Judge disqualifies several potential jurors in Ross Harris trial

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — More potential jurors in Cobb County were questioned Thursday as attorneys inch closer to forming a jury in the Ross Harris murder trial.

Harris, 35, faces charges including murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper.

Four jurors disqualified Thursday

Several potential jurors were kicked out of the jury pool Thursday, but not nearly as many as his defense team had hoped.

Over the last two days of jury selection, people have come into the courtroom and said they couldn’t believe leaving a child in an SUV could be an accident, or they came into the courtroom biased against Ross Harris.

Thursday, Judge Mary Staley made it clear that having an opinion on Harris is not enough to be let off. She says if the potential jurors say they can set that aside in court, they can still be selected for the jury.

Harris’ lawyers asked the judge to disqualify eight of the potential jurors, but at the end of the day, only four were excused.

Staley told them Georgia law discourages juror strikes for cause, and having an opinion or thoughts about Ross Harris' guilt is good enough.

“The fact that a potential juror may have some doubt as to his impartiality or complete freedom from all bias does not demand as a matter of law that the juror be excused for cause,” Staley said.

Decision is a blow to the defense

The decision to only excuse four was a blow to the defense who believed the majority of those questioned already believe Ross Harris is guilty, even before trial.

“What we're going to ask the court to do out of this first twelve, I’ll just tell you there are seven of them that have come in this courtroom and said we think he’s guilty,” said defense attorney Maddox Kilgore.

That includes several jurors who openly said they couldn't believe a child, like Cooper Harris, could be left in the back of an SUV on a summer day.

"Being a parent of two children, the description of the events certainly did not seem plausible to me," said one juror. %

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Cooper, prosecutors say, was intentionally left in his father's SUV for seven hours nearly two years ago and died.

Many jurors say they heard about the case, and presumed Harris was at fault, and admitted sometimes openly saying that. One woman characterized Harris as “one screwed-up person.”

Courthouse experts say at this rate they are pretty confident they will be able to find a panel of qualified jurors to hear the case in Cobb County.

Cox Media Group