Justin Ross Harris Denied New Trial; Attorneys Plan To Appeal

COBB COUNTY, GA — A Cobb County judge denied Justin Ross Harris' motion for a retrial after he was convicted of murder in 2016 for intentionally leaving his child in the backseat of a hot car for hours.

Harris is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Macon State Prison in south central Georgia, and maintains the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, was accidental. The toddler was left in the Harris family's SUV on June 18, 2014, while his father worked at a Home Depot office on Cumberland Parkway, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark, who also presided over the 2016 murder trial, issued the ruling against a new trial last Thursday. Mitch Durham, the Marietta attorney representing Harris, told the MDJ he would appeal Clark's decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.

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 that 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 reads.

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.

Ashleigh Merchant, a Marietta attorney who has followed the case closely, told the AJC that the defense has a strong case for appeal.

“I think everyone can agree it was highly prejudicial,” Merchant said of the evidence allowed detailing Harris’ sexual escapades. “How relevant was it? I personally think it’s a leap to say because he wants to live this lifestyle, that must mean he wants his child dead. I just don’t see that.”

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