Louise Woodward, 2008).
Woodward's legal team filed motions after her conviction to the trial court for which a hearing began on November 4th. In the days following the verdict it came out that the jury had been split about the murder charge, but those who had favored an acquittal were persuaded to accept a conviction. This fact was of no legal consequence, however. On November 10th, at a post-conviction relief hearing, Judge Hiller B. Zobel reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter, saying that the circumstances in which the defendant acted were characterized by confusion, inexperience, frustration, immaturity and some anger, but not malice in the legal sense supporting a conviction for second-degree murder. He also said that he thought that allowing this defendant on this evidence to remain convicted of second-degree murder would be a miscarriage of justice (Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Louise Woodward, 2008).
Woodward's sentence was reduced to time served. In the area of criminal law, time served is a sentence where the defendant is credited immediately after the guilty verdict with the time spent awaiting trial. The time is generally taken away from the sentence, with only the balance being served after the verdict. She served a total of 279 days and was freed. The Assistant District Attorney then appealed the judge's decision to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Woodward's lawyers also appealed to the court to throw out her manslaughter conviction. The court confirmed the guilty verdict and the reduction in conviction to involuntary manslaughter by a 7-0 vote. In a 4-3 split decision the court discarded the prosecution's appeal against the reduction of the conviction to involuntary manslaughter, and the sentence 16 June 1998 (Louise Woodward, 2009).
After all seven justices rejected the Commonwealth's claim that the trial judge did not have the authority to reduce the verdict to manslaughter and the time-served sentence was upheld by a 4-3 vote, Louise Woodward returned to her home...
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