Harris v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseAppellant Justin Harris left his 22-month-old son Cooper strapped in his rear-facing car seat on a June 2014. Harris walked into work; the child died of hyperthermia after hours in the hot car. The State’s theory was that Appellant intentionally and maliciously abandoned his child to die a slow and painful death trapped in the summer heat, so that Appellant could achieve his dream of being free to further his sexual relationships with women he met online. The defense theory was that Appellant was a loving father who had never mistreated Cooper and simply but tragically forgot that he had not dropped off the child on that particular morning. During Appellant’s trial, substantial evidence was presented to support both theories. At issue is some of the State’s evidence which was admitted at trial that “did little if anything to answer the key question of Appellant’s intent when he walked away from Cooper, but was likely to lead the jurors to conclude that Appellant was the kind of man who would engage in other morally repulsive conduct. The Georgia Supreme Court found that the evidence presented was legally sufficient to support his convictions for the crimes against Cooper, and some of the evidence was properly admitted as intrinsic evidence to establish the State’s motive theory, the trial court should have excluded much of it because it was needlessly cumulative and prejudicial. Appellant’s convictions on counts charging crimes against Cooper were reversed.
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