Justin Ross Harris released from prison

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A Georgia father who had his murder conviction for the hot car death of his toddler son overturned was released from state prison a decade after the deadly incident, though he could spend the remaining two years of his sentence in county jail.

On Sunday, June 16, Justin Ross Harris was freed from Macon State Prison, according to online records from the Georgia Department of Corrections. He had been serving a 10 year sentence for sex crimes against a child, the records state. According to the Associated Press, his sentence began in December 2016.

Following his release, Harris was transferred to the Cobb County Jail, where he could serve the last two years of his sentence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

On June 18, 2014, Harris' 22-month-old son Cooper died of hyperthermia after spending seven hours buckled in his rear-facing car seat in the back of an SUV parked outside of his father's place of work at a Home Depot corporate office in Marietta, Ga., PEOPLE previously reported.

He had taken Cooper to breakfast that morning and then neglected to drop the toddler off at daycare, instead driving to his job. Hours later, Harris discovered his son's lifeless body in the back of his SUV.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Harris killed his son intentionally so he could be free to have sex with as many women as possible. They also claimed he exchanged sexual text messages with six different people — including a 16-year-old girl — on the day his son died.

Harris’ defense team contended that Cooper's death was a tragic accident, and that Harris did not intend to kill his young son.

In November 2016, Harris was convicted of his son’s murder and subsequently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole plus 32 years, 11 Alive reports.

However, that conviction was overturned in June 2022 following a 6-3 ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court, which found that a majority of the evidence presented in 2016 "was needlessly cumulative and prejudicial" and should have been excluded from trial, according to court documents previously reviewed by PEOPLE.

“Inadmissible evidence can lead juries to wrongfully convict an innocent person,” Harris’ defense attorney Carlos J. Rodriguez said in a statement obtained by NBC News at the time. (The guy left his kid to rot in a hot car. Even if it was a genuine accident - which I don't believe for a second that it was - it's still manslaughter to kill someone by accident. There was no innocent person in this case to wrongfully convict. If he's so innocent, why was he looking up how long it takes an animal to die in a hot car, and pretending to be childfree right before his kid died?) “Today's decision mirrors the very same points that we made to the trial judge, and we were right. I only wish the trial court had listened."

Still, the court upheld the sexual crimes charges against Harris, which he did not challenge. During the murder trial, he was also found guilty of one count of exploitation of a child and two counts of dissemination of harmful material to a minor, for his involvement with a girl who was 16 years old at the time.

Cobb County prosecutors announced in 2023 that Harris would not be retried in the murder case.

“Crucial motive evidence that was admitted at the first trial in 2016 is no longer available to the state due to the majority decision of the Supreme Court,” the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement at the time, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Therefore, after much thought and deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not retry Justin Ross Harris on the reversed counts of the indictment” the statement continued. “Cooper will always be remembered by this office and those who fought for him.”

Harris’ ex-wife and mother to their son, Leanna Taylor, spoke out after his murder conviction, saying that he was "a loving and proud father" who simultaneously was "a terrible husband,” according to CNN. (Uhhh I'm pretty sure when you leave your child to roast to death in a car for almost one-third of a whole day in the summer, you're not a loving father.)

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mumofsixbirds
Just more evidence that kids are really not as valuable as people say they are. It's because most people are parents and it seems they're somewhat of a protected class where it comes to killing their own children.

Fucking disgusting. I wish nothing but the worst for this guy.

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mumofsixbirds
Just more evidence that kids are really not as valuable as people say they are. It's because most people are parents and it seems they're somewhat of a protected class where it comes to killing their own children.

Fucking disgusting. I wish nothing but the worst for this guy.

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LoveToLurk
Funny how most parents are willing to give other parents a pass for murdering their own children.

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Cambion

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LoveToLurk
Funny how most parents are willing to give other parents a pass for murdering their own children.

I would venture a guess that a decent chunk of parents have given serious consideration to doing something to remove their kids from their lives at least once or twice, such as killing them or abandoning them. Especially when the brats are being particularly insufferable. Like you ever see a parent who is trying to deal with their brat's screeching meltdown in the grocery store and they look at you and go, "Hey you want a kid? LOL!"

I think parents give other parents a pass when they off their own kids because they know how much kids suck and have probably wished their kids were gone at least a handful of times.