Man sentenced to life in prison for hot car death will NOT be retried after ... trends now
A father from Georgia will not face another trial over his toddler's death in a hot car, prosecutors said Thursday, after the Georgia Supreme Court last year reversed his murder and child cruelty convictions.
The high court upheld 42-year-old Justin Ross Harris' convictions on three sex crimes committed against a 16-year-old girl that Harris had not appealed.
He received a total of 12 years in prison for those crimes, and he will continue to serve that sentence, the district attorney's office said.
The Georgia Supreme Court justices all agreed that there was enough evidence to support Harris' convictions.
But the majority opinion said much of the evidence having to do with his sexual activities shouldn't have been allowed at trial and may have improperly influenced the jury.
Justin Ross Harris (pictured), a father from Georgia will not face another trial over his toddler's death in a hot car, prosecutors said Thursday, after the Georgia Supreme Court last year reversed his murder and child cruelty convictions
Harris was found guilty in November 2016 on eight counts including malice murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper.
A judge sentenced him to life without parole, as well as 32 more years in prison for other crimes.
Cooper was almost two years old when he died in his father's hot car
But the state Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn his murder and child cruelty convictions last June, saying the jury saw evidence that was 'extremely and unfairly prejudicial.'
The Cobb County district attorney's office, which prosecuted the case, said in a statement that it disagreed with the majority's decision.
But because of that ruling, prosecutors said crucial evidence about Harris' motive is no longer available for them to use.
After doing a thorough review of the entire case, prosecutors said they decided not to retry Harris on the reversed counts.
A judge on Thursday signed off on the dismissal of those charges.
Harris' lawyers - Maddox Kilgore, Carlos Rodriguez and Bryan Lumpkin - have maintained from the start that Harris was a loving father and the boy's death was a tragic accident.
'Ross has always accepted the moral responsibility for Cooper's death,' they said in a statement after the charges were dismissed.
'But after all these years of investigation and review, this dismissal of charges confirms that Cooper's death was unintentional and therefore not a crime.'
Cooper's mother, Leanna Taylor, always insisted that Cooper's death was an accident.
Taylor last year said the court had made the right decision, calling it 'big news for Ross and his family.' She added: 'I know they are grateful for this turn of events.'
