A Cobb County judge decided Monday to move the hot-car murder case out of the county, a ruling that will delay the trial of Justin Ross Harris for months.
In granting the defense motion for a change of venue, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley cited prospective jurors who called Harris a “pervert,” believed he deserved the death penalty and hoped he would “rot in hell.”
Trying the case in Cobb County “would not be just,” Staley said.
The decision caught many by surprise, since the court had already qualified 41 prospective jurors and needed just one more to round out the jury pool. Opening statements in the case had been expected as early as Wednesday, but Staley’s ruling means the trial may not begin until fall. And when it does take place, the proceeding could be more than 200 miles from Marietta.
But the judge said she had seen firsthand the “pervasive bias” against Ross Harris among Cobb County citizens. She ruled that the defense had “carried the burden to make a substantive showing of the likelihood that the prejudice exists because of extensive publicity.”
Atlanta criminal defense lawyer Steve Sadow, who is not involved in the Harris case, said Staley made the right decision “legally and practically.”
“Why go through an entire trial with the cloud of pervasive prejudice hanging over it knowing you’d probably get to do it all over again?” said Sadow, citing a strong case for an appeal by the defense had the court declined to grant the venue change.
With three weeks of painstaking jury selection down the tubes in Cobb, the whole process will begin anew in a locale yet to be selected with jurors still to be summoned.
Staley and court administrator Tom Charron will now come up with possible replacement venues – Waycross, Brunswick, Savannah and Augusta were among the municipalities discussed on Monday. A judge in that new county would have to consent to placing the trial on the local calendar.
Charron said the change, in addition to delaying the start of the trial until fall, could cost Cobb upwards of $100,000.
It’s a move that could conceivably backfire for the defense. Citizens living in the counties mentioned above are at least as conservative those in Cobb, often more so.
“It’s definitely still not going to be easy to pick a jury,” said Marietta criminal defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who is not involved with the case. Cobb residents, she said, tend to be better-educated and more deliberate, though, in the Harris case, their opinions were often certain and almost always biased against Harris.
To say that the answers provided in the jury questionnaires showed “extreme opinions to the defendant is frankly an understatement,” Staley said Monday. “And then they come to court and the testimony corroborates what the questionnaires show. Although some jurors did, in fact, change their opinion. But about as many who said on the questionnaires they can be fair and impartial came to court and said they could not be fair and impartial. And then the other was true. Some who said they could not be, when they testified said they could be.”
Lead defense attorney Maddox Kilgore wouldn’t comment, but his negotiations with the prosecution, requested by the judge, indicated he believed he held the right cards.
Before she ruled, Staley asked the two sides to try to reach an agreement on five jurors who had been qualified over the defense’s objections. The defense said the five already believed Harris was guilty and insisted that all five be dismissed.
The state, according to the judge, agreed to disqualify only two of the jurors. Staley said that forced her hand, and she granted the change of venue.
Staley, a former prosecutor herself, often rules like one, many Cobb defense attorneys say privately. So her decision on the change of venue was all the more surprising. Prosecutors were likely caught unawares, thinking the judge, who had sided with them on almost every juror challenge, would stick by her initial rulings, Merchant said.
“They were probably as caught off-guard as everyone else,” she said.
Arguing against the motion zoo day morning, Cobb Deputy Chief Assistant District attorney Chuck Boring disputed the defense’s contention that it was impossible to find an unbiased jury.
“We’ve already done it,” he said, citing the 34 jurors the defense had agreed to qualify.
But ultimately the numbers carried the day for the defense. Merchant said their decision to wait until the last minute to file their motion made their argument more compelling.
“It was smart to put everything in writing,” she said. “Once it was presented in a cumulative effect like that … the judge really had no choice.”
As for those who will complain about the money and time wasted choosing jurors for a trial that is being relocated, Merchant advised they consider the alternative.
“Imagine all the time and money that would be spent if we had to try him a second time,” she said.
For the latest developments in the Harris case, follow @ReporterJCB on Twitter.
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