January 31, 2000 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
January 31, 2000 -The morning after – The St. Louis Rams held off the Tennessee Titans last minute play to preserve their 23-16 lead and to take Super Bowl 34. It was the first Super Bowl victory for St. Louis. By all accounts, it was an amazing game and hailed by many as one of the best Super Bowls ever.
Meanwhile, the weather was busy turning the East Coast into a freezer as hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. The same storm earlier had dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of Mississippi and turned Atlanta streets into icy toboggan chutes.
Jury selection was getting underway in Albany New York for the trial of four police officers charged in the shooting death of an unarmed man they thought was a rape suspect. Hundreds of protestors led by Reverend Al Sharpton assembled outside the courthouse where the trial in the shooting death of Amadou Diallo was scheduled to begin. Diallo was killed by four New York City police officers, shooting him some 41 times. The case was moved to Albany from the Bronx to assure the Officers got a fair trial. Prosecutors and Sharpton contended the killing was unjustified, but Defense countered by saying the officers feared for their lives as they tried to question Diallo over a series of alleged rapes.
Jury selection was also getting underway in Cleveland for the trial of Sam Reese Shepherd, grandson of Dr. Sam Shepherd, the doctor accused of murdering his wife. The young Shepherd was bringing about a wrongful imprisonment suit and trying to clear Dr. Shepherds name. Shepherd was convicted in 1954 of murdering his wife in her bedroom; a case that inspired the legendary 60s TV series, The Fugitive.
And the Circus was in New Hampshire this day as the first-in-the-nation primary for the 2000 Presidential Election as voters were getting ready to head to the polls the following day to choose a candidate. Many undecided voters, this day before the election, so campaigning and arm-twisting was on full blast.
And that’s a small slice of what happened on this last day of January 2000 as presented by The CBS World News Roundup.
