Cathy@courtchatter 1h1 hour ago
#JustinRossHarris - Court adjourned, no need to come back tomorrow. Each side will submit briefs, judge will rule later.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Justin Ross Harris defense moves to exclude “irrelevant” evidence
By AJC.com | February 22, 2016

The state’s case against Justin Ross Harris, charged with purposely killing his 22-month-old son by locking him inside a hot car for seven hours, is packed with irrelevance, the defense argued Monday.

“In a nutshell, they’re arguing that any explicit sexual communications or acts constitutes evidence of murder,” said defense attorney Maddox Kilgore. “From what we’ve seen, there’s no evidence of him wanting to commit violence, no history of neglect or indifference.”

Kilgore wants evidence of his client’s extramarital relationships ruled inadmissible, saying it’s only purpose is to sully the reputation of Harris, a former Home Depot web developer.

[...]
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley has yet to rule on the defense motion but did give Harris’ team a small victory earlier Monday. Jurors will not hear about two insurance policies, totaling $27,000, that Harris had taken out on his late son, Cooper.

[...]
Harris insists his son’s death was an accident. His trial is scheduled to begin April 11.

More at link: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/ ... ele/nqT8g/

I have not been keeping up with this case so thank you to Molly and Rumpole.

Either Harris is mentally retarded or he is a murderer in my opinion.


*Warning* Gross graphic ahead.

The prosecutor can win this with a Perry Mason type of stunt. Take a piece of beef that weighs the same as the boy, leave it in the same temperature/heat condition and vehicle size as the boy died in, let it cook for 7 hours. Send the jurors into that confined space and find me a single juror who is not overcome by the stench. Maybe a person forgets their child, a person does not miss the smell of a decomposing body in a hot car that has been cooking for 7 hours. So Harris story in my mind is bullshit.

A scum bag does not a killer make but a story easily discredited should land this POS in a concrete cell for life unless of course the Death Penalty is available. Cooking your own baby takes a certain kind of evil.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

I did read about this case when it was "news" but, of course I haven't seen the evidence detail that will be presented at trial. I keep an open mind to the extent of waiting to see the evidence (both sides).

My impression was that it was NOT intentional murder.. the dope simply forgot he had the kid in the car.. tragic.. but an accident. Dropping the kid off was NOT what happened every day.. so there were days when he arrived at work, parked his car and forgot about it.. as he did on the fateful day... it was to that extent part of one version of a normal routine for him to do that.

He was likely engrossed in online activity and distracted...... and even if that involved "sexting" ..its not illegal.. he's not on trial for being a bit of a perv. The same circumstances would have prevailed if his online distraction was something else.. perhaps something people generally might approve of. The point being that his online activity is irrelevant IMO

Carm.....IF your contention is that he KNEW.. because the car would smell like Casey Anthony's Pontiac trunk.. you may have a point... I require more details on the temp conditions etc.... witnesses who in fact DID get a wiff of the car with dead child in it etc.... all will be reveal at trial

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Pretty much that is my contention Rumople. The temperatures reached 92 degrees that day. That baby was in the SUV for the hottest time of the day for 7 or 8 hours? There is simply no way that the scent of death would not have been overwhelming when Harris opened the door. So I call bullshit on his entire story, unless as I said he is retarded.

I have smelled a corpse that was out in the cool night air for about the same amount of time the body was 50 feet away and the scent of death was unmistakable even outside. I can’t imagine how strong the odor of a body cooked in a car was like on a hot day.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

It is early days. I am open to whatever the evidence shows.

Just thinking though... if this WAS a deliberate, intentional murder then it is a REALLY dumb plan. To simply leave your child to bake slowly to death in a car would require a VERY evil nature, and as a "plan" it is doomed to likely get you in the exact position he is.... charged with murder, with a good chance of being found guilty. It seems to me to be so foolish and unlikely a ""plan" that in fact it WASN'T a plan.. it was an accident

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Could be an accident I don't know enough about the case. Harris looks dumb (totally biased, and purely subjective opinion on my part). Is he dumb from what you have seen or read so far? I still can't get past the odor of a dead baby in the car in the heat for hours and it not slamming him in the face when he opened the door if he really didn't realize the boy was in there.

Ack do my thinking for me Rumpole I really don't want to get vested in this case

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

It's not a case with intrigue in the evidence, or any "political" back story

But.. it's one that the masses seem to be following.... and so a case that will be reported so that we CAN follow it.

It is a PLUS that for once there is not a racial divide/bias.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Ok I'm doing some reading, it is a death penalty case. Bravo Georgia!

And I read this

According to Stoddard, before Cooper Harris' death, the boy's father visited a Reddit page called "child-free" and read four articles; he allegedly searched online about how to survive in prison and how hot a car needs to be to kill a child. It wasn't clear from Stoddard's testimony exactly when these searches took place.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

Ok I’m reading your links and the jury consultant who thought it might not get out of the Grand Jury phase cited the Anthony case. << That in and of itself is a bit vomit inducing.

Harris went to the car and opened the door hours after he left Cooper in there? “He opens the driver door, tosses the lightbulbs in and heads back in to his office.” Harris didn’t notice an odor?

Harris is in IT so at the very least he is not retarded.

I read Harris’ brothers defense. And the discrepancies in Stoddard’s testimony and the video tape.


“The information was circumstantial and piecemeal, Harris’ attorney, H. Maddox Kilgore argued in his closing statement”

Most cases that go to trial are circumstantial cases and the circumstances don’t look good to me.



Stoddard said Harris told police he watched a TV report on a parent who accidentally left a child in a car and now urges parents to turn around to check that they are not doing the same.


Well it apparently it didn’t sink in or Harris murdered his son.


I lean toward murder.


And this is all nonsense. It goes to character and motive.

“In a nutshell, they’re arguing that any explicit sexual communications or acts constitutes evidence of murder,” said defense attorney Maddox Kilgore. “From what we’ve seen, there’s no evidence of him wanting to commit violence, no history of neglect or indifference.”

I generally really despise defense attorneys and Kilgore is not going to be one of the few exceptions to the rule.

And thanks Molly for all the links !

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

http://www.myajc.com/news/news/crime-la ... ath/nqFr7/


Harris is a liar.

They cited, for example, the prosecution’s claim, that Harris and his wife Leanna “researched” children dying in hot cars prior to their son Cooper’s death.

“The fact of the matter is this is completely bogus,” defense co-counsel T. Bryan Lumpkin argued. “(Ross Harris) said he had watched the news,” which contained a report on the topic. Harris also told police that leaving his child in a car was his greatest fear.

The truth of the matter;

“Defendant’s further admission that he had viewed a video online about deaths in hot cars alone authorized the search and seizure of electronic devices in this case,” she wrote. “Defendant claimed in his interview that he ‘forgot’ his child in a hot car alone authorized police to obtain a search warrant to examine his cell phone for evidence of whether or not he was distracted the day of Cooper Harris’ death.”

The devil is in the details. I never ever trust liars, there is a dead baby to account for, why would Harris lie? That is the question I would ask myself if I was on the jury and there is only one answer I can come up with.


Harris will have his day in court and if he is found guilty I hope they give him the death penalty. A presumption of innocence is only required by the court, I have no power to do anything to Harris but from what I have read he looks like a murderer.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

So.... I'll pencil you in as a participant here once the trial starts, Carm

I am sure I dont have to remind you (much) that he is...." Innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt"

I am an uncommitted juror... but the prosecution will have to do a lot of convincing to prove to me that Ross made a decision to slow-broil his baby son for 8 hours.. that he even checked on progress half-way through cooking period, and decided the baby needed more cooking time.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Harris is not innocent until proven guilty. That is a matter of law. He is guilty if he murdered his son. The court may find him guilty or innocent. Sorry Rumpole but you are not a juror and neither am I, neither of us need to afford Harris any courtesy. I'm not a loon letting my emotions lead the evidence, I'm following the scant evidence available and IMO Harris looks guilty of premeditated murder.

I am fair minded and don't think I come without a bias, there may be evidence that convinces me otherwise but the fact that Harris lied to his attorney about the "cooking kids in a car" video is a huge strike against any credibility that Harris might hope to have.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

I dont see (I havent looked) evidence that he is guilty.

In order to be guilty he has have an evil mind beyond my experience.... that is not to say its impossible... cases confront us with evil monsters all the time.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Ya know I hope he isn't guilty but sadly the human mind is capable of such evil that not much surprises me when it comes to human depravity.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

Oh I think he is guilty, no doubt. So I will be following the trial for evidence to convince me otherwise. It is sad, because in Texas -- if a child does not show up at a licensed daycare, they must notify the parents/guardian until someone is reached to confirm the absence. This may have saved little Cooper.

I've never known a family (personally) to take out life insurance policies on toddlers-- much less TWO.

The morning of the incident he replied to a post saying "I love my son and all, but we both need escapes." So he was at least thinking about his son, who he forgot to take to daycare hours earlier.

He sext'd with six different women that morning. I don't know, but I am guessing that was his "escape" to forget his son was dying in the van.

Prosecutor: Man Accused in Hot Car Death was Sexting with Teen Girl When His Son Died
By ABC7Chicago.com | March 6, 2016

COBB COUNTY, GA -- A man accused of leaving his son in the back of a hot car in Georgia has been indicted on charges of sexual exploitation of children.

Justin Ross Harris is also charged with several counts of dissemination of harmful material to minors.

The indictment was handed down Thursday by a Cobb County grand jury.

Court documents claim that Harris "did knowingly possess material, a digital image and photograph depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct."

The document says Harris "did knowingly disseminate and furnish...printed matter containing explicit and detailed verbal descriptions and narrative accounts of sexual excitement and sexual conduct" to a minor.

[...]
Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds also released a statement on Friday.

"The recent indictment is based on advances in electronic forensic analysis in conjunction with recent interviews of newly discovered victims. Had the state delayed charging any further, prosecution of some of the charges would have been barred by the statute of limitations," Reynolds said.

More at link: http://abc7chicago.com/news/prosecutor- ... d/1233533/

Man accused in son's hot car death, wife divorce weeks before trial
By Hope Jensen | Channel 2 Action News | March 31, 2016

(snippets from article)

Just days before Justin Ross Harris goes on trial for the death of his son in a hot SUV, his divorce from his wife has been finalized.

Whether she will ever take the stand in her now ex-husband’s trial remains unclear. But it is clear that if she does testify, she can testify about anything.

Harris' trial is set to start April 11 with jury selection.

Prosecutors have put Leanna Harris on their witness list and plan on subpoenaing her for the trial.

More at link: http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/man-a ... ks-/nqwnL/

Jury selection in Harris' murder trial begins Monday, April 11.

His ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, is on the witness list.