News / International
Granny facing death penalty for making granddaughter run for hours
14 Mar 2012 at 15:44hrs | Views
A grandmother in Alabama, USA forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to run for hours as punishment for eating a chocolate bar on a school bus and then lying about it could face the death penalty for killing her.
Prosecutors are reportedly seeking the severe sentence for Joyce Garrard in Savannah Hardin's tragic death, an official said, according to CNN.
The young girl died last month and authorities said she was forced to carry firewood that weighed up to 15 pounds during the deadly run, the Gasden Times reported.
In Alabama, the murder of a child younger than 14 is automatically a capital crime, the newspaper said.
A video reportedly shows Garrard telling the school bus driver that she planned to run Savannah until "she can't run no more," according to the Times.
An autopsy showed that she died from dehydration and low sodium levels.
Savannah may have also had a bladder issue that made the run more dangerous.
Her stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, was also indicted on a felony murder charge.
Garrard is being held with no bond and is on suicide watch, the Times reported. Mae Hardin, who gave birth shortly after being arrested, is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Garrard's attorney, Dani Bone, told WBRC that the allegations against her client were false.
"I think it makes for good newspapers, it makes for good television. It think it's absolutely unfair to this family who again have lost a child, a grandchild and now they have two family members who were falsely accused and wrongly incarcerated," she said.
Law enforcement officials said they wanted to get justice for the young girl.
"Well, by golly, we've done a good job in this county on this case," Sheriff Tood Entrekin told the newspaper. "Everybody has, to make a difference in this child's life. Nobody else cared about her, but we do."
Prosecutors are reportedly seeking the severe sentence for Joyce Garrard in Savannah Hardin's tragic death, an official said, according to CNN.
The young girl died last month and authorities said she was forced to carry firewood that weighed up to 15 pounds during the deadly run, the Gasden Times reported.
In Alabama, the murder of a child younger than 14 is automatically a capital crime, the newspaper said.
A video reportedly shows Garrard telling the school bus driver that she planned to run Savannah until "she can't run no more," according to the Times.
An autopsy showed that she died from dehydration and low sodium levels.
Her stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, was also indicted on a felony murder charge.
Garrard is being held with no bond and is on suicide watch, the Times reported. Mae Hardin, who gave birth shortly after being arrested, is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Garrard's attorney, Dani Bone, told WBRC that the allegations against her client were false.
"I think it makes for good newspapers, it makes for good television. It think it's absolutely unfair to this family who again have lost a child, a grandchild and now they have two family members who were falsely accused and wrongly incarcerated," she said.
Law enforcement officials said they wanted to get justice for the young girl.
"Well, by golly, we've done a good job in this county on this case," Sheriff Tood Entrekin told the newspaper. "Everybody has, to make a difference in this child's life. Nobody else cared about her, but we do."
Source - NY Daily
