A Georgia father will not face another trial for the death of his toddler in a burning car, prosecutors said Thursday, after the Georgia Supreme Court last year overturned his convictions for murder and cruelty to children.
The high court upheld the convictions of Justin Ross Harris, 42, of three sex crimes committed against a 16-year-old girl which Harris had not appealed.
He received a total of 12 years in prison for those crimes, and he will continue to serve that sentence, the district attorney’s office said.
The Georgia Supreme Court justices all agreed there was enough evidence to support Harris’s convictions.
But the majority opinion said much of the evidence relating to his sexual activities should not have been allowed at trial and may have improperly influenced the jury.
Justin Ross Harris (pictured), a father from Georgia will not face another trial for the death of his toddler in a hot car, prosecutors said on Thursday, after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the year last his convictions for murder and cruelty to children.
Harris was convicted in November 2016 of eight counts, including the malicious murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper.
A judge sentenced him to life without parole, as well as an additional 32 years in prison for other crimes.
Cooper was almost two years old when he died in his father’s burning car
But the state Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 to overturn his murder and child cruelty convictions last June, saying the jury had seen “extremely and unfairly prejudicial” evidence.
The Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case, said in a statement that it disagreed with the majority decision.
But because of the decision, prosecutors said crucial evidence on Harris’ motive was no longer available to them.
After conducting a thorough review of the entire case, prosecutors said they decided not to try Harris again on the reverse counts.
A judge on Thursday signed off on the charges.
Harris’ attorneys – Maddox Kilgore, Carlos Rodriguez and Bryan Lumpkin – have argued from the start that Harris was a loving father and that the boy’s death was a tragic accident.
“Ross has always accepted moral responsibility for Cooper’s death,” they said in a statement after the charges were dismissed.
“But after all these years of investigation and review, this dismissal of the charges confirms that Cooper’s death was unintentional and therefore not a crime.”
Cooper’s mother, Leanna Taylor, always insisted that Cooper’s death was an accident.
Last year, Taylor said the court had made the right decision, calling it “big news for Ross and his family”. She added: “I know they are grateful for this turn of events.”
Justin Ross Harris, 41, is pictured in court in July 2014 – a month after Cooper’s death
Cooper, 22 months, was left in the backseat of Harris’ car for more than seven hours in June 2014
Harris was described by his ex-wife, Cooper’s mother, as a devoted and loving father
The ex-wife, whose divorce from Harris was finalized in March 2016, said: “I wish this would help change the way Cooper is remembered.”
Now living in Alabama, Taylor said she felt vindicated by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“While it won’t change my day-to-day life, I hope it shows people what those closest to the case have been saying from the start: Ross was a loving and proud father to Cooper.”
“At the same time, Ross was a terrible husband.
“These two things can exist and have existed at the same time.”
Harris had moved from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to the Atlanta area for work in 2012. He told police that on the morning of June 18, 2014, he forgot to drop Cooper off at daycare, driving straight to work web developer for Home. Deposit and leave the child in his car seat.
Happier times: Harris is pictured with his son and then-wife Leanna Taylor
Harris is seen in court in October 2015. His murder trial began in September 2016
Taylor testifies at murder trial after being subpoenaed to testify
Cooper died after sitting for about seven hours in the back seat of the Hyundai Tucson SUV outside his father’s office in suburban Atlanta, where temperatures that day reached at least the 80s.
At trial, prosecutors advanced a theory that Harris was unhappy in his marriage and killed his son so he could be free.
In support of this claim, they presented evidence of his extramarital sexual activities, including exchanging sexually explicit messages and graphic photos with women and girls and meeting some of them for sex.
The high court concluded that they had also “presented a substantial amount of evidence to lead the jury to answer a different and more legally problematic question: what kind of man is (Harris)?”.
A dissenting opinion held that the state was entitled to introduce detailed evidence of “the nature, scope and extent of the truly sinister motive it attributed to Harris” and concluded that the trial court did not was not wrong to allow the jury to see the contested challenge. evidence.
She collapsed in court as she gave evidence as her son’s photo was held up
On the morning of June 18, 2014, Harris allegedly told police that he forgot to drop him off at daycare soon before going to work at Home Depot in Atlanta.
Harris’ attorneys said the case “tragically fits the pattern of how children are unwittingly left in cars.”
“Charging a grieving parent for an unintended memory lapse does nothing to prevent the tragedy from happening to another,” their statement read. “In fact, child deaths from hot cars increased after Ross’s trial in 2016.”
Harris’ case attracted extraordinary attention, receiving intense coverage in the Atlanta area, making national headlines, and sparking debate online and on cable news shows.
After determining during nearly three weeks of jury selection that pre-trial publicity had made it too difficult to find a fair jury in suburban Atlanta’s Cobb County, the presiding judge agreed to move the trial in Brunswick on the Georgian coast.
