on an overcast Friday afternoon, January 27, 2012, with winds whipping to thirty miles per hour. For weeks Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg had weighed whether to impose a life sentence that offered Brittany a chance at parole in the distant future, or impose a sentence of life with no chance at parole. Expecting hundreds in the gallery, Greenberg had again reserved the county’s largest courtroom. By 1:15 P.M., more than 150 people had already taken their seats. Three minutes later, sheriff’s deputies escorted in Jayna Murray’s family, leading them down a center aisle and seating them in the second row on the left side. Then came Brittany Norwood’s family, escorted down the aisle to the second row on the right. On both sides of the aisle, the occupants of the second rows leaned on each other, held hands in their laps, and for the most part stared straight ahead. By the time Judge Greenberg called the hearing to order, at 1:36 P.M., there were more than 200 spectators.
