GRIFFIN, Ga. — Despite community pleas for mercy, a Georgia grand jury handed up murder charges Friday against a woman who fatally shot two adult sons as they lay in a nursing home in advanced stages of Huntington's disease.
Carol Carr, 63, faces the possibility of life in prison if she is convicted of the killings, which friends insist she carried out in a desperate bid to end her sons' suffering. The case has generated nationwide attention, winning Carr expressions of support from those who know the ravages of Huntington's, a hereditary brain disorder that leaves patients unable to walk, speak or think clearly and is ultimately fatal.
Carr's husband died of Huntington's and a third son, James Scott, 38, in is the early stages of the disease. The disorder also struck the husband's mother, along with a sister and brother.
James Scott labeled the indictments "the wrong decision."
"I figured they should have dropped all the charges and let her go. She's been in prison since 1958--taking care of someone with Huntington's," he said, referring to the year his parents married and his grandmother became ill.
He said he had spoken to his mother by phone and that she was "pretty upset."
Carr's son Randy Scott was 42 at the time of the shooting. The other son, Andy Scott, was 41.
As the indictments were read in a Spalding County courtroom 40 miles south of Atlanta, Carr remained in the county jail where she has been held without bail since her arrest June 8. Her attorneys said the law gave the grand jury scant leeway in deciding whether evidence was sufficient to charge Carr. Georgia does not have an assisted-suicide law.
The charges included murder with malice aforethought and murder in the commission of a felony.
"This is not a total surprise. We had hoped the grand jury would do away with [the case]. There were a lot of people that were hoping that," defense lawyer Eric Hearn said.
More than a dozen Carr supporters, holding signs urging that she be freed, had gathered outside the courthouse a day earlier as the grand jury began hearing evidence behind closed doors. None of the demonstrators remained Friday, though.
Spalding County Dist. Atty. William T. McBroom declined to comment on the indictments. A court date has not been set.
Hearn expressed confidence that jurors considering the case would find Carr's motivations compelling.
