The lawyers of the jailed British au pair, Louise Woodward, yesterday asked the judge who sentenced her to free her or order a new trial - or failing that to reduce the murder charge against her to one of manslaughter.
The defence team submitted a 54-page document to Judge Hiller Zobel at the court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, urging that last week's verdict brought in by a jury was unjust and not supported by the evidence.
Lawyers for both prosecution and defence will argue their case in person before the judge today. The defence submission says the verdict of guilty to the second degree murder of baby Matthew Eappen should be set aside because the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Louise Woodward (19) are expected to file motions today seeking to throw out her conviction of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
If the conviction stands, Woodward will not be eligible for parole until 2012, when she will be 34.
Protesters chanted "Free Louise Now" outside Middlesex Superior Court yesterday demanding that Woodward be freed. Dozens of demonstrators chanted as they marched along the streets surrounding the courthouse in Cambridge. Many waved posters, printed and shipped from London by the Mirror newspaper, reading "Please Free Louise", as hordes of reporters jostled to cover the transatlantic controversy.
In England, meanwhile, thousands of people have been flocking to Woodward's home village of Elton in Cheshire. Residents and visitors congregated on the village green holding placards insisting Woodward was innocent and calling for Judge Hiller Zobel either to acquit Woodward or replace her conviction with one of manslaughter.
Supported by recent remarks by jurors claiming they would have voted for a manslaughter verdict, if it had been available, the defence team may file a motion requesting that the judge reduce or revoke the sentence.
The defence may also claim the judge erred in allowing a transcript of testimony by a prosecution witness physician to be read to the deliberating jurors, while denying a similar request for a defence witness's testimony to be read because the transcript had not yet been produced.
Protesters in Cambridge were hoping to sway Judge Zobel to revise or revoke Thursday's conviction.
The defence team is expected to file "boiler-plate" motions, usually filed in such instances, asking the judge to throw out the conviction, declare a mistrial or order a new trial - none of which was thought likely.
The prosecutor, Ms Martha Coakley, has said she would emphasise to Judge Zobel that it would be wrong to either set aside the jury verdict or order a new trial. The prosecutor did allow that the judge's choice to reduce the verdict to manslaughter would be less offensive.
Hundreds of Britons have telephoned the US embassy in London to complain about the treatment of the British au pair, staff said yesterday.