Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could speak at his sentencing today. The Confederate flag is disappearing from one business after another. And in a turnabout, the United States may well negotiate with terrorists.
It’s Wednesday, and here are five things to know for your New Day:
BOSTON BOMBER
Day in court: It’s the day of final reckoning for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a day set aside for emotional victim impact statements and stern words from the judge. The outcome of Wednesday morning’s federal sentencing hearing is a foregone conclusion — a jury already sentenced Tsarnaev to death. The only lingering question is whether Tsarnaev might talk. And if he does, what could he possibly say?
CONFEDERATE FLAG
Domino effect: Want a Confederate battle flag? No need to look at Walmart, eBay, Amazon or Sears for one much longer. When South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley called for the flag to go, Boeing, Michelin and BMW got behind her. The Citadel, the state’s iconic military college — whose cadets were credited with firing some of the first shots in the American Civil War at a Union ship — voted yesterday to remove the Confederate Navy Jack out of its chapel.
PRISON BREAK
Foodie favors: Joyce Mitchell gave people baked goods to win favors for prison breakers and convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat, law officials say. One big favor involved food, too: Asking a guard to slip some frozen hamburger meat past a metal detector. One could say that it was high in iron — Mitchell admitted there were hacksaw blades hidden inside it.
TERROR NEGOTIATIONS
Policy change: Today, the White House will release a presidential directive and an executive order that will allow the government and U.S. families whose loved ones are being held hostage to communicate and negotiate with terrorist groups holding them, a source told CNN. While the government will maintain its policy of not making “substantive concessions” to captors or paying ransoms, the White House will announce that officials will no longer threaten with criminal prosecution the families of American hostages who do pay ransoms to their relatives’ captors, according to a senior administration official.
FREDDIE GRAY
‘High-energy injury:’ The term means that the injured person slammed into something, or it slammed into him. It’s how Freddie Gray’s spine was mortally broken, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Baltimore Sun. And it may have come from the sudden slowing of the police van transporting him. Baltimore police have been accused in the past of giving detainees a “rough ride.” The state medical examiner has ruled Gray’s death a homicide, the Sun reported, because officers allegedly did not look out for his safety.