FILE -- This 2006 photo provided by Patrick Blackwelder shows his former stepdaughter, Savannah Hardin. A judge refused bond Friday, Jan. 10, 2014 for Joyce Hardin Gerrard, jailed for nearly two years while awaiting trial on charges she killed her granddaughter Savannah Hardin by making the child run until she collapsed and died. Authorities have charged Gerrard, and stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, with murder in her death. Police say the 9-year-old girl was run to death as punishment for lying. (AP Photo/Patrick Blackwelder, File)
January 10, 2014 - 12:58 AM
GADSDEN, Ala. - An Alabama woman is due in court on charges she forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to run until she collapsed and died.
Circuit Judge William Ogletree set a hearing for Friday morning in Gadsden for 48-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard.
It's unclear exactly what the hearing will concern. But Garrard is asking the judge to dismiss a capital murder charge in the 2012 death of Savannah Hardin.
Defence lawyers also want the judge to set bond for Garrard, who's been jailed almost two years.
Prosecutors say Garrard made the girl run for three hours as punishment for lying about eating candy. The child collapsed and died at a hospital three days later.
The girl's stepmother also is charged for allegedly allowing the punishment to occur.
Both women say they're innocent.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014