Ross Harris' Murder Conviction In Son's Hot Car Death Overturned

COBB COUNTY, GA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a father’s conviction for murder in his son's hot car death.

Justin Ross Harris' conviction for murder and other crimes related to the death of his toddler son, Cooper, in 2014 was reversed because the jury “heard and saw an extensive amount of improperly admitted evidence," the court said.

Harris' 22-month-old died of hyperthermia on June 18, 2014, after he was left strapped into a rear-facing car seat in the back of Harris' SUV, according to court documents. It was parked outside his office building.

Related: Hot Car Death Dad To Appeal Murder Conviction To GA Supreme Court

Harris told police he forgot to drop Cooper off at day care and instead drove straight to work, according to court documents. Cooper died after sitting in the car for about seven hours and temperatures that day reached at least into the high 80s.

A Cobb County grand jury later indicted Harris on five crimes related to Cooper’s death, WXIA-TV reported. His trial was relocated to Glynn County, where a jury found him guilty of all charges in November 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Harris was also charged with three sex crimes against a 16-year-old girl that were alleged to have occurred between March and June 2014. He was sentenced to 12 years on those charges.

The court upheld Harris’ conviction for sexual crimes committed against the teen.

“The Supreme Court has reversed Justin Ross Harris’s convictions for murder and other crimes related to the death of his toddler son, Cooper, in a hot car, because the jury ‘heard and saw an extensive amount of improperly admitted evidence,'" according to a release.

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, according to CNN. 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," said Clark's order denying Harris' retrial.

Kara McIntyre contributed to this story.