you're the prosecutor in the particular case. so you can direct and guide a grand jury to do essentially whatever it is you want the grand jury to do. however, i think the grand jurors certainly will have knowledge enough to be asking questions. what is absent in those reportses is the issue of, if you want to talk about reasonableness, you have to talk about the nature of the training that the officers had and policies and procedures and whether those violated. if the grand jurors ask those questions other evidence will come out that could contradict information in the reports and ultimately perhaps up to a jury to decide if they do indeed indict. >> we haven't heard anything about a grand jury. we're still waiting on that. joey jackson, thank you very much. >> a pleasure. >> coming up, we're back live in las vegas, two days ahead of the democratic presidential debate.

poppy harlow and john berman have more right after this. now that we've announced the top ten cnn heroes of 2015, i want to show you how you can decide who should be hero of the year and get $100,000 for their cause. go to heroes.com. each one will be honored at cnn heroes an all-star tribute this december. but only one will be named hero of the year. that's where you come in with your votes. down here you'll see photos of each top ten hero which linked to a page where you can watch videos and learn more about their important work. when you're ready click vote over here and a new page comes up. select the person who inspires you the most. i'm going to select somebody randomly, jim withers over here, again just as an example. any of the ten nominees would be worthy and that's entirely up to you. once you select your favorite hero, his or her photo will show up down here in a separate box

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top of the hour, i'm poppy harlow in new york. john berman clearly got the better assignment this week. >> that's right. i'm john berman in las vegas. just off the strip outside the wynn las vegas. inside that hotel behind me is first head-to-head matchups for the democrats running for president just two days from now.