Third week of jury selection begins in Ross Harris trial

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The third week of jury selection is now underway in the Ross Harris trial.

Harris is accused of intentionally leaving his 2-year-old son Cooper to die in a hot car for more than seven hours. %

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Out of dozens of potential jurors questioned so far, Judge Mary Staley has approved 31 of them to serve in the trial. Experts say they will likely need 42 in the pool before the trial can start.

Lawyers questioned several more potential jurors Monday. The first three said they already believed Harris is guilty, and only one of them said they would be able to set that opinion aside.

“Do you believe he’s guilty as you sit here right now?” prosecutor Jesse Evans asked the juror. “Yeah, no question in my mind he’s guilty. The question is, how guilty is he?” the potential juror responded.

Later in the day, lawyers questioned an EMT. He told the courtroom that he remembers responding to a call in 2011 in Kennesaw where a young child was accidentally left in a car outside a day care and died. He initially said his experiences as an EMT could make sitting on the jury difficult, but told lawyers he could be impartial. By the end of questioning he changed his mind, saying he did not think he could be fair.

Finding jurors has been a difficult task because of the high-profile nature of the case. Jury selection is expected to continue at least through the end of this week.

Cox Media Group