Georgia Dad's Appeal In Toddler Son's Hot Car Death Heads To Georgia Supreme Court

COBB COUNTY, GA — The Cobb County father convicted of killing his toddler son by leaving the child in a hot car to die will have his appeal heard by the Georgia Supreme Court next week.

In a case that garnered national attention, Justin Ross Harris was found guilty of malice murder and first-degree child cruelty in 2016 in the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. The toddler was left in the Harris family's SUV on June 18, 2014, for roughly seven hours while his father worked at a Home Depot office on Cumberland Parkway.

Harris is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Macon State Prison in south-central Georgia for his son's murder, but he maintains the death of his son was accidental.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark denied Harris' motion for a retrial in May 2021, and his lawyers appealed.

When Harris' attorneys filed for a new motion in 2017, they claimed the court made a variety of errors that prevented Harris from having a fair trial — including a failure to block evidence that unfairly focused on Harris' marital infidelities and purported sex crimes.

Prosecutors argued at the time that the father's online search history showed he had planned the killing to gain a "child-free lifestyle." Harris was married, but texted six different women and sent sexually explicit photos to a 17-year-old girl during the seven hours his son was fatally trapped in his SUV. Harris' ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, filed for divorce in 2016, according to CNN.

Harris' defense team said this was irrelevant to the question of whether Cooper's death was intentional, but prosecutors argued this supported their theory that Harris killed his son "to live a life without children, to be able to divorce his wife and then to have numerous sexual relationships," Clark's order denying Harris' retrial said.

Harris' original defense team also said Clark prevented them from challenging the credibility of Cobb County police and expert witnesses, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

According to an overview of the case, Harris' appeal makes those same arguments. He alleges several trial court errors, including "allowing state prosecutors to present evidence of prior bad acts, such as marital infidelity and numerous online sexual conversations, requiring disclosure of a defense expert’s notes, allowing the introduction of a 3-D animation, and limiting the cross-examination of three witnesses for the state: two detectives and a computer expert."

He also argues there was insufficient evidence to support his murder and cruelty to children convictions, and that he was denied his right to a fair trial.

The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Related:

• Justin Ross Harris Denied New Trial; Attorneys Plan To Appeal
• Justin Harris Hearing For New Trial In Hot Car Death Scheduled
• GA Father Who Left His Son In A Hot Car To Die Wants A New Trial
• Dad in Hot Car Death Facing Sexting Charges