A Massachusetts judge on Monday reduced a jury’s murder verdict against British au pair Louise Woodward to involuntary manslaughter, a decision that was intended to be released to the world over the Internet, but ended up going out on paper instead.
Later, Zobel sentenced Woodward to the 279 days she has already served, thus freeing her.
Woodward had been convicted of second-degree murder in the death of an 8-month-old boy under her watch, a verdict that surprised American legal observers and outraged British citizens. Before deliberations began, the defense had waived its right to allow the jury to find Woodward guilty of manslaughter.
In reducing the jury’s verdict, Judge Hiller Zobel wrote, “After extensive, cool, calm reflection, I am morally certain that allowing this defendant on this evidence to remain convicted on a second-degree murder would be a miscarriage of justice.”
The Woodward trial – the “Nanny Case” or “Au Pair Case” in the popular press – drew attention for weeks for its human and legal drama. In the past few days a new angle popped up as well, when Zobel said he would email his ruling to news organizations for posting on the Web. It was to be the first time a trial court’s decision had seen its first light on the Web.
But the moment of glory for digital media was waylaid by a power failure in the Boston area, which crashed the Cambridge courthouse computer system shortly before the scheduled 10 a.m. EST release of Zobel’s ruling. Its posting was delayed until well after word had gotten out through traditional media.
“There was an outage in the neighborhood where his server was located a minute before he was supposed to send it,” Zobel’s clerk told the Associated Press, which had a page set up for the ruling.
