Posted on 06/23/2022 12:15:50 AM PDT by Morgana
Georgia Supreme Court has overturned a father's murder conviction for leaving his infant son to die in a hot car after they found the jury was shown evidence that was 'extremely and unfairly prejudicial.'
Justin Ross Harris, 41, was sentenced to life in prison for the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who died in 2014 after being left in a hot car for seven hours.
But on Wednesday, Supreme Court justices agreed that prosecutors in his 2016 trial should not have told the jury about his conviction for sexting an underage high school girl.
Prosecutors had highlighted Harris' frequent affairs and sex crimes showed he was unhappy in his marriage and intentionally killed his son to free himself. They presented extensive evidence of extramarital sexual activities that he engaged in, including exchanging sexually explicit messages and graphic photos with women and girls and meeting some of them for sex.
While his conviction for murder was overturned, Harris' conviction related to sex crimes against a 16-year-old girl was upheld.
Georgia Supreme Court justices argue Harris' extensive sexual activity reports shouldn't have been taken into the jury's consideration in connection with Cooper's death.
Harris, who was sentenced to life without parole and 31 more years for more crimes, is eligible for a new trial on the murder and child cruelty charges against him - although his conviction for sex crimes with a minor remains.
The 6-3 majority of justices believe the jury 'heard and saw an extensive amount of improperly admitted evidence.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I have a son who is 27 months old. There is no way he could be left in the car. He can scream very loud.
Why even have juries if they’re not allowed to know anything?
There are few more horrible ways to die than to be literally roasted alive in a hot car. Good Lord how that poor child suffered.
This low life son of a bitch should be hung with piano wire from a meat hook.
This is insane….
Only if your baby is awake. By the time a sleeping baby has been subjected to smothering heat, he might not even wake up.
It is a fundamental principle of evidence law that evidence of other bad acts is inadmissible. A defendant must be convicted on evidence he committed the crime charged. The judge screwed up.
“Why even have juries if they’re not allowed to know anything?”
Especially as it relates to the crux of the case.
Oh well, we can’t have starving attorneys...
at this rate, by 2024 they’ll be freeing the Manson family members and putting Sharon Tate’s sister in prison in their place!
Yesterday I learned and posted how the NYC car massacre perp was released for reasons of insanity.
I don’t get the lefts endearment to criminals/insane/deviants/drug pushers etc.
He killed 1 WFM but injured 22. 1 so severely her pelvis was separated from her spine. He was going 90mph when he struck the crowd…
I don’t see what was unfair about it. Clearly it had to do with motive; he was worried about child support if he divorced.
Evidence of cheating seems relevant if you are trying to show he left the kid in the car on purpose.
Exactly. Abs sadly.
These type of cases are rarely nefarious. Usually the child is asleep, the parent forgets the child is in the car and realizes they forgot them after it’s too late.
Just had a child die here locally last week or two here from this.
I don’t know the facts of this case, maybe he did it on purpose as prosecutors claimed… if he did however it would be a rare exception.
That's why we have manslaughter.
“Harris left Cooper strapped in the back seat seat of his vehicle for nearly seven hours as the weather reached the high 80s.”
I don’t think that forgetting his son in that fashion is remotely possible. If he actually did, it is negligent homicide.
BTW, anyone who thinks these babies die in their sleep should read the autopsy report of a child that’s been cooked to death in a car.
It’s not a peaceful way to die.
My youngest turns 31 on Saturday so perhaps I don’t have a valuable opinion but just how does one forget a child in a car? I’m not being critical but, assuming no chemical impairment, how do you forget your child? When I was driving little ones they were always, first and foremost, what I was doing
I’m old, maybe I just don’t get it.
It may have been intentional.
“Prosecutors had highlighted Harris’ frequent affairs and sex crimes showed he was unhappy in his marriage and intentionally killed his son to free himself.”
Not defending the guy, but the claim above is quite a stretch. If the prosecutors had said that it was a distraction that led to his son’s death, then I think it’s ok to let the jury know.
I believe the "other bad acts" were admitted as evidence that the perp was busy sexting at the time of the crime and thus not paying attention to the child in the car.
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