A second panel of 36 prospective jurors showed up Monday to be questioned about the Justin Ross Harris hot-car murder case. All but one said they already knew about it, and more than half said they'd formed and expressed opinions about Harris' guilt or innocence.
If the trend holds, 21 new potential jurors begin the process believing Harris guilty of the June 2014 murder of his 22-month old son, Cooper.
The large number of those who know about the case and have formed opinions is similar to the initial panel of three dozen jurors questioned at length last week. This second panel of three dozen Glynn County citizens will be questioned collectively and individually by the state and defense over the next few days.
The hope is that enough jurors will be declared eligible for jury service by the end of this week. After that, the trial will take the last week of September off, with the trial scheduled to start on Oct. 3.
The charges: Harris is accused of intentionally leaving his only child inside a hot SUV to die. The former Home Depot web developer is charged with eight felonies, including malice murder, which gives jurors the option of finding that he intentionally left his child in his SUV, and felony murder, which would allow jurors to find Harris guilty of criminal negligence. Harris' attorneys say he left Cooper in the car by mistake.
By the numbers: So far, 23 prospective jurors have been found eligible to make it to the final jury pool. It's assumed that at least 42 potential jurors will be needed for the final pool, from which the main jury of 12, plus up to four alternate jurors, will be selected.
On schedule: Cobb County Court Administrator Tom Charron, who has been in court throughout jury selection, said Monday he believes enough jurors will be deemed eligible to be put in the final pool by the end of this week.
Porn again: Defense attorney Maddox Kilgore, questioning the 36 jurors as a group, asked how many had significant others or children who viewed pornographic web sites. Only three jurors — all women — raised their hands. Two of them have sons.
"Stench of death" : It comes as no surprise that former Fulton County prosecutor Nancy Grace, who rarely sides with defendants on her HLN legal affairs show, is convinced Harris is guilty. While discussing the case last week Grace repeatedly spoke of the "stench of death" inside Harris' SUV, insisting he would've smelled his son's decomposing corpse as soon as he opened the car door early that afternoon, to drop off a package of just-purchased light bulbs. "It's horrible — there is nothing like it," Grace said of the odor.
But of all the first responders and police who had access to the vehicle the day Cooper died, only two mentioned the smell. Former DeKalb County Chief Medical Examiner Joe Burton, now a consultant in forensic pathology, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it generally takes 24 hours for such odor-causing decomposition to manifest itself. Expect the defense to address that discrepancy during the trial.
Follow: AJC reporters Christian Boone (@reporterJCB) and Bill Rankin (@ajccourts) will be in Brunswick for the duration of the trial.
Harris is the subject of the second season of the AJC's podcast series "Breakdown," which will follow the trial's developments. Follow live updates on Twitter at @AJCBreakdown.
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