What did Justin Ross Harris do? Prosecutors drop case against Georgia father in son's 2014 death

Prosecutors will not be seeking a retrial for Justin Ross Harris, who was previously convicted for leaving his 22-month-old son, Cooper Harris, to die in a hot car. This development comes nearly a year after a state high court overturned his murder conviction due to improper handling of charges.

The incident took place on June 18, 2014, when Justin Ross Harris claimed to have forgotten to drop off his 22-month-old child at daycare and inadvertently drove to work, leaving his son in the car seat. On November 14, 2016, he was found guilty of all eight counts associated with the tragic death.

Despite no retrial, Justin Ross Harris will continue to serve his 12-year prison sentence for other charges, including criminal attempt to commit s*xual exploitation of children and dissemination of harmful material to minors. These charges were separate from the hot car death case.

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Justin Ross Harris was having multiple extramarital affairs

Justin Ross Harris had engaged in multiple extramarital affairs, some involving underage teenage girls, according to prosecutors. They argued that Harris intentionally killed his son to free himself from parental and marital responsibilities, enabling him to pursue other such relationships. Evidence presented at the trial included explicit messages and pictures.

Harris' son Cooper had passed away after he was left in the vehicle for approximately seven hours, with the temperatures reaching at least the high 80s on that day.

In 2022, Harris filed an appeal challenging his convictions for murder and first-degree child cruelty. His legal team contended that the evidence presented during the trial was insufficient and that the focus on his extramarital and potentially illegal s*xual activities overshadowed the charge of intentional child murder.

The Georgia Supreme Court reviewed the case and subsequently overturned the counts related to Cooper's death. The ruling emphasized that the inclusion of charges related to Harris' s*xual activities, when tried alongside the murder charge, created prejudice. Without that evidence, the court questioned whether a jury would have convicted Harris of murder.

The court found that the evidence indicating Harris' malicious and intentional abandonment of his son was not overwhelmingly convincing, leading to doubts about the impact of the erroneously admitted s*xual evidence on the jury's guilty verdicts.

The court recognized the potential relevance of messages regarding Harris' extramarital affairs but limited their relevance to the timeline of events, highlighting that these messages did not reveal the ages of the women involved or any inherently illegal activities.

The court also criticized the state's inclusion of irrelevant evidence, such as explicit images, which diverted attention from the primary issue of whether Harris deliberately caused his son's death.

Even Justin Ross Harris' ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, defended him in a 2017 interview with ABC, stating that their relationship showed no signs of him being capable of harming anyone, especially their own child.

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Harris' legal team say Cooper's death was unintentional and not a crime

The parole board noted that it has not received an amended sentencing order but maintained that if the District Attorney's (DA) decision to drop the case results in parole eligibility, Harris would be given meaningful parole consideration.

Responding to the DA's decision, Harris's legal team released a statement expressing their belief that Cooper's death was unintentional and not a crime. They emphasized Harris' acceptance of moral responsibility while asserting that charging a grieving parent for an unintentional memory failure does not effectively prevent similar tragedies.

Harris' ex-wife says he would never hurt Cooper ( Image via Georgia Department of Corrections)

Justin Ross Harris' attorneys conveyed his deep love for his late son and expressed hope that the dismissal of charges would contribute to the restoration of Cooper's legacy.

They also highlighted that child fatalities from hot cars increased after Harris' widely reported 2016 trial, underscoring the need for broader awareness and preventive measures.