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Girl's Running Death Grandmother Dies In Prison

Girl's Running Death Grandmother Dies In Prison

A woman who was jailed for murdering her granddaughter by making her run until she had a seizure has died in prison.

Joyce Hardin Garrard was serving life without parole when she collapsed at the Alabama women's state prison.

A prison spokesman says the 50-year-old died on Friday, five days after she fell ill.

The cause of death wasn't immediately available, but her lawyer Dani Bone said Garrard is thought to have suffered a heart attack.

Garrard was convicted last year of killing 9-year-old Savannah Hardin by making her run as a punishment for telling a lie about eating sweets.

Evidence during the trial heard the girl was forced to run for hours outside Garrard's home in rural northeastern Alabama in 2012.

She was told to pick up wood as her grandmother talked to her about the importance of telling the truth.

She suffered a seizure and died three days later in hospital.

Prosecutors called the woman the "drill sergeant from hell" and described the child's death as agony.

Garrard told the court she never meant to harm the girl, but jurors convicted her of capital murder - the most severe category of murder.

The child's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, is set for trial in June on a murder charge for allegedly failing to stop the punishment. She denies the charge.