[Guilty of murder]
She is really crying now...
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Defendant Clara Harris reacts as she
testifies about her husband's affair.
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Clara Harris convicted of murder
Excerpt:
HOUSTON –The woman who ran down her philandering husband with a Mercedes-Benz after catching him at a hotel with his mistress was convicted of murder Thursday by a jury that rejected her claim she was aiming for his lover's car.
Clara Harris stood stoically as the verdict was read, her lawyer's arms around her. The 45-year-old dentist faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced, though the punishment could be reduced if jurors decide she acted with "sudden passion."
Jurors, two of whom cried when state District Judge Carol Davies read the verdict, deliberated about eight hours over two days.
Court was to reconvene later Thursday morning for the sentencing phase.
In closing arguments, defense attorney George Parnham took jurors through the mind of the Houston-area dentist who killed her orthodontist husband by driving over him after she caught him with another woman.
"In one week, she spiraled down from a life of dignity and self-respect to the knowledge that her neighbors and everyone else knows her husband was being unfaithful," Mr. Parnham said. "Didn't she react like any woman would act?"
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