The judge in the Justin Ross Harris case on Monday denied a defense motion to bar the media from covering pre-trial hearings where possible evidence will be discussed.
Harris, 34, sat impassively through much of the proceedings — his first public appearance since a probable cause hearing in July 2014. He is accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son inside a hot SUV to die.
Monday was the first of three days set aside for pre-trial hearings. On Tuesday the defense is expected to argue a motion to suppress jailhouse conversations between Harris and his wife, Leanna, who did not attend the first day of hearings.
Further motions hearings are scheduled for mid-October, at which time Staley said she expects to set a trial date.
Harris was indicted last September on charges including malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children. Harris, a former IT specialist pleaded not guilty and has been held without bond ever since. Defense lawyer Maddox Kilgore said media coverage of his client has “shifted the burden of proof” from the prosecution.
“Mr. Harris has already been condemned,” said Kilgore, adding that continued media coverage of pre-trial hearings will make it impossible for his client to receive a fair trial.
“All contested evidence is going to become public domain and will be available to any potential juror,” he said.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution attorney Tom Clyde said Kilgore failed to prove the reporting had been wholly prejudicial against Harris.
“You’re not entitled to a jury knowing nothing about your case,” Clyde said.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley agreed: “Much of what is complained of here is information that’s already in public purview,” she said.
Georgia law is more liberal than federal statutes governing open hearings, Staley said, and does not preclude the range of opinions expressed on social media and by bloggers.
“This is the new norm,” she said. “If closing courtrooms is the answer to that it vacates the First Amendment and we’re not here to do that.”
Much of the defense’s complaints stem from allegations introduced during Harris’ probable cause hearing. There, prosecutors sought to portray the Tuscaloosa native as a porn-obsessed, wannabe libertine pursuing a “child-free lifestyle.” They allege, for example, that he studied how long it would take his son, Cooper, to die inside a hot car.
A subsequent investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published last year concluded that investigators appeared to overstate some of the state’s evidence against Harris.
The defense on Monday also sought to quash a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor related to alleged “sexting” between Harris and a 16-year-old girl he met online. Harris co-counsel Carlos Rodriguez noted the legal disconnect between laws governing the age of consent (16 years old in Georgia and much of the rest of the country) and child pornography (which prohibits the production or possession of sexually explicit images of children under the age of 18).
The First Amendment “protects acts of sexual intimacy made in private between persons who are legally able to consent,” Rodriguez argued.
“Just calling something child pornography” doesn’t outweigh First Amendment protection, Rodriguez said.
Prosecutor Dan Quinn countered there is “not a single case where a child porn statute has been found unconstitutional.”
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