Etowah County Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree ruled Tuesday
that defense attorneys for Joyce Hardin Garrard can ask questions about the
reasons why a state pathologist who performed the autopsy on Savannah Hardin
was fired from her job.
Joyce Hardin Garrard |
Ogletree also pushed back the beginning of jury selection to
Thursday due to the threat of snow today, meaning opening arguments in the
trial of the woman accused of running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death in
2012 won't begin until next week.
Ogletree made several rulings in a hearing that lasted about
90 minutes.
The state had sought in a motion to block questions about
Dr. Emily Ward, who performed an autopsy on the child for the Alabama
Department of Forensic Sciences. The defense had filed a copy of a May 2013
letter to Ward saying she was being fired for falsifying time sheets and
dereliction of duty.
But District Attorney Jimmie Harp said the state stands by
her work on the case.
Garrard is accused of forcing her granddaughter Savannah to
run for three hours carrying firewood until she collapsed from exhaustion in
February 2012. The punishment came, prosecutors contend, because the
grandmother caught Hardin in a lie on a Friday afternoon about eating a candy
bar.
The child was taken to a Gadsden hospital and then
transferred to Children's of Alabama, where she died the following Monday. A
preliminary autopsy showed she was extremely dehydrated and had a very low
sodium level.
Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reid argued that Ogletree
should not allow the defense to argue that medical treatment contributed to
Savannah's death. He said the state had interviewed all expert witnesses the
defense is expected to call during the trial and none of them were prepared to
testify the child's medical care caused her death.
Defense attorney Dani Bone said the defense had not made any
statement in court that they would argue medical care caused her death. Last
year, the child's father, Robert Hardin, filed a medical malpractice suit
against the Gadsden hospital where Savannah was treated.
Bone asked Ogletree to allow a witness to testify at the
hearing on this issue, but Ogletree would not agree. When Bone persisted,
Ogletree gaveled the hearing into a brief recess for a conference in chambers
on the matter.
In the end, Ogletree ruled that any attempt to admit
evidence about standard of care could first be made outside the jury's
presence. He also ruled that only qualified expert witnesses could give expert
testimony and opinions, which would not allow questions of anyone but Garrard
about her intentions.
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