COBB COUNTY, Ga. — After a weekend recess, attorneys resumed questioning jurors for the Justin Ross Harris murder trial Monday.
Harris is accused of intentionally leaving his 2-year-old son Cooper to die in a hot car for more than seven hours in June 2014. %
%
Nearly two dozen of the original pool of 250 potential jurors have been interviewed in depth so far, including eight on Monday.
So far, the judge has qualified 16 people to serve on the jury, but that’s not nearly enough. They may need up to four times that many.
Cooper’s death has generated a lot of news stories over the past two years, so Harris’ attorneys are trying to make sure potential jurors haven’t formed opinions from watching them, a task that has proved difficult.
Juror says others do not have an open mind
One juror told lawyers in court Monday that he believes many of the potential jurors do not have an open mind.
Juror No. 22, an unemployed man living on his ex-girlfriend’s couch, told lawyers he overheard other jurors talking about Harris while they were filling out questionnaires last week.
“I could hear the people in the back while I was filling out the questionnaire (talking about) how closed-minded they were and throwing someone under the bus and saying, ‘Oh, this person’s guilty. This is the reason why they did it.’ That’s such a subjective view and that’s very unfair to a person,” he said.
He said he wanted to serve on the jury because he comes in with an open mind. He told lawyers he tried not to listen to the comments of other prospective jurors.
“That defeats the whole purpose of me filling out the questionnaire. If you automatically throw somebody under the bus and did your category of guilt, then I don’t feel like you’d be appropriate for the case,” he said.
Lawyers did not immediate address those claims, but other potential jurors who were grilled freely admitted they came in with a belief Harris killed his son.
Harris also faces charges of sexting underage women, even on the day his son died.
Some of the questions, including ones posed to Juror 22, revolved around dating apps and pornography,
"Do you routinely look at porn?” defense attorney Maddox Kilgore asked. “Heck yeah I do. That's why I'm single,” Juror 22 answered.
Potential juror admits she’s formed an opinion
The next juror interviewed, Juror No. 23, told lawyers she saw the extensive news coverage on the death of Cooper Harris but would do her best to be fair and impartial.
Kilgore argued that the woman had formed an opinion as to Harris’ guilt or innocence and wanted her booted from the trial.
“Her concept of burden of proof is that she would make this man do something to prove that he's not guilty. I don't think ‘I would do my best' is going to be sufficient to make her a fair and impartial juror,” Kilgore told Judge Mary Staley. “This is the exact reason why we have 250 jurors pooled. We knew this was going to happen.”
Despite his argument, Staley said she believed the juror and gave her the court’s OK.
“She ultimately ended up saying that her decision will be driven by the evidence in the courtroom, and she would make the state meet their burden of proof, that she'd been proven wrong before,” Staley said.
Expert says jury selection could take weeks
One legal expert says selecting a jury could take weeks.
"So that means they need to get 48 people in the pool so the lawyers can then make their strikes," said attorney Ashley Merchant, who is not affiliated with the Harris case.
Jury selection continues Tuesday morning.
Cox Media Group
