Justin Ross Harris, 33, also had two life insurance policies on his son, Cooper, and had twice watched a video about overheating deaths in cars before his son died June 18, according to police testimony given at a probable-cause hearing in Cobb County. After a more than a two-hour hearing, Judge Frank Cox found that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to try Harris for murder and second-degree child cruelty.It was horrifically bad enough the kid was left to die in a hot car, the dad was apparently not really working, the whole time.
Harris’ attorney argued that his client had simply gotten distracted, and that prosecutors had only brought up the sexting to “publicly shame” Harris, who is married. Two of Harris’ friends and his brother testified that he seemed to be a loving father, but none of them said they had known about Harris’ sexual dalliances. (read more)
Let me ask you to be a dispassionate juror, if you will. Does sexting while the child was dying make the case of "depraved indifference" worst? Or do you believe, as a defense attorney on Fox seem to insinuate this morning, the dad sexting should have no bearing on the case?
34 comments:
Defense attorneys have to come up with a defense rationale, even when their client is a monster
Perhaps this a-hole can hire Hillary to save him? I hear she's good.
The potential for prejudice outweighs the probative value, IMHO, unless the defense were to proffer evidence that the father changed his mind but too late or that something extrinsic unduly kept him from forming regret and changing his mind.
Lots of evidence cuts both ways and it wouldn't be beyond the pale for the defendant to proffer the sexting as partial support for the defense of diminished capacity, for example.
The guy should be put in the hot box at an old-fashioned Georgia county prison.
It shouldn't have any bearing on the case. It will, if there's a jury trial, but it shouldn't. Murder is murder.
Going back to the car is his only salvation, as he can plead second thoughts.
According to my Law and Order law degree, this goes way past depraved indifference. This is first degree murder. I hope the child went quickly.
I should add that the primary rationale for letting the sexting in, at all, would be res gestae.
The father had to be doing something while the child was dying, and it is irrelevant what that was unless it has some bearing on the duty owed.
Whether he was sexting or weeding his garden the duty was the same.
I want to stab anyone who leaves a pet or a child in a hot car.
He may have been just reckless, but actually I think the prosecution should be able to present the facts of this case.
Anytime someone commits murder their motivation comes into it, doesn't it? The prosecution seems to be claiming that the father wanted to be free... that he planned to bake his kid in the car. Parents get arrested for manslaughter (or whatever accidental murder is) when they forget about their babies for whatever reason (a frighteningly easy thing to do when you're severely sleep deprived) but they're claiming that he researched it and planned it because of the freedom of those who are "child free", in which case sexting six different women might legitimately support motivation.
Also... 22 months? OMG. That's almost two years. At that point you've got a toddler... who *talks*... you've fully incorporated "I have a kid" into your daily life and reflexes.
I feel really sorry for people with infants because it's clear they sometimes really do forget that it was their turn to drive the baby to daycare and they slide into automatic on their way to work and the baby is *silent* in the carrier, stuck in the backseat facing away so you can't even see them, because the law says you have to put them there.
22 months? No. Not even with the other evidence of planning ahead.
Not even *without* the other evidence...
It has no bearing.
Either he forgot the child was in the car, in which case it is gross negligence no matter what he was doing. I don't care if he was feeding the poor or seeing a hooker, it's gross negligence.
OR he did it one purpose, in which case he should fry. (Not sure how Georgia executes people these days. We really ought to skip the lethal injections and go with the tried and true methods of old.)
sometimes really do forget that it was their turn to drive the baby to daycare and they slide into automatic on their way to work and the baby is *silent* in the carrier, stuck in the backseat facing away so you can't even see them, because the law says you have to put them there
I read a good tip for new parents who have the infant in the backseat and as you say can forget.
Put a big stuffed animal or large doll in the front passenger seat along with the other items you need to get when you get out. This will remind you that you have a baby in the back. Put the doll or animal in the carrier when you remove the baby so that you remember to put it BACK into the front seat when you pick up your child.
I'm of the same mind as Synova. This wasn't a baby in the backseat it is a toddler who walks and talks. Even if he/she is asleep, which children will do riding in the car, you surely must have some awareness of your surroundings and be aware you put the child into the seat.
Nevertheless...How can you possibly forget that you are a parent?
Negligence or homicide?
He is a murderer. Period.
You. Cannot. Forget. A. Child. In. Your. Car. Full. Stop.
I am only sorry he didn't try to escape, when detained, in a hail of 49 or so bullets. You can always scrub off the boot print on his butt before the forensics crew gets there.
There's something to be said for executing killers in the same way they killed their victims.
Put this subhuman garbage in the backseat of his car w. the childproof locks on and let him roast.
Lowest rung of hell for this animal.
DBQ has good advice. *Always* putting the diaper bag in the front seat might do it, too.
After reading the article, this subhuman is going to prison.
No amount of excuses is going to save him. None.
No bond, that's super serial.
Why would a man murder his infant son? Why?
Did it mean he is in it too deeply? That the boy complicates his life to much? Just a murdering impulse? What? I cannot comprehend it. The phenomenon does not compute. I cannot process.
For the antidote to this not computing, if you had poked around the unboredable link earlier about the graphic designer's obsession with penises, you would see a woman gave birth to twins prematurely. One of the twins did not survive. She asked the doctors if she could hold the dead baby to say her last goodbyes. She stroked the dead twin and spoke to it praying. She wept. A very long time elapsed. Can you see this? While holding, and mourning, and crying and praying and stroking and loving her dead baby for two hours, the child came back to life.
Sexting / Texting doesn't matter which.
What he was texting about isn't the issue.
He chose to text while what -- just outside while his kid was cooking?
Life in an un-air conditioned Georgia prison sounds about right. No parole.
DBQ et. al.
I just saw the advice to out YOUR left shoe in the back seat. Sounds right to me. I could overlook the diaper bag or other stuff.
out = put
As in "put YOUR left shoe ...."
Chip, from the article --
Justin Ross Harris, 33, also had two life insurance policies on his son, Cooper, and had twice watched a video about overheating deaths in cars before his son died June 18, according to police testimony given at a probable-cause hearing in Cobb County.
Bold added by me.
This looks like premeditated murder, but forcing the child car seats into the back seat has led to the deaths of a lot of children.
It would be interesting to see estimates on lives saved versus lives lost considering the effectiveness of air bags and rear-facing but front seat child seats.
Aridog said...
He is a murderer. Period.
You. Cannot. Forget. A. Child. In. Your. Car. Full. Stop.
I don't disagree with the first statement but disagree with the second. It would be all too easy to do for some of us.
I once left the keys in a locked running car, so I think I could forget anything in a car. I have forgotten to pick up a child from daycare. Although I have never left a child in a car, given sufficient time it would be inevitable that I would. Where I live they would be unlikely to die.
Maybe they just had an expanded understanding of pro-choice. The womb is an arbitrary location for determining personhood, after all. I mean a baby can't even get out of the car? That kind of dependency interferes in the chosen lifestyle of the parents.
I agree with ARM.
The opportunities are few so I'll jump on this one.
I agree with ARM too. It is not common but it can be that you forget your child. Mistakes also can happen.
My first husband and I were at an event at a friend's house just down the street. We were in two separate cars, with our infant daughter being brought by my husband as I was just getting off of work. This was when you could still have the baby in the front seat carrier and have eye contact with your baby. (Pretty difficult to forget when you are staring right at the child). However, what happened was at the end of the event everyone said goodbye each of us thought that we had indicated to each other to the he was or I was going to gather up the baby and stuff. What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Both got home and went OMG!!!! Our friend called and said. "Um...forgot something????" Went back and sheepishly picked up a calmly sleeping baby and associated stuff. THAT never happened again.
If the guy was so unhappy with being a father, why not get a divorce and be a singleton again. Oh....I know....that nasty child support.
This guy should burn in Hell.
"He’s got this whole second life he’s living with alternate personalities and alternate personas" with his sexual activities online, Boring said.
Back to why integrity matters.
If I'm reading the story right, he returned to the car at lunch to put light bulbs in it with no light bulb going on, and then got into the car after work (eight hours later) and drove for two miles before the stench of what he'd done assaulted his nostrils.
Unless denial and dissociation have him so completely checked out or living in an alternate reality he is not present, the places in the story where the "OMG what have I done factor" could have happened and didn't, don't make sense.
Something more than forgetting is involved.
Hard to think about the child, when you're trying to figure out what your going to spend the child's life insurance monies on.
Given the news media's track record when reporting cases like this, I'm going to wait and see what other details come out before forming an opinion.
But if the details in the article are true, the sex angle sounds like a distraction from the actual crime.
Women do this all the time. It's called abortion. I think the motivation is the same. The person does not love and admire the other parent of the child. You do not kill the baby of someone you love and admire. There is also the possibility that the assumed father has learned that the baby was not his biological son.
The mother showed no emotion and is supporting this girly boy. He won't be able to it right the rest of his life after having his shit packed 10 times a day.
The light bulbs and driving with the stench should be sufficient for conviction.
The light bulbs part means the kid wasn't yet dead, and one wonders what words the boy said that dad pretended not to hear. Or perhaps it was just helpless sobbing.
Post a Comment