Georgia father once accused of murder is freed from prison 10 years after toddler died in hot car

A Georgia father was released from prison 10 years after his son died in a hot cara case that made global headlines after prosecutors charged him with murder.

Justin Ross Harris was released Sunday — Father’s Day — from Macon State Prison, Georgia Department of Corrections records show. He began serving his sentence on December 6, 2016.

Harris had moved from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to the Atlanta area for work in 2012. He told police that on the morning of June 18, 2014, he forgot to drop off his 22-month-old son Cooper at daycare. Instead, he went straight to his job as a web developer at The Home Depot and left the child in the car seat, he told investigators.

Cooper died after sitting for about seven hours in the backseat of the Hyundai Tucson SUV outside his father’s office in suburban Atlanta, where temperatures that day reached at least 80 degrees.

At trial, prosecutors presented the theory that Harris was unhappy in his marriage and killed his son so he could be free. They presented evidence of their extramarital sexual activities, including exchanging sexually explicit messages and graphic photographs with women and girls and meeting some of them for sex.

Harris was found guilty in November 2016 on eight charges, including intentional homicide. A judge sentenced him to life without paroleas well as a further 32 years in prison for other crimes.

But the Georgia Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn his murder and child cruelty convictions in June 2022, saying the jury saw evidence that was “extremely and unfairly prejudicial.”

Prosecutors said at the time that he would not face another trial in Cooper’s death. The Cobb County district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, said in a statement that it disagreed with the majority decision. But because of that decision, prosecutors said crucial evidence about Harris’ motive was no longer available for use.

Harris’ lawyers have always maintained that he was a loving father and that the boy’s death was a tragic accident.

Although it threw out the murder conviction, the state Supreme Court upheld Harris’ convictions in three sexual crimes committed against a 16-year-old girl, which Harris did not appeal. He continued to serve time for these crimes until Sunday, when he was released from prison.

Harris’ case has attracted extraordinary attention, making headlines around the world and sparking debate online and on cable news programs. After determining that pretrial publicity made it too difficult to find a fair jury in suburban Atlanta’s Cobb County, the presiding judge agreed to move the trial to Brunswick on the Georgia coast.

According to data from advocacy group Kids and Car SafetyOn average, 38 children die every year due to heatstroke in a vehicle. Over the past three decades, more than 1,000 children have died in these incidents.

A recent analysis of CBS News data shows that 83% of all hot car deaths in the past six years they have occurred between May and September – at least one death a week during the sweltering summer. This isn’t just happening in states with warmer temperatures. The breakdown reveals a hot car death reported in nearly every state.