Cobb DA won’t retry Justin Ross Harris for murder

Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady has declined to retry Justin Ross Harris for murder after the Georgia Supreme Court threw out his conviction.

Harris had been convicted of murdering his 22-month-old son, who died in 2014 after Harris left him in a hot car for hours while he went to work at the corporate offices of Home Depot. 

The state Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction last June. In a 6-3 ruling, the high court sided with Harris’ and his attorney’s argument that prosecutors wrongfully used evidence of Harris’ multiple extramarital affairs at trial, claiming he deliberately killed his son, Cooper Harris, to escape a failed marriage.

Harris remains in jail on sex offense convictions, which were upheld by the court. Instead of serving a life sentence, he will continue to serve his 12-year sentence for several sex offense convictions stemming from an affair with a minor. Harris began serving that sentence in June 2014.

However, defense attorneys for Harris said his release date will ultimately be up to the state Department of Corrections.

DA Flynn Broady’s office said in a statement, “For the last 11 months, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office has conducted a thorough review of the entire case file. Crucial motive evidence that was admitted at the first trial in 2016 is no longer available to the State due to the majority decision of the Supreme Court. Therefore, after much thought and deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not retry Justin Ross Harris on the reversed counts of the indictment.”

Prosecutors notified the Cobb Superior Court Thursday that they were dismissing the murder charge, and Cobb Superior Court Judge Rob Leonard signed off on the motion.

 Harris’ attorneys issued a statement reiterating his position that the death of Cooper Harris was an accident.

“Ross has always accepted the moral responsibility for Cooper’s death,” said defense attorneys Maddox Kilgore, Carlos Rodriguez and Bryan Lumpkin. “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. Indeed, throughout the course of representing Ross, we have learned that these tragic accidents often happen while the child is in the care of a loving parent. Ross was no different. He deeply loved Cooper. Ross is no doubt relieved at the dismissal of the charges against him, but he is also thankful that today’s dismissal may begin to restore Cooper’s legacy as a child much loved by his parents.”