Appeals Court denies motion to dismiss murder charges against Garrard

Joyce Hardin Garrard

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has denied a motion filed by Joyce Hardin Garrard’s defense lawyers asking that the charge against her be dismissed because she’s been denied a speedy trial.

Garrard is charged  in the 2012 death of her 9-year-old granddaughter, Savannah Hardin. The child collapsed, the state says, after Garrard made her run for hours because she had lied about eating candy. Savannah died three days later.  Garrard has been jailed since her arrest in March 2012. Her trial originally was set for June, but was continued to September.

In May, Garrard’s lawyers moved for a speedy trial. The case again was continued until February 2015.

In September, Garrard’s lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the charge against her because she had not yet come to trial. Judge William Ogletree denied the motion, and her lawyers filed a petition for a writ of mandamus.

In its order, the Court of Criminal Appeals states that it examined the factors set out in a 1982 case to establish that a defendant has been denied a speedy trial. The court looked at the length of the delay; the reason for the delay; the accused’s assertion of the right to a speedy trial; and the degree of prejudice suffered by the accused because of the delay.

In this case, 33 months had passed between Garrard’s arrest and the filing of the petition. The order states that time is “presumptively prejudicial.”

Garrard’s trial remains scheduled for February.