Sharon Cave, with her fiance, Jim Sedwick at her side, spoke briefly to reporters. Smiling and looking relieved, she said, "We're very happy... The first trial was enough... We've got kids who have lives to live and we've got lives to live, and we just don't need this."
Speaking to reporters, Loren Hall said that he and his wife were doing okay but disappointed. He said that Laura was emotionally distraught and had been in solitary confinement for 40 days. "There's only so much a little girl can take," he said. He told reporters he wanted them to meet "an American hero, Doug Conley," who had stood up for justice (and who literally stood there, next to Loren).
Conley is the taxi driver who was the sole witness for the State during the penalty phase but says he wasn't able to identify Laura Hall from a photo lineup and that the prosecutors told him not to worry about it and to just testify. Loren Hall then spoke for several minutes about how we should all be concerned about what he considers a broken judicial system in which prosecutors are willing to lie to get a conviction.
Laura Hall was dressed in jail-issue black and white striped garb with shackled ankles. In response to a reporter's question, "How was it seeing your daughter like this?" Hall's mother, Carol said, "horrible...seeing her so sad and breaking down...We just want to get her home." Carol briefly broke down crying.
When Laura Hall was brought into the courtroom, she appeared very pale and completely stricken. When Judge Flowers declared that the motion for a new trial was denied, Hall seemed to look down and shake her head. The judge's pronouncement was short. As the deputy led Hall out of the courtroom, she looked towards her family and Conley, with a look on her face like, "what now?" or "doesn't the judge owe more explanation than that?" (That's just my interpretation.)
Gotta go through my notes and organize them so I can post a more detailed account soon.
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