as well who appears to be the third call that could have been associated with the suspects and dan abrams, this is going on now all across -- >> that's what makes me a little nervous about where we are in this investigation. in a perfect world they've got him tied in, basically. they've got this area that they are -- they shall he really is likely to be in. for law enforcement hat's a good cause they're going to fin quickl once they start issuing these broader lookouts doesn't mean that it's notally a bad sign, but it does mean that it's possible that he could be in a far wider area when you talk about the northeast. that could mean a far longer accomplice with the call. >> that's right. or an accomplice which is also a problem in the context of the investigation. they located the cars. >> that's right. >> at this point the civic -- again, we were told he was giving a ride to his soccer buddy and that may have been the primary car he was using before this. >> and we know from the man who had a repair shop in his neighborhood that he came in and asked about a white mercedes on tuesday and

dan abrams, thank you. good luck in your future endeavors. >> nice to be able to step on the set and now i step off. >> all right, dan, thank you so much. >>> to the emotions running high over the fight for gun control that is happening right now on capitol hill. this morning there's disappointment setting in for advocates who feel that there's not being enough done to expand the laws requiring more background checks into the way people buy guns. abc's jeff zeleny has the story. >> the motion is agreed to. >> reporter: after clearing a filibuster hurdle democrats are trying to hold together a fragile bipartisan coalition to keep the gun control debate alive. >> the hard work starts now. >> reporter: the national rifle association, already stunk by the senate vote thursday already doubled its efforts overnight to hold ranks particularly among the 16 republicans who helped defy the party's filibuster threat. >> our loved ones didn't die no no reason. >> reporter: they pledge to stay vigilant pressing their cas

i'm here with dan abrams, and let's talk a little more about the possibility that these men may have been from chechnya. that is an area known to be a hotbed of terrorism. >> and the question always is, how closely allied are the ch h chechen terrorists with al qaeda. they've been long fighting in russia. that's been their battle but the issue is that very often they have been bringing in from the arab peninsula and other places other fighters, have carous moussaoui was a recruiter for them. chechen fighters have long been fighting alongside u.s. forces in 2001 so no question there are questions. the question for law enforcement will be are there specific connections in this case because all i'm talks about is general connections. be careful in talking about specifics. >> united the united states and russia because the chechens have gone after the russian leadership so many times. >> and putin has been saying for years this is a real terrorist problem for the russians and has been so demanding international condemnation more because it's been an ongoing battle where the chechen milit

dan abrams and nancy grace weigh in live in just a moment.owens has the very latest. >> reporter: one of the chairs in this jury box will sit empty this morning. >> juror number 5 has been excused. >> reporter: the judge dismissed juror number 5, one of only a few women on the jury after arias' defense team filed this motion accusing her of misconduct that affected more than one juror. the court will not disclose what the jury did or said but there are still 17 people who could decide arias' fate. >> she had serious concerns. >> reporter: on monday the remaining jurors heard more from alice laviolette. she echoes arias' defense in this case that she was a battered woman who was forced to kill her ex-boyfriend travis alexander. arias never reported any abuse, but her defense expert told the jury opening her diary offers plenty of clues. >> what is the context of the subject matter of this entry? >> a lot of self-blame that she's contemplating suicide. >> reporter: laviolette spent much of tuesday trashing the victim she never met. >> she is ab

>> let's get more from abc legal analyst dan abrams. and former special agent for the fbi brad garrett. we now know that dzhokhar is answering some questions in writing. the fbi wants to know, is anybody else involved? >> right. the real trick with that, george, is figuring out where his mind is. what is his motivation? why does he want to talk to us? is he being truthful or not? getting him over that hump and saying, okay, it's okay to talk to us, it's really your only avenue to a better situation maybe. th cld take a lo period of time. >> and dan, how much longer can this questioning go on without reading the suspect his miranda rights? apparently, it hasn't happened yet. >> they're calling it the public safety exception. unclear how long they're allowed to do it. in past cases, like the underwear bomber, they questioned him for about 50 minutes and a court determined that was okay without a miranda warning. the further the time is away from the incident itself, the more perilous it is constitutionally. at some point, it doesn't matte

we'll talk with dan abrams and nancy grace all live in a moment but first ryan owens with the latestreporter: "snow white and the seven dwarfs." it might be the last thing you would expect to hear about in a brutal murder trial. but this is the jodi arias case. and nothing, it seems, is off limits. prosecutor juan martinez is using the fairy tale to try to discredit the witness. >> you have a bias just by this minor example, don't you? >> no, i do not. >> reporter: alyce laviolette is a domestic violence expert whether snow white showed symptoms of being an abused woman. >> even though you never spoke to anybody involved in the "snow white tale," correct? >> i didn't speak to the snow white or seven dwarfs. >> reporter: laf owe -- laviolette says arias was abused by travis alexander. the man she shot and repeatedly stabbed in june 2008. this is vital to arias. martinez says she is making it up and accuses the expert of trusting of word of an admitted liar along with text e-mails. >> ultimately what you're saying is that you are a human lie detector, right? >> gosh, i didn't think i w

. >>> for more let's bring in dan abrams and, dan, singapore and the u.s.e prime minister will be meeting with obama later today, but that said, how much influence do u.s. officials have in singapore? >> it's not like the singaporen authorities want the fbi there. it's not like they're calling and saying, you know what would be great, to get the fbi's help. it involved diplomacy, getting access to the right people, talking to the right people and now the authorities there are saying, look, we welcome the fbi's help. the question is going to be, is that just lip service or are they actually working with the fbi on this? >> we just heard what shane todd's parents have to say going over specific details saying there was evidence of a struggle, what the singapore police told them doesn't add up to what they saw and they say he was feared he was being pulled into a spy game. how difficult is that to prove. >> very tough. they're concerned about "a," inconsistency about what they've been told but, "b," maybe most importantly they don't buy the suicide note. they

. >>> let's bring this information to dan abrams right now.ontrast, tomorrow's anniversary of columbine killers, the secluded loners, completely isolated from society. >> you hear people after the fact, i can't believe the person did it, i never thought the person wasapable of this. when you're talking of a maz murderer, the level of premeditation, the fact that this guy was incorporated into this school with friends and playing on teams and wasn't reclusive and wasn't quiet, that does defy what you see in almost all of these cases. yes, we talked about this idea that you can kind of live a double life, but that double life in many of these cases involves staying out of people's live, this guy had an acting class. honor students, that's what make this so incredibly unusual. >> thank you, dan abrams. we'll take a quick break and be right back with the coverage of this terror in boston. that's why i like nutella. mom, what's the capital of west virginia? charleston. nutella is a delicious hazelnut spread my whole family loves. mom, have you seen

. >>> for more we on this, bring in "gma's" legal analyst dan abrams. the united states does not have an extradition treaty with cuba. pretty incredible it was resolved between the two governments so quickly. >> remember, none of the alleged kidnappers here have any connections to cuba which would have changed this fundamentally. i think a lot of people say, well, there's no treaty. why would they have cooperated? why not. meaning in the sense there's no reason really that the cubans would want them in the country. there's this sense, oh, there are all these cuban fugitives there, true, there have been some over the years, primarily in the '60s and '70s, but tended to be much more politicized and have a connection to cuba in some way, shape or form. >> like in the elian gonzalez case, both sides, they're recognizing the rights to be returned to their parents. what charges will the parents face? >> elian gonzalez would be difference between the connection to cuba and here they're facing serious kidnapping, a burglary charge, child endangerment. false imp

let's get more on this from our team of analysis from our team, dan abrams, brad garrett and richard clarke. dan, let me begin with you. the question about the questioning of the witness, at least at first he will not be read his miranda rights. >> that's right. you heard pierre talk about this public safety exception. basically the supreme court has recognized that, in some cases, if there's the possibility of an imminent threat that you can ask limited questions without further reading someone their miranda rights and that's what they're saying here, now, down the road, will someone challenge it and say this shouldn't have happened? sure. courts may have to resolve the specifics in this case later. but there is no question that the u.s. supreme court has recognized this limited exception to reading someone their miranda rights. >> even if a suspect has been in custody for a couple of days? >> then you start getting to the questions. right? the supreme court case involving stopping a guy who had an empty holster. where is the gun? it's back there. can that little statement be admitte

i'm here with dan abrams, our "gma" legal analyst. what an extraordinary move right now, the entire town asking everyone in the city of boston to stay iide. can youimagine, american city, now being told that everyone should stay inside. it just shows you how seriously they're taking this. this is not just about a criminal suspect. this is about someone who is a danger to the entire community. and, again, the questions that still need to be answered are so voluminous including are there others out there who he's connected to and i think that's as much of a concern as anything. yes, they want to capture this guy. yes, they want to stop him but they know who he is. it's the unknowns that i think for law enforcement here which are even more frightening. >> to pierre thomas on that. we heard the police commissioner say that they called mayor menino with this request to have everyone stay inside. >> reporter: george, extraordinary situation. they are confirming what we were telling our viewers a little while ago. that they don't yet know wh

. >> dan abrams and pete williams are reading the ruling as we go to them. what do we know? split decision? >> well, it would appear to be, tom. it doesn't appear, as i look through here, to be a 5-4. >> the votes will go to governor bush. >> that was it. george w. bush named president-elect more than a month after election day. the decision ended the recount in florida. it ended talk of hanging chairs. it capped off a recount process in which republican operatives stage protest. after all that, a 5-4 supreme court vote gave us this. >> i do george bush solemnly swear -- >> literally changed the course of history but now sandra day o'connor, one of the five justices who sided with bush, has some big regrets. she says, "maybe the court should have said we're not going to take it. good-bye." she also said, probably the supreme court added to the problem at the end of the day. folks, that is the understatement of the year. joining me now is jeffrey rose, a law professor and legal affairs editor. jeffrey, thank you for coming on the show. >> it's good to be back. >> let me ask y

we don't have him right now so, dan abrams, let me come here to you with this right now. we're seeing this flood of information as we see the helicopters over the streets of boston, a flood of information coming in on these young men. >> yeah, we got to be care phil here because already we're just learning someone created a fake twitter account in his name and so, you know, and is posting things but it is a fake twitter account so got to be careful as to the type of information. the most important information obviously coming from the police scanners, interesting fact coming out about 20 minutes ago that one of the officers saw the suspect outside of the police perimeter wearing a hooded sweatshirt. they then called in the air unit to follow him. again, that doesn't mean that necessarily was the case but that's what was said on the police scanner. >> volatile situation again outside the home of suspect number two. i want to go to byron pitts. what's been happening there, byron? >> reporter: well, george, the police presence here has increased steadily over the past half h

>> let's get more from dan abrams. you have a -- a web of prosecutors, dozens of prosecutors in the area. how can they protect all of them? >> that's why information becomes so important. they need leads. they need to figure out who the targets may be. as you point out, you can give 24-hour surveillance and protection to particular people. if you're protecting the wrong people, it doesn't do any good. this is a case that will be a-1 priority not just in this community and in texas. as you can tell, all the federal authorities are there. why? not because they know the prosecutor and they know the person who was the victim, because this is an attack on the fabric of our legal system. if people start to feel like this is something that will happen regularly, our legal system is in real trouble. and i think that is why they'll move forward to solve the case as quickly as possible and follow up on it. >> police believe the killings are connected and how and how many people are involved is the question. >> the question becom

. >> for more we bring in dan abrams. bizarre. >> i almost have never seen anything quite like this. she was a crucial witness in the case. she was the linchpin of the prosecution's case and yet i don't think this is going to make a difference. >> you don't think there will be another trial. >> no, here's why. because first of all legally, courts look skeptically on recanted testimony. number two, even when they're looking at it, the most important question is do they believe that it's genuine and i think it's very hard to believe this is genuine. when you actually read through what she is saying, it does appear at least to me to be more ranting than recanting. she accuses the judge of misconduct. she accuses the jurors of misconduct. she accuses the prosecutor of misconduct and accuses herself of misconduct in essence saying that all of them made mistakes and if you actually look at what she's saying it does appear to be a bit unhinged. at one point these a saying, well, my daughter came to court with a friend of hers an

"gma" legal analyst, dan abrams. let me begin with you. you look at that closet. nothing moved.ne shape. that comes before the prosecution puts up its last witness today, the medical examiner. they want the jurors to have a very clear image in their head. >> absolutely. and it wasn't just a pristine closet. i'm sure you've met those guys that are neat-nicks. and they have the shoe protectors in all of their shoes and everything is color-coded. that was travis alexander. and jodi arias' story is that she climbed up those shelves, essentially, to reach back in the back, to get out the murder weapon, only she knew about it. that was all debunked. not only did they show photos of this pristine -- and it looked like a california closet ad. also, when the detective put his hand on the shelf, it came down. it cannot hold the weight of the body. and this is what i say. i don't need to be an expert in closets to know, when you bring grandma, when you wheel grandma into the courtroom, you're down at the bottom of the barrel. they're doing anything to get to that jury. >> andhejudge, dan,

. >>> let's bring in "gma" legal analyst, dan abrams for more on this.is first call for a lesser charge, manslaughter by sudd sudden quarrel? >> the prosecutors will say, where's evidence of that? she's saying self-defense. who is saying heat of passion? it is possible that the judge will say that a reasonable jury could conclude that based on the evidence, this is manslaughter. let's be clear, that would be a huge win for jodi arias. if she were to get convicted of manslaughter, it would mean they actually believed a good amount of her story, about why she did this and how she did this, just in terms of her reaction. again, she's claiming self-defense. but to be able to say it was in the heat of passion. >> they would believe she had motivation. but there's no motivation for manslaughter. >> right. that's the thing. when it comes to murder, it would have to be a level of intent. manslaughter could be in the heat of the moment, i just kind of lost it. again, the problem is that no evidence has been presented specifically targeting that. but i wouldn't be