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Written by: E. George
Published May 26, 2023 @ 9:45 PM ET
COBB COUNTY, Ga. – The District Attorney’s Office of Cobb County revealed that Justin Ross Harris will not be retried for the murder of his 22-month-old son, Cooper Harris. On November 14, 2016, he was convicted in a Brunswick courtroom of eight counts regarding his son’s death, including malice murder.
The case gained a remarkable amount of attention. The publicity made finding a fair jury in Cobb County nearly impossible, so the presiding judge relocated the trial to Brunswick, which is in Glynn County.
Harris was sentenced to life in prison without parole for leaving his son, Cooper, in the backseat of his SUV in 80-degree weather. The toddler passed away in his car seat after spending approximately seven hours outside his father’s Home Depot office on June 18, 2014.
Originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Harris relocated to Georgia in 2012 for work. A web developer at Home Depot, he told authorities that he drove to the office that morning, forgetting to drop his son off at daycare on the way. He later found his son deceased inside his SUV, still strapped in his car seat, after leaving work.
Prosecutors argued that he killed Cooper intentionally to pursue sexual relationships and a ‘child-free’ life. They stated that he was miserable in his marriage and provided evidence of several extramarital affairs, many with underage girls.
They presented sexually explicit messages and graphic photographs he had exchanged with women and girls, some of which he was actively engaging with at the time his son was left inside his hot car. Adamant that his son’s death was a tragic accident, Harris appealed his child cruelty and murder convictions in June 2022.
Although the Georgia Supreme Court justices agreed that the amount of evidence for his murder charges was sufficient, they claimed that a large portion was presented unfairly, prejudicially, and improperly. They said much of it regarding his sexual activities should not have been allowed and may have swayed the jury into their guilty verdict.
The Supreme Court reversed Harris’ child cruelty and murder convictions in a 6-3 vote in 2022. Due to this decision, prosecutors said that key evidence about his motive was no longer accessible, and they opted not to retry him.
The Cobb County District Attorney, Flynn Broady, released a statement saying that even though they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision, they are bound by it. They also said that now that “crucial motive evidence” would not be allowed due to the court’s decision, they determined that they could not try the case again. “After much thought and deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not retry Justin Ross Harris on the reversed counts of the indictment,” the DA’s office said. “Cooper will always be remembered by this office and those who fought for him.”
Harris was also convicted of other charges, including dissemination of harmful material to minors and criminal attempt to commit sexual exploitation of children. He was convicted of three sex crimes against a 16-year-old female, resulting in a 12-year sentence.
Harris’ lawyer issued a statement after the D.A. reached its’ decision: “Ross has always accepted the moral responsibility for Cooper’s death. But after all these years of investigation and review, this dismissal of charges confirms that Cooper’s death was unintentional and, therefore, not a crime. Charging a grieving parent for an unintentional memory failure does nothing to prevent the tragedy from happening to another. In fact, child fatalities from hot cars increased after Ross’ 2016 trial, the most widely reported hot car death case in history. Ross is no doubt relieved at the dismissal of the charges against him, but he is also thankful that today’s dismissal may begin to restore Cooper’s legacy as a child much loved by his parents.”
The former lead prosecutor for the State during the trial, Jesse Evans, spoke out to say that he is ‘shocked’ to learn of the D.A.’s decision. Evans said Broady’s decision to not retry Harris for murder is one of the biggest professional disappointments in a long career involving hundreds of homicide cases. Evans says he was not consulted in the decision to not retry Harris for murder.
Evans said, “This case is not reliant solely on the motive evidence. This man murdered his child, and you can prove that case just as I sit here and I speak with you. Just as we could prove it back in 2016. It’s hard not to get emotionally invested in Cooper’s life, and Cooper’s death, and I think it’s a sad day that there isn’t going to be accountability for what happened to him.” Evans is now the current police chief for the city of Acworth.
Harris’ ex-wife and Cooper’s mother, Leanna Harris Taylor, also released a statement through her attorney Lawrence Zimmerman saying the news is ‘closure’ for her, and she can now focus on keeping her son’s memory alive, something she hasn’t been able to do in close to ten years. “She always believed he never intentionally tried to hurt her child.” Despite his terrible actions in their marriage, Taylor always thought Harris was a good father to Cooper. “This chapter of her life is officially closed, but obviously, she will never get over the pain of losing her son and how she lost her son,” Zimmerman said.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Harris is still currently incarcerated at Macon State Prison and has about six and a half years remaining to serve before he is eligible for parole.
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