A Georgia father has been released from prison after serving 10 years for the death of his toddler in a hot car. The case gained worldwide attention when the man was charged with murder by prosecutors.
According to Google records, Justin Ross Harris was released from Macon State Prison on Father’s Day, which fell on a Sunday. He had been serving his sentence since December 6, 2016.
In 2012, Harris relocated to the Atlanta area for work, leaving behind Tuscaloosa, Alabama. On June 18, 2014, he reported to the police that he had forgotten to drop off his 22-month-old son Cooper at day care. According to Harris, he inadvertently left the child in his car seat and went straight to work as a web worker at The Home Depot.
Tragically, Cooper’s young life came to an end after being left unattended in the back seat of his father’s Hyundai Tucson SUV for approximately seven hours. The incident occurred on a day where temperatures were recorded to be in the high 80s, in the vicinity of his father’s office, located in suburban Atlanta.
In November 2016, Harris was convicted of eight counts, including murder with intent, resulting in a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Additionally, he was handed a 32-year sentence for other crimes committed.
In June 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court made a significant decision with a vote of 6-3. They overturned the previous ruling, citing that the information presented to the jury was “extremely and unfairly prejudicial.”
According to reports, the prosecutors had previously announced that they would not pursue another trial for Cooper’s death. The office of the Cobb County district attorney, which handled the case, released a statement expressing their disagreement with the majority’s decision. As a result of the ruling, crucial evidence regarding Harris’s motive can no longer be used by the prosecutors.
According to Harris’s legal team, he was a responsible and caring father, and the tragic death of his son was an unintended mistake.
Despite the dismissal of the murder case against him, Harris was convicted of three sexual offenses against a 16-year-old girl, and he did not challenge those verdicts. He served his sentence for those crimes until recently when he was released from jail on Sunday.
The spotlight was on Harris’s case as it made headlines across the globe, sparking debates both online and on television news shows. Due to the extensive media coverage before the trial, it became challenging to find an impartial jury in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta. Consequently, the presiding judge made the decision to transfer the trial to Brunswick, a coastal city in Georgia.
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