But jurors rejected the unusual defence put forward by her QC, Sasha Wass - that she felt she had not murdered her son but "saved him from an agonised existence".
Remarkably, this is all within the rules of the Hugos, and the moral defence put forward by campaign organisers for what many people would consider cheating is their belief that block voting is common in the award-giving process.
On the final day of the court martial, 2 November 1914, the prosecution and defence put forward their final arguments.
In any case, this is the defence he put forward this morning: "Tidal Bay is carrying top weight and he's 13 years old.
"A defence was put forward by the defendant of diminished responsibility, which the jury rejected, but it was in any event clear that the defendant suffered from a serious mental condition," Mr Justice Burton said.
The government can either stick to their guns, articulating the same vague, generalising and trite defences as those put forward by the spy chiefs last year, occasionally accompanied by threats, or they can respond more honestly to the concerns of the public.
Some pleaded guilty or chose not to present a defence or call witnesses, and in most cases the offence was "so blatant that little defence could be put forward".
What has also been interesting is the defence of policy, put forward variously by George Osborne, David Cameron and Crispin Blunt, that seeks to rely on statistics demonstrating the generosity of the overseas aid programme.
In the final case the attorney general appealed against a judge allowing the jury to consider the defence of necessity put forward by a defendant who distributed cannabis free to those with various medical conditions.
The judge told Joyce in his sentencing remarks: "In my view, the evidence against you was very overwhelming and the defence that you put forward was lacking in any credibility, particularly when one looks at the CCTV evidence, and your interpretation of what that demonstrated, I'm afraid, vastly differed from the way I saw the events portrayed".
