Savannah Hardin Case: Joyce Garrard Sentenced In Granddaughter's Running Death

Judge To Sentence Woman Who Ran Granddaughter To Death
FILE - This photo providedby the Etowah County Sheriff's Dept. shows Jessica Mae Hardin, stepmother to 9-year-old Savannah Hardin. A jury convicted grandmother Joyce Hardin Garrard late Friday, March 20, 2015, in the February 2012 death of Savannah Hardin, siding with prosecutors who depicted Garrard as a domineering taskmaster so enraged over a lie about candy that she made the girl run until she dropped. Jessica Hardin, is free on bond awaiting trial on a murder charge for allegedly failing to intervene as Garrard made Savannah run. No trial date is set for Hardin, who has pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Etowah County Sheriff's Office, File)
FILE - This photo providedby the Etowah County Sheriff's Dept. shows Jessica Mae Hardin, stepmother to 9-year-old Savannah Hardin. A jury convicted grandmother Joyce Hardin Garrard late Friday, March 20, 2015, in the February 2012 death of Savannah Hardin, siding with prosecutors who depicted Garrard as a domineering taskmaster so enraged over a lie about candy that she made the girl run until she dropped. Jessica Hardin, is free on bond awaiting trial on a murder charge for allegedly failing to intervene as Garrard made Savannah run. No trial date is set for Hardin, who has pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Etowah County Sheriff's Office, File)

UPDATE: Joyce Garrard was sentenced to life in prison for running her granddaughter to death.

Earlier:

An Alabama woman convicted of running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death was set to learn on Monday whether she faces the rest of her life in prison or a sentence of death.

The jury that in March convicted Joyce Garrard of murder in the 2012 death of Savannah Hardin recommended she be spared the death penalty. But the ultimate decision rests with the Etowah County judge in the case, William Ogletree.

Garrard made Hardin run for almost three hours while carrying wood as punishment for lying about having eaten chocolates before the girl collapsed and went into seizures, prosecutors have said.

The girl died days later in hospital from dehydration and low sodium.

Garrard said in a conversation with the girl's school bus driver captured on a bus video that "she's going to run till I tell her to stop," as punishment.

Hardin had a bladder condition and was not allowed to have sweets or caffeine, Garrard told the bus driver.

After the guilty verdict, Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp said he was pleased with the outcome and would ask the judge to accept the jury's recommended sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The girl's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, has also been charged with murder, with authorities saying she witnessed the punishment and failed to intervene.

(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Lisa Lambert)

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