Clara Harris, the Houston dentist who murdered her husband with a Mercedes Benz after catching him in a tryst he promised to quit, will either walk out of a courthouse today a free woman or will be led by bailiffs to prison to spend the first of many nights behind bars.

Harris' fate is up to a jury of nine women and three men, who convicted her Thursday of murder after about seven hours of deliberation. The jury began deliberating a recommended sentence at about 11:30 a.m. ET.

Harris, 45, confronted her husband, orthodontist David Harris, in the lobby of a Houston hotel with his mistress, Gail Bridges.  Harris, 44, had promised to halt the affair, but continued to meet with Bridges, his receptionist.  After the altercation spilled into the parking lot, Clara Harris ran her husband down and circled around to run him over repeatedly.

Jurors found the dentist guilty of the most serious charge of murder, declining to consider manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, both lesser included charges requiring lower levels of intent to kill.

But in Texas, where jurors determine the sentence served by a defendant, a strict conviction does not necessarily mean a strict sentence. 

Harris could receive anywhere between five and 99 years in prison. If jurors decide that she murdered her husband in an act of "sudden passion," a so-called special issue on the sentencing phase verdict form, that range could drop to between two and 20 years.

Harris' stepdaughter, Lindsey Harris, was in the Mercedes Benz the night of the murder.  She testified during the trial that Harris said "I'm going to hit him" before stepping on the gas pedal of the late-model sedan.

Lindsey Harris was the only witness brought by the state Thursday in the post-conviction punishment phase of the trial. She said the experience sent her into a deep depression and that she even tried to commit suicide twice by slitting her wrists.

Clara Harris, no stranger to showing emotion in the courtroom, began sobbing at her stepdaughter's disclosure. She called out "I'm sorry, baby" as jurors were led from the courtroom. Her outburst was admonished by Judge Carol G. Davies.

On Thursday, Harris' defense attorney George Parnham appealed to jurors to keep his client out of jail so that she could continue to care for her two young boys. And he reminded them that they would begin their deliberations on Valentine's Day, the 11th anniversary of Harris' marriage. The lawyer even twice attempted to ask rhetorically, "What would David Harris want?" — both times drawing a strident, and successful, objection from prosecutor, Mia Magness.

"You're not being asked to punish who she was or who she's gonna be... you're being asked to punish her conduct," said Magness in her argument.  "I'm not suggesting to you that she shouldn't recieve probation because she's a good person. Her conduct of July 24th is what you should base your decision on."

Courttv.com's Steve Irsay contributed to this report.