Ten years after his kid died in a hot vehicle, a Georgia father was freed from jail; the case gained international attention when prosecutors charged him with murder, according to the AP. Records from the Georgia Department of Corrections indicate that on Father's Day, Sunday, Justin Ross Harris was released from the Macon State Prison.
Starting on December 6, 2016, he was serving his sentence. In 2012, Harris relocated to the Atlanta region for employment from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. According to his statement to the police, on June 18, 2014, he neglected to drop off his 22-month-old son Cooper at daycare. He told authorities that instead, he left the infant in his car seat and went directly to his work as a web developer for The Home Depot. Cooper passed away in the rear seat after spending almost seven hours there on a day with highs in the eighties.
Prosecutors said throughout the trial that Harris murdered his son to end his marriage because he was unhappy and wanted to be free. They provided proof of his extramarital affairs, including the exchange of graphic images and sexually suggestive communications with women and girls, as well as the meetings of some of them for sex. However, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed his 2016 murder and child abuse convictions in 2022, and at the time, prosecutors said he would not be tried again for Cooper's death.
The convictions of Harris for three sex offenses against a sixteen-year-old girl were maintained. He was freed from jail on Sunday after completing his whole sentence for those offenses.
Starting on December 6, 2016, he was serving his sentence. In 2012, Harris relocated to the Atlanta region for employment from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. According to his statement to the police, on June 18, 2014, he neglected to drop off his 22-month-old son Cooper at daycare. He told authorities that instead, he left the infant in his car seat and went directly to his work as a web developer for The Home Depot. Cooper passed away in the rear seat after spending almost seven hours there on a day with highs in the eighties.
Prosecutors said throughout the trial that Harris murdered his son to end his marriage because he was unhappy and wanted to be free. They provided proof of his extramarital affairs, including the exchange of graphic images and sexually suggestive communications with women and girls, as well as the meetings of some of them for sex. However, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed his 2016 murder and child abuse convictions in 2022, and at the time, prosecutors said he would not be tried again for Cooper's death.
The convictions of Harris for three sex offenses against a sixteen-year-old girl were maintained. He was freed from jail on Sunday after completing his whole sentence for those offenses.
