In the days since a British au pair was found guilty of murder in the shaking death of a baby, jurors said they would have considered a lesser charge - if they had been given the choice.

Louise Woodward, 19, was convicted of second-degree murder late Thursday and sentenced the following day to a life prison sentence with no chance at parole for 15 years.At defense attorneys' request, the jury could consider only first- or second-degree murder charges - not manslaughter - or acquittal in February's death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

"There's no way we could face the Eappens or the citizens of the commonwealth and say, `We think she did it, but we're going to let her go,' " juror Stephen Caldwell told ABC News on Sunday.

"We were in a no-win situation there," Caldwell said. "Nobody wanted to find a 19-year-old woman from another country who's come to America under these circumstances guilty of murder and put her away for life."

Another juror, Jodie Garber, agreed, telling The Mail of London, "We'd rather have had a chance to consider a manslaughter option. Nobody liked the finding we felt compelled to reach. Nobody was happy having to do this."

"Nobody thought Louise intended to kill the baby," Garber said. "The judge's instructions were that we had to decide whether a reasonable person would have known the actions she took would have resulted in the baby's death."

The legal wrangling is far from over in her case.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Hiller B. Zobel invited both sides to argue whether he should set aside the verdict, reduce it or order a new trial, the three alternatives allowed under Massachusetts law. Attorneys were to submit motions Monday, with arguments scheduled for Tuesday.

Although legal experts say it is rare for a judge to set aside a jury's verdict, it is possible.

View Comments

The case has upset many in England. Britons sympathetic to Woodward turned on the headlights of their cars Sunday to protest the verdict, and some demonstrated outside a U.S. Embassy reception attended by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, demanding Woodward be released.

"My daughter is in an isolation cell on suicide watch," London's Daily Mail quoted Gary Wood-ward as saying after he and his wife, Sue, visited her in Massachusetts' Framingham prison.

"The wardens (guards) look at her every hour through the night, and if she's asleep they wake her up to make sure she's not dead - so she can't even get much sleep," he was quoted as saying.

A Massachusetts corrections department spokesman said that as part of the incoming process, inmates go through medical and mental health screenings but denied she was on a suicide watch.

Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.