Etowah prosecutors file response in Garrard murder case

Joyce Hardin Garrard

Etowah County Prosecutors are denying defense claims that wrongdoing by an autopsy doctor and trial delays should stop the murder case against an Etowah County woman charged with forcing her granddaughter to run for hours and causing her death.

Prosecutors filed Documents with the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals late Wednesday fighting a defense request to dismiss charges against 49 year old Joyce Hardin Garrard.

Garrard’s lawyers say they found numerous problems with the state’s autopsy of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin in 2012.

The child’s autopsy will be key evidence, and the defense claims the doctor who performed it had a history of wrongdoing. But a response from Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp’s office argues Garrard’s lawyers knowingly made false allegations of wrongdoing by Dr. Emily Ward, the forensic specialist who performed the autopsy on Hardin.

The defense claimed Ward was fired from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for falsifying documents and won’t be available to testify at Garrard’s trial. However, prosecutors said the allegations are “absolutely false” and that Ward retired because of health problems.

Prosecutors said Another pathologist could testify about the autopsy even if Ward cannot appear.  Also, the state argued that defense lawyers are partly to blame for trial delays and said the postponements did not violate Garrard’s rights.  The last trial date actually was postponed because of a defense request to sequester the jury, not a decision Circuit Judge William Ogletree made on his own, according to the state’s arguments.