Much of the evidence related to Harris' sexual activity should not be found and may have had an inappropriate effect on the jury. The judge said.
Article author:
Associated Press
Kate Brumback
Atlanta — The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the conviction of murder and child atrocities against a man who died after his toddler's son had been in a hot car for hours, and the jury said, "Very unjustified. He said he saw "disadvantageous" evidence.
Justin Ross Harris, 41, was found guilty of eight charges in November 2016, including a malicious murder due to the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. I was convicted. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole and another 32 years in prison for other crimes.
All Georgia Supreme Court judges agreed that there was sufficient evidence to support Harris' conviction, but the 134-page majority opinion by Judge David Namias was Much of the evidence states that it has something to do with Harris. Sexual activity should not be allowed and may have had an inappropriate effect on the jury. The ruling means Harris is entitled to a new trial for murder and child atrocities against him.
"I am very grateful and grateful for the new trial," said Harris lawyer Mitch Durham.
The High Court upheld Harris' conviction for three sex crimes committed against a 16-year-old girl who did not appeal. He was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison for those crimes.
According to an email statement, the Cobb County District Attorney's Office will file a motion to review the case.
Prosecutors alleged that Harris was unhappy with his marriage and deliberately killed his son in order to free himself. To support this theory, they exchanged sexually explicit messages and graphic photographs with women and girls, met some of them for sex, and so on. Presented extensive evidence of sexual activity.
The lawyer described him as a beloved father, stating that the boy's death was a tragic accident. According to the majority opinion of
6-3, the jury "heard a lot of improperly recognized evidence." When prosecutors portray Harris "intentionally and maliciously" as a man who abandoned his child to die in the heat of summer, they also have a jury answer to another more legally problematic question. He says he presented a fair amount of evidence to guide him. Some people are (Harris).
Harris, who moved from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to the Atlanta area for work in 2012, forgot to drop his son at day care on the morning of June 18, 2014 and went straight to work. I told the police. As a home depot web developer without remembering that Cooper was still in his car seat.
Cooper died after sitting in the backseat of a Hyundai Tucson SUV outside his father's office in the suburbs of Atlanta for about seven hours. The temperature on that day reached at least 80 degrees Celsius.
Harris leaves his son in the SUV instead of dropping him off in day care That, and the heat in the car killed the boy. The only controversial issue was whether Harris "intentionally and maliciously left the child to suffer its painful death," Namias writes.
Some of the evidence was appropriate to establish the prosecution's theory of Harris' motivation, but the courts should have ruled out many, Namias wrote. Very unfavorable evidence is evidence that Harris exchanged lewd and sometimes illegal messages and photos with four minors, color photographs of genitals taken from text messages and blown up for court show, And there was evidence that he hired a prostitute.
The state "convinced that (Harris) was a philanthropist, a pervert, and even a sexual predator," Namias wrote. ing. "This evidence was of little help in answering the important question of (Harris's) intent when he left Cooper, but the jury is someone who (Harris) is morally repulsive. Even if he wasn't convinced beyond the reasonable suspicion that the jury had deliberately killed Cooper, he acted (such as painfully killing a child in a hot car). "The one who deserves punishment."
The well-recognized evidence that Harris intended to kill the child was "not overwhelming," Namias wrote. "Misidently admitted sexual evidence convicted the jury."
Judge Charlie Bethel wrote a partial objection with Judge Sean Lagurua and Judge Verda Corvin. .. He said the state was "given the right to detail the nature, scope, and evidence of the truly ominous motives attributed to Harris." As such, Bethel wrote that the court did not abuse its discretion in granting the evidence that was challenged.
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