defen sale of her art work. i m not sure what kind of an effect that will have on the jury. exactly, diana alvear, thank you very much. up, in, leaks, lies and secrets amid the a.p. scandal. the author of a new book on government secrecy says what we know isn t even the half of it.
0 jurors are deer sid deciding wh 32-year-old will spend the rest of her life in prison or die. she said i believe death is the ultimate freedom so i d rather have my freedom sooner, as soon as i can get it. travis was our strength, our constant beacon of hope, our motivation. and his presence has been ripped from our lives. joining me now, diana alvear. we saw cheering outside the courtroom. that was the day arias was convicted. will s been a lot of time and space until this date, the penalty phase. what s the latest? thomas, i can tell you that things just got a little bit worse for jodi arias. one of her friends that was set to testify on the stand today about her character has decided not to. we re expected to hear from an ex-boyfriend of hers, who already testified during the trial, darrell breuer. he ll be a character witness. and we made hear from arias. we re told we may hear about her artwork. it s believed she will get the death penalty. after hearing she wanted to di
hoping, the irs scandal would die down this week. why would i hope that? all indications are that the exact opposite will happen. the senate finance committee gets its turn to hold the hearing tomorrow. the bush-appointed former irs chief who was with at the helm when the practice first started. also testifying will be the inspector general behind the audit and the soon to be former aking irs chief. russell ford and steven miller were at the house hearing friday and if tomorrow s hearing was anything like that one, we re not going learn much. our friends at buzzfeed threw together some of the things that miller did not know. here is a sample. so, i don t have i don t have names for you, mr. brady. i don t know whether we knew at that time or not. i did not know the topic. actually, i do not know that. i would have to look back on my notes on that. you have notes on that? why did you say you have notes if you don t think you have notes. sir, please. no, sir, yo
attorneys will emphasize her young age and lack of criminal record. let s get the latest on what s happening because a lot of this is moving right now. nbc s diana alvear is outside the courtroom. reporter: you re right. they adjourned for the day. the short court session was jam-packed. the defense made a motion for a mistrial of the penalty phase after seeing that one of their character beenes had been intimidated to the point where she didn t want to take the stand in defense of jodi arias. that was denied by the judge and then they made a move to withdraw from the case, the defense attorneys and the judge denied that motion and then they said okay. we re not going call any witnesses in the defense portion of the proceeding and then they took a short recess and now they learned the court has adjourned. what does it mean for jodi arias taking the stand in her own defens defense. she would prefer the death penalty over life in prin. there was talk she was going present her
today, thursday, may 16th, 2013. announcer: from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning, welcome to today on a thursday morning, i m savannah guthrie. and i m matt lauer. and we re following this breaking news out of texas this morning. daylight is now revealing the full extent of the damage caused by a string of powerful tornadoes. we re told the hardest hit city granbury is 70 miles west of dallas and rescue crews have worked through the night there going home to home searching for more possible victims. obviously the story is still developing. let me get right to nbc s charles hadlock. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. many residents said they heard the warnings, but never expected a tornado so fast and furious. the houses are no more, they re leveled. a string of tornadoes tore through north texas wednesday night, the hardest hit region, granbury, about 6