Almost three weeks of efforts to find an impartial jury in Cobb County fell apart in May, with the judge agreeing to move the trial because of pretrial publicity.
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Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of Justin Ross Harris.
Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of the man from Tuscaloosa accused of leaving his young son to die in a hot vehicle in Georgia.
Harris, who moved to Georgia in 2012 from Alabama, is charged with killing his 22-month-old son, Cooper, in June 2014. Temperatures in metro Atlanta that day in June climbed into the high 80s.
Prosecutors say the then-married man deliberately left his son in the auto because he wanted a child-free life.
Harris’ lawyers say he left the toddler strapped in his vehicle seat after forgetting to drop Cooper off at daycare.
In addition to being accused of murder, Harris – who was married at the time – has been accused of exchanging sexual messages and pictures to multiple women, at least one of whom was allegedly under the age of 18. His attorneys have called the death a tragic accident.
Leanna Taylor, Cooper’s mother, divorced Harris after the child’s death but told several media outlets she believed her former husband was innocent. Others said they would try to be fair, but it would be hard.
Hundreds of potential jurors in Glynn County will show up for questioning on Monday.
On May 3, Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark granted a defense request to relocate the trial.
“You probably don’t have as many people who are inflamed about what happened in their own backyard as you would in a different community”, attorney Esther Panitch said.
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Harris will now be tried in Glynn County, located on the coast about 60 miles south of Savannah. “But the rest of Georgia couldn’t care less most of the time, especially about crime”.
