Clara Louise Edwards, the Ringgold, Ga., foster mom accused of killing a 2-year-old girl, is going back to court.
Superior Court Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. this week granted a prosecutor’s motion for a new trial, allowing the state to retry Edwards on a charge of felony murder. Last month, a jury convicted Edwards of first-degree cruelty to children but acquitted her on a charge of malice murder – Georgia’s way of alleging the killer intended to take a life.
After the jury deliberated for 11 hours over three days, Van Pelt also declared a mistrial on a charge of felony murder because the jury failed to reach a consensus on that count. Van Pelt was supposed to sentence Edwards – who faces five to 20 years in prison for the cruelty to children charge – on March 25.
Source: saved by Ben Benton from a Facebook page.But at the request of Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Alan Norton, Van Pelt has delayed the sentencing hearing indefinitely. Instead, Norton and District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin will try to convict Edwards of felony murder in a new trial, which Van Pelt scheduled for Aug. 8.
According to Georgia law, a person commits the offense of felony murder when he or she kills somebody while committing a separate felony, even if the murderer did not intend to take a life. It carries a sentence of life in prison.