Life term recommended for Alabama woman who ran granddaughter to death

An Alabama jury on Thursday recommended 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, a local ABC News affiliate reported.

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. 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 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 anything containing 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.