Jury Recommends Life Sentence For Woman Who Ran Granddaughter To Death

(Adds confirmation of recommended sentence, prosecutor to ask judge to accept recommendation)

By Sherrel Wheeler Stewart

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 26 (Reuters) - An Alabama jury recommended on Thursday that a woman convicted of running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death as punishment for lying about having eaten chocolates spend the rest of her life in prison, the local sheriff's office said.

Joyce Garrard, who is reported to be 50, was found guilty of capital murder last week in the 2012 death of Savannah Hardin. After finding her guilty, the jury was charged with determining whether to recommend a life sentence or the death penalty.

The judge in the case will ultimately decide whether to accept the jury's recommendation or sentence Garrard to death at a hearing scheduled for May 11.

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, local media reported.

After running for almost three hours while being made to carry wood, the girl, who lived in Etowah County, in northeast Alabama, collapsed, went into seizures and died days later in the hospital from dehydration and low sodium, authorities have said.

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.

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 Sherrel Wheeler Stewart in Birmingham, Ala.; Writing by Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)

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