The tedious process of finding 12 citizens to serve on the jury that will determine whether Justin Ross Harris intentionally locked his son inside a hot car to die was narrowed ever so slightly Monday.
Two men — one celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary in Paris and another away “on the high seas” — were dismissed from a pool of more than 300 jurors summoned to appear. Eight other potential jurors with scheduling conflicts were accommodated by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley but not released from duty.
Legal observers expect it will take roughly two weeks, perhaps longer, to settle on a jury.
On Tuesday, members of the jury pool will spend much of the day completing a detailed, 17-page questionnaire about the case.
Harris, 35, was arrested on June 18, 2014, the same day he discovered his son Cooper's lifeless body strapped in his car seat. Investigators charged the former Home Depot web developer with felony murder and malice murder, alleging he killed the 22-month-old boy deliberately. Harris, appearing in court Monday wearing a dress shirt and tie instead of the customary jail-issued jumpsuit, contends it was unintentional.
With the case receiving national attention, lawyers for both sides will be looking for jurors who haven’t heard much about the case or ones who say they can remain neutral and decide Harris’ fate based solely on the evidence.
Marietta defense attorney Philip Holloway, who has followed the case since the beginning, said Harris' lawyers will be looking for citizens suspicious of government or those who've had bad experiences with law enforcement. In pretrial hearings the defense repeatedly alleged that police rushed to judgment, exaggerating evidence and taking statements by their client and his then-wife Leanna out of context.
“They’re going to be looking for jurors who aren’t impressed just because someone’s been charged,” said Holloway, a former Cobb County prosecutor.
The state, which will argue that Harris had grown disillusioned with family life, is likely to gravitate toward mothers and other primary caregivers, he said.
Though Cobb residents tend to be politically conservative and pro-law enforcement, Holloway said he believes an impartial jury can be seated.
“We have a large, diverse population in Cobb,” he said. “I think there’s enough people who will keep an open mind.”
And with the Harris saga receiving so much media attention, moving the trial to another part of the state wouldn’t make much difference, according to Holloway.
“Everyone in this state has heard about this case,” he said.
News outlets from across the U.S. and abroad have made arrangements to cover the trial, a spokeswoman for Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.’
For all the latest developments in the Harris case, follow @ReporterJCB on Twitter.
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