The sensational Ross Harris murder trial has finally found a new home.
Whether the defense will find enough open-minded jurors in Brunswick, located some 325 miles away from Cobb County, remains to be seen. Jury selection will begin anew on Sept. 12.
“It might make a slight difference, maybe 10 percent,” said Marietta criminal defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant. “Overall, I think you’re going to see that many of these folks have already made up their mind.”
Six weeks ago, with opening statements just days away, Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark hit the reset button after determining the hostility toward Harris, accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son in his SUV to die, ran too deep among his neighbors and peers.
“I believe one juror said ‘rot in hell,’ ” Staley Clark said after announcing her decision to grant the defense’s request for a change of venue. “I think another used the word pervert … . One juror even opined the defendant deserves the death penalty in this case.”
The judge’s ruling followed three tedious weeks in which 85 prospective jurors were questioned, one at a time. Testimony hadn’t even begun, and already the proceedings had cost the county up to $25,000. Cobb court administrator Tom Charron said it was too early to calculate an exact cost to taxpayers.
“Could it be six figures? Yes, it very well could be,” Charron said Thursday
Brunswick, located along the coast in Glynn County, was the favored destination all along. In 2007, the trial of Stacey Ian Humphreys, accused of killing two Cobb real estate agents, was moved there due to extensive pre-trial publicity. Cobb returned the favor in 2013, playing host to the trial of a Brunswick teenager accused of fatally shooting a toddler.
But neither of those trials received the national coverage that has accompanied the Harris case.
“It will be a test to see if the change of venue statute means anything in a trial that’s being followed nationally,” Dunwoody criminal defense attorney Esther Panitch said.
One major difference, according to Panitch: Potential jurors will not be as invested as they were in Cobb.
“Here, you could drive by the crime scene. You might know one of the police officers,” she said. “That won’t be a factor in Brunswick.”
Merchant said she expects Staley Clark might be more liberal in granting defense requests to strike jurors who give an indication their minds about Harris’ guilty are already made up.
During the first go around, the judge qualified five jurors who indicated they believed Harris intended to kill his son. By the end of the process, however, she appeared to have a change of heart, instructing the prosecution and the defense to work out a compromise. When they couldn’t reach one, Staley Clark granted the change of venue.
“I think they could’ve gotten a jury here but the (district attorney) wasn’t willing to bend and the judge didn’t want to be a referee,” Merchant said.
Charron said jury selection should be completed in two weeks. Both sides expect the trial to last four to six weeks.
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