Justin Ross Harris Freed from Prison
Justin Ross Harris is no longer in a Georgia State Prison. The Tuscaloosa native who was sent to prison in Georgia for his son's death in a parked car during intense summer heat in 2014 is now in the Cobb County Jail in Georgia.
The Georgia Department of Corrections website reported Harris left Macon State Prison on Father’s Day nearly ten years to the day after his son, Cooper, died from being left for seven hours in a hot car while his father went to work.
Harris, now 43, was convicted of Cooper’s murder in 2016 after prosecutors convinced a jury Harris killed his son to escape the burdens of his marriage and fatherhood. But the life sentence was overturned in 2022 by the Georgia Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 that evidence submitted by prosecutors of Harris’ extramarital relationships – which the state had portrayed as the motivation behind his alleged decision to kill his son – had an unfair prejudicial impact on the jury.
Harris had moved from Tuscaloosa to the Atlanta area for work in 2012. He told police he forgot to drop off his 22-month-old son Cooper at day care. Instead, he drove straight to his job as a web developer for The Home Depot and left the child in his car seat.
At the trial, prosecutors theorized that Harris was miserable in his marriage and killed his son so he could be free. However, Harris' wife defended him saying they were planning for the future.
The case garnered international media attention and due to the intense coverage, the trial was moved from Cobb County in suburban Atlanta to Brunswick on the Georgia coast.
Though the murder charges were nullified, the court left in place three other counts relating to his electronic exchanges of lewd material with an underage girl.
Harris was sentenced to a total of 12 years on those three charges: Ten years for one count of attempting to commit sexual exploitation of a child, and one year each for two counts of dissemination of harmful material to a minor, according to the ruling.
Cobb County officials told CBS News they cannot confirm how long Harris will remain in jail, but Georgia media is reporting a former Cobb County prosecutor believes Harris could serve the remaining two years of his sentence on other charges in the county jail.