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Thread: Justin Ross Harris Conviction Overturned in 2014 GA Death of his 22-Month-Old Child

  1. #21
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Harris hot car death trial to move to Brunswick, start Sept. 12

    MARIETTA — Cobb prosecutors and defense attorneys for Justin Ross Harris will have about three months to gear up for a move to Brunswick.

    Located about 68 miles south of Savannah, the Glynn County city was announced Thursday as the new location of the trial for Harris, the Cobb father accused of murdering his 22-month-old son, Cooper, by intentionally leaving him in his car to die. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12.

    The announcement came just two days ahead of the two-year anniversary of Cooper’s death.

    Thursday’s announcement also ended more than six weeks of uncertainty that followed Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark’s decision to move the trial. Three weeks after jury selection began, Harris’ attorneys on May 2 requested a change of venue. Staley Clark granted the request, citing in her decision constant media coverage that had led to potential jurors’ “pervasive” knowledge of the case.

    Among those who will travel to the new location will be nearly every person involved in the trial, from Staley Clark — who will still preside over the case — to the attorneys on both sides of the case, court administration and staff to accommodate those involved, the lead detectives in the investigation and witnesses who will take the stand.

    The Glynn County city, a five-hour drive from Marietta, was the location where another high-profile Cobb case was heard just a few years ago: the 2007 trial of Stacey Ian Humphreys for the 2003 murders of real estate agents Lori Brown and Cynthia Williams in west Cobb. Humphreys was convicted and is on death row.

    Another city court watchers believed could have hosted the trial was Perry in Houston County, about 125 miles south of Marietta. It was the site of the 2004 Cobb trial of Lynn Turner, a former 911 operator accused of poisoning her husband and boyfriend with antifreeze. Turner was convicted and sentenced to life without parole for the murders of her husband, Cobb police office Glenn Turner, and her live-in boyfriend, Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson, both of whom died from antifreeze poisoning. Turner later killed herself in prison.

    Officials in the weeks prior to Thursday’s decision had not determined how much moving the trial will cost the county, with Court Administrator Tom Charron saying the price tag will depend on a number of variables, including the length of the trial, which has been estimated at four to six weeks.

    Charron previously said a cost in the six-figure range would be in line with other trials that have been moved out of Cobb. Several of Cobb’s past high-profile cases have been moved out of the county.

    Harris, who has remained in the Cobb County Jail since the day his son died, was indicted Sept. 4, 2014, by a Cobb grand jury on three charges of murder, two counts of child cruelty, criminal attempt to commit a felony and two counts of dissemination of harmful material to minors.

    While murder and child cruelty charges are related to the death of his son, the remaining charges Harris faces allege that he had lewd communications with a girl under 18 by asking her to provide a sexually explicit photo, sending explicit messages to her as well as a nude photo of a man’s genitals. The incidents occurred between March 1, 2014, and the day of Cooper’s death, the indictment alleges.

    http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/...df245ec94.html

  2. #22
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Trial of dad in boy's hot car death restarts 275 miles away

    Fox News

    SAVANNAH, Ga. – Four months after the first attempt to seat an impartial jury failed, the trial of a metro Atlanta man charged with murder after his toddler son died in the back seat of a hot SUV is starting over — this time 275 miles from the scene of the death.

    Justin Ross Harris is charged with intentionally killing his 22-month-old son, Cooper, by leaving the boy sweltering in his car seat on June 18, 2014, outside Harris' workplace.

    The case proved too sensational for Harris to stand trial in the Atlanta suburbs. After nearly three weeks of jury selection in April and May, a Cobb County judge decided intense media coverage had left too many in the jury pool with strong opinions about Harris, who moved to Georgia in 2012 from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

    The judge ordered that the trial moved to coastal Glynn County, where a second attempt at picking a jury is scheduled to begin Monday.

    Here are things to know as the trial restarts.

    WHAT HAPPENED?


    Police have said Harris' son spent about seven hours inside the SUV outside the Home Depot offices where Harris worked as a technician. Temperatures in metro Atlanta that day in June climbed into the high 80s.

    Prosecutors say Harris left the toddler to die on purpose. They say he was unhappy in his marriage, was seeking online and in-person romantic relationships with other women and had researched websites promoting a child-free lifestyle. In addition to charges related to his son's death, Harris is also charged with sending sexually explicit text messages and a photo to a girl under age 18.

    Defense attorneys have called the death a tragic accident. Harris told police he watched cartoons with his son that morning, took him to breakfast at a Chick-fil-A restaurant and kissed Cooper while strapping him into his car seat. But Harris said he forgot to drop his son off at day care and drove to work, forgetting the boy was in the back seat.

    WHY DID THE TRIAL MOVE?


    From the beginning, Harris' case received intense media coverage in metro Atlanta. It also made headlines nationally and became widely discussed online and on cable news shows.

    In April, the judge and attorneys in the case had about 250 potential Cobb County jurors fill out a 17-page questionnaire. Over the course of nearly three weeks, more than 80 were interviewed individually about the case. Many said they believed Harris was guilty. Others said they would try to be fair, but it would be difficult.

    On May 3, Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark granted a defense request to relocate the trial.

    WHAT'S THE NEW LOCATION?


    Harris will now be tried in Glynn County, located on the coast about 60 miles south of Savannah. Potential jurors will be pulled from a diverse population that includes blue-collar workers in the port city of Brunswick and upper-class retirees on neighboring St. Simons Island.

    While Harris' case certainly received attention beyond metro Atlanta, it shouldn't be difficult to find Glynn County jurors who know little about the case, said J. Tom Morgan, former district attorney for DeKalb County.

    "People in Atlanta think all of Georgia is paying attention to what happens in Atlanta," Morgan said. "But the rest of Georgia couldn't care less most of the time, especially about crime."

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/10...iles-away.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #23
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    Justin Ross Harris found guilty of murdering toddler son in hot car

    A Georgia man whose toddler son died after being left for hours in a hot car was found guilty of murder on Monday.

    Justin Ross Harris was convicted on all charges after his 22-month-old son Cooper died in June 2014 in a parking lot outside Harris' workplace in metro Atlanta.

    Harris, who moved to Georgia from Alabama in 2012, told police he forgot to take the boy to daycare.

    Prosecutors say the 35-year-old killed his son to escape his family responsibilities at a time when the father was pursuing sexual affairs outside his marriage.

    The trial included sexts between Harris and a teenage girl, and lead prosecutor Chuck Boring told jurors that Harris intentionally left the boy in the SUV to "suffer an unimaginable, horrible death."

    Other evidence exposed at trial showed that Harris had watched a video about hot car deaths in the days before the killing and that minutes before he locked the toddler in his car, he said, "I love my son and all, but we both need escapes."

    The defendant's ex-wife Leanna Taylor testified that her former husband did not kill their child on purpose, though the jury found him guilty of both intentional malice murder and felony murder because Cooper died while Harris was committing cruelty to children.

    Harris, whose defense team has called the death a tragic accident, faces life in prison after his convictions, which also include two counts of cruelty to children and sexual exploitation of children.

    The prosecution and defense made their closing arguments last Monday following more than a month of testimony in Brunswick, a city 275 miles from Atlanta where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity.

    Monday's verdict came on the jury's fourth day of deliberations.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.2872935
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #24
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Georgia father sentenced to life for leaving son in car to die

    Glynn County jury found Justin Ross Harris guilty of murder last month

    ATLANTA - A judge sentenced a Georgia man who intentionally left his toddler son in a hot SUV to die to two life sentences without parole plus addition time for other, related convictions.

    Last month, a Brunswick jury found Justin Ross Harris, 36, guilty in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. He was convicted of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, cruelty to children in the second degree, criminal attempt to commit a felony, to wit; sexual exploitation of children and two counts of dissemination of harmful material to minors.

    Harris, who did not testify at trial, was given the chance to address the judge, but declined.

    "(You) callously walked away and left that child in that car, in Georgia, in June, to swelter and die," Judge Mary Stale said as she pronounced sentence.

    Police were suspicious from the start and took Harris into custody in the strip mall parking lot where he had pulled over and removed his son's lifeless body from the SUV. Harris' defense attorneys argued that he was a loving father and that while he was responsible for the boy's death, it was a tragic accident.

    Harris' defense team vowed after the trial to appeal the verdict and to seek a new trial. He has 30 days to file an appeal.

    http://www.news4jax.com/news/georgia...ath-in-hot-car
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #25
    Catsratz
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    I still cannot understand why Harris did not get the death penalty. If ever there was a case that screams out for it, this is it. Could no one put themselves in that baby's carseat on that sweltering day? It was shown at trial that it was premeditated. Along with all the rest that came out, even long before the trial began. In one aspect, this country has gone overwhelmingly conservative. But when it comes to putting someone to death who so richly deserves it, it usually takes many years - if in fact it happens at all.

  6. #26
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Ross Harris launches appeal of murder conviction

    By Bill Rankin
    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    Justin Ross Harris on Tuesday launched the appeal of his hot-car murder conviction, alleging that prejudicial testimony admitted by the court made it an “absolute impossibility” for him to receive a fair trial.

    The motion for a new trial, filed by Harris’ legal team, is the first step of what is likely to be a lengthy appellate process. The motion condemns court rulings made before and during the sensational trial, such as a decision that prevented the defense from attacking the credibility of Cobb County police officers involved in the investigation.

    A jury in Brunswick, where the trial was moved because an impartial jury could not be seated in Marietta, found Harris guilty of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son Cooper to die in a hot car in June 2014. Last month, Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark sentenced Harris to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 32 years.

    After reviewing Harris’ new filing, Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds issued the following statement: “I have complete confidence in the evidence, the trial process and the jury’s verdict in this case, and we will be ready when the defense’s motion for new trial is scheduled for a hearing.”

    Harris’ lead trial attorney, Maddox Kilgore, declined to comment. Last month, a new attorney, Mitch Durham of Marietta, was appointed to represent Harris. He could not be reached for comment.

    Prosecutors said Harris killed his son so he could be free of his family commitments and sleep with as many people as possible. During the trial, the jury heard testimony from eight women who said they either slept with Harris or exchanged sexually explicit emails, including nude photos, with him. Prosecutors presented such testimony to help provide a motive.

    This also included testimony from a woman who was a minor when she and Harris exchanged lewd emails. And the jury convicted Harris of three separate counts — essentially child pornography charges — for the emails he exchanged with the underage girl.

    Staley Clark should have allowed Harris to be tried separately for the three charges involving the teenage girl, because her testimony was too inflammatory, the motion said. It also said the jury should not have been allowed to hear evidence of Harris’ sexual dalliances with the other women because prosecutors “made no connection whatsoever between these specific acts of infidelity and an intent to murder his child.”

    The evidence involving Cooper’s death was bad enough, the motion said. It included “ghoulish images of a dead child with his eyes open” and “macabre autopsy photographs.”

    Allowed to present the additional “bad character” evidence detailing Harris’ sexual promiscuity, prosecutors showed jurors photos of Harris’ genitals and email exchanges that “involved the most prurient and crass of language,” the motion said. Such evidence “assured an unfair and unduly prejudicial atmosphere corrupting any suggestion that Ross Harris could be fairly judged on the actual evidence (or lack thereof) as to the murder and cruelty charges.”

    The motion also said Staley Clark should have allowed the defense to question detectives about statements made under oath when they obtained search warrants early in case. This hamstrung the defense because, from the outset, it told jurors it was going to challenge the credibility of Cobb police, the motion said.

    For example, Det. Shawn Murphy testified before a magistrate that Harris had said he’d “researched, through the internet, child deaths inside vehicles” and “how long it takes someone to die in a vehicle, what’s the temperature it needs to be.”

    Harris never made such statements, the motion said.

    The filing also said Staley Clark should not have required a defense expert, psychologist David Diamond, to turn over notes of his interviews with Harris to the prosecution. Diamond, who has coined the term “Forgotten Baby Syndrome,” was expected to take the stand and explain how a parent can leave a child in a car by accident.

    Allowing prosecutors to have Diamond’s notes put Harris’ defense team in an “untenable position,” the motion said. The defense chose not to call Diamond to give his expert testimony.

    http://www.myajc.com/news/local/ross...WoSQJl6zaOn9N/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #27
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Georgia Supreme Court overturns conviction in hot car murder case

    By Rich McKay
    Reuters

    ATLANTA (Reuters) - The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of a man accused of killing his 22-month-old son by leaving him in a sweltering sport utility vehicle because he wanted a child-free life.

    The court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that evidence of Justin Ross Harris's affairs should not have been admitted and may have unfairly swayed the jury in its 2016 decision.

    Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice David E. Nahmias reversed the convictions of murder and first-degree child cruelty in the case that had drawn international attention. Harris, 41, had been sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 32 years.

    It is now up to Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady, Jr. to decide whether to pursue a new trial. A spokesperson for the district attorney was not immediately available for comment.

    Harris remains in prison on a 12-year conviction for exchanging lewd text messages and photos with an underage girl.

    Harris had told police he forgot to drop his son Cooper off at day care and drove to work at Home Depot offices without remembering that Cooper was still in his car seat in June 2014.

    Defense attorneys described him as a doting father and said the death was an accident.

    Prosecutors argued that Harris was unhappily married and killed his son to free himself.

    (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill Berkrot)

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...9602ab8f33577f
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #28
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    This sucks

    Prosecutors decline to retry Justin Ross Harris for son’s hot car death, citing lack of ‘crucial motive evidence’ after court ruling

    By Alberto Luperon
    Law & Crime

    Almost a year after a state high court overturned his murder conviction, prosecutors announced that they will not seek to retry Justin Ross Harris for leaving his 22-month-old son Cooper Harris to die in a hot car.

    The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled last year that the trial court improperly failed to sever charges involving one of the minors with whom defendant Harris communicated.

    “For the last 11 months, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office has conducted a thorough review of the entire case file,” Cobb County prosecutors said. “Crucial motive evidence that was admitted at the first trial in 2016 is no longer available to the State due to the majority decision of the Supreme Court. Therefore, after much thought and deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not retry Justin Ross Harris on the reversed counts of the indictment.”

    Harris, 42, will continue to serve his 12-year prison sentence for charges including criminal attempt to commit sexual exploitation of children and dissemination of harmful material to minors.

    Cooper tragically passed away on June 18, 2014, after his father left him in an SUV during work, according to the high court’s ruling. The child, who had been strapped into a rear-facing car seat in the back, was supposed to be at a day care. Prosecutors argued that defendant Harris meant to kill the child in order to free himself up for more extramarital relationships. That included sexing an underage high school girl. Evidence at the murder trial included enlarged pictures of Harris’ penis.

    The court determined that those charges, when tried with the murder charge, were prejudicial, and without that extra evidence, they are not sure a jury would have convicted Harris of the latter.

    “Because the properly admitted evidence that Appellant maliciously and intentionally left Cooper to die was far from overwhelming, we cannot say that it is highly probable that the erroneously admitted sexual evidence did not contribute to the jury’s guilty verdicts,” then-Chief Justice David E. Nahmias wrote for the majority in a 6-3 decision.

    Messages of Harris’ extramarital affairs and the like could be relevant to the case, but only in regard to the timeline of events, the court determined. For example, messages Harris sent and received beginning at 12:14 a.m. on June 18, 2014, and continuing throughout the day could have helped show his state of mind, Nahmias wrote.

    The court noted those messages did not show the young ages of the women involved. Nor did they show any activity that was illegal on its face. Nor did those messages show any “enlarged pictures of Appellant’s penis.”

    Some evidence from before that day would be necessary to show the contexts of those relationships, but the state introduced all that was available. In other words, the court reasoned that the state became greedy and smeared the defendant’s broader reputation without focusing on the issue at hand: whether the defendant “maliciously and intentionally” killed his son.

    The court upheld charges in connection to Harris sexting the girl. Harris’ ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, defended him in a 2017 interview with ABC News. She said there was no evidence in their relationship that he would harm anyone, “much less his own son.”

    “We would like to thank the Cobb County Police Department, all current and prior DA’s Office staff, and all other agencies who worked tirelessly for years to obtain justice for Cooper,” prosecutors said Thursday. “Cooper will always be remembered by this Office and those who fought for him.”

    https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/...-court-ruling/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #29
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Great. Now people will know they can get away with "forgetting" their kid in a hot car...

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