Speaker 1: The case being discussed in the next couple of episodes
Speaker 1: of Sworn was an emotional case. It was a horrific case.
Speaker 1: It was a highly publicized and emotional case. But the
Speaker 1: purpose of this podcast is not to relitigate guilt or innocence,
Speaker 1: and nothing that I say should be interpreted as an
Speaker 1: expression of my opinion about the guilt or innocence of anybody.
Speaker 1: Neither I nor this podcast is intended to relitigate the
Speaker 1: issues at trial. The jury has spoken. This is about
Speaker 1: what the case looks like from the inside looking out.
Speaker 1: The case was extensively litigated by very good lawyers on
Speaker 1: both sides. A jury reached a verdict, and it's not
Speaker 1: our place to relitigate those issues. But we do want
Speaker 1: to bring you inside the case for an insider's look
Speaker 1: at the case of the State of Georgia versus Justin
Speaker 1: Ross Harris. Place your left hand on the bay of
Speaker 1: Bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me,
Speaker 1: I you solemnly swear the jury trying it. Defendant not
Speaker 1: scared of continuing this weekend that ferguson and around the country.
Speaker 1: It makes no sense. If it doesn't fit, you must
Speaker 1: equit judge you are the last line of reason in
Speaker 1: this case. Every one of us took at all the
Speaker 1: spots and we're sworn to uphold the Constitution. From Tenderfoot
Speaker 1: TV in Atlanta, this is sworn. I'm your host, Philip Holloway.
Speaker 1: The first thing in a jury foleis jury selection. We've
Speaker 1: accomplished that each of you has been selected, chosen, and
Speaker 1: sworn to serve as a juror in this particular case.
Speaker 1: M last time on sworn we enter is to you
Speaker 1: to the Ross Harris hot car death case. A complicated,
Speaker 1: an emotional case overrun with media attention to recap. The
Speaker 1: case covers the death of twenty two month old Cooper Harris,
Speaker 1: who died of hyperthermia in the back of a sweltering
Speaker 1: hot car in Cobb County, Georgia, on June eighth. Later,
Speaker 1: justin Ross Harris, Cooper's father, was charged with murder. Media
Speaker 1: outlets sprung on the case, broadcasting salacious details of what
Speaker 1: was alleged to be Mr Harris's double life, namely his
Speaker 1: sexting with about a half a dozen women, none of
Speaker 1: whom were his wife. We already heard from the prosecution,
Speaker 1: so today we're going to be hearing from Maddox Killboard,
Speaker 1: Justin Ross Harris's defense attorney. But first let's take you
Speaker 1: inside the trial the State of Georgia versus Justin Ross Harris.
Speaker 1: M On October sixteen, the opening statements began for the
Speaker 1: State of Georgia versus Justin Ross Harris at the Glenn
Speaker 1: County Courthouse in Brentswick, Georgia. The trial would last roughly
Speaker 1: five weeks. Pleas gonna see it. The first thing I
Speaker 1: want to tell you is that the state is right
Speaker 1: about one very important that and that is Ross Harris's response. First,
Speaker 1: Charles death. This is Harris's defense attorney, Maddox Kilgore. It's
Speaker 1: his fault forty, no doubt about. From the moment he
Speaker 1: drove down the road, look back over his shoulder and
Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of Cooper in the back, he knew
Speaker 1: what you had done, he knew you'd forgotten him, and
Speaker 1: he whipped his car over into a parking lot and
Speaker 1: pulled him out, desperately looking into a little boy. And
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear that he tried to do CPR. Which
Speaker 1: is gonna hear is that he was too overwhelmed and
Speaker 1: he couldn't concentrate, but he never blamed anybody but himself
Speaker 1: kind of words. Did he use it? The thing? My god,
Speaker 1: what have I done? I killed my boy? I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry Cooper, I'm so sorry y And what he did
Speaker 1: wasn't willful. Kilgore goes on to prep the jury for
Speaker 1: what they will experience during this trial. He addresses the
Speaker 1: issues that the state will present as evidence against Harris,
Speaker 1: especially his sexual exploits. You're going to hear that Ross
Speaker 1: used social media apps to exchange very gross and graphic,
Speaker 1: filthy sexual talk with people. You're gonna hear about all
Speaker 1: kinds of nasty internet chats. You're not gonna hear ever
Speaker 1: molested child. You're not gonna hear he ever had sex
Speaker 1: with anybody under age. He's certainly not going to hear
Speaker 1: the ever forced anybody need to do anything that they
Speaker 1: want to do. You're going to hear about infidelity. You
Speaker 1: canna hear about adultery, and that is Ross was unfaithful
Speaker 1: to his wife, and you're going to hear about that
Speaker 1: sexual liaison sometimes in cars. You're going to hear about
Speaker 1: very um embarrassing graphic sexual matters and vulgar language. And
Speaker 1: he's earned every bit of that shame. But Ross's sex life,
Speaker 1: no matter how perverse and nasty and wrong, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have a thing in the world to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that he forgot that little boy. Ross looks stunned
Speaker 1: during this trial, pale, uncomfortable, nervously swallowing every few minutes,
Speaker 1: very completely under got nothing to do with each other.
Speaker 1: I've known you to be a great defense attorney for
Speaker 1: many years, and so is that even even including the
Speaker 1: time when you kick my mask and trial when you
Speaker 1: were the prosecutor. You you needed to lose that case,
Speaker 1: and so I'm okay with that. But h I'm happy
Speaker 1: to I'm happy to do this and be part of
Speaker 1: this podcast. This is Maddox Kilgore, Justin Ross Harris's lead
Speaker 1: defense counsel, and as you can tell, he along with
Speaker 1: Mr Boring, the lead prosecutor, he's a longtime colleague of mine.
Speaker 1: He agreed to do an interview for the podcast. I
Speaker 1: asked him how he got involved in this case in
Speaker 1: the first place. The morning after Cooper's death, my wife
Speaker 1: and I were getting ready for work and the story
Speaker 1: came on the news on the television and we both
Speaker 1: literally froze. The story was so gripping, you know, a
Speaker 1: child found in a car left by the father. All day,
Speaker 1: I mean both of us literally just froze and uh,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that hours later about a dozen
Speaker 1: family members from Tuscaloosa, Alabama would be in my office
Speaker 1: to talk about me representing Ross. I had been recommended
Speaker 1: by several other lawyers who were associated with the church
Speaker 1: that Ross and Leanna went to. Everybody involved was as
Speaker 1: devastated as you can imagine. Well, when the family came
Speaker 1: into my office, they were like shells. They were physically there,
Speaker 1: but they were so distraught and so devastated by Cooper's
Speaker 1: death that it was like talking to zombies. They were
Speaker 1: that devastated. I went out to the jail for a
Speaker 1: first appearance hearing and met Ross several hours later that evening.
Speaker 1: He was really the same way. His body was there,
Speaker 1: but he he wasn't. It was just just a shell
Speaker 1: of human. He was so distraught and so shocked um
Speaker 1: at what he had done. I mean, he left his
Speaker 1: child in the car. I would like to point out
Speaker 1: that the defense team did a great public service that
Speaker 1: most people really aren't aware of. Sure, they got paid
Speaker 1: from public funds to do their sworn duty, which was
Speaker 1: to be zealous advocates for the client. But these are
Speaker 1: also business owners who took a financial hit because essentially
Speaker 1: they had to close down their office during this trial.
Speaker 1: They could not take on any new cases. If lawyers
Speaker 1: can't take on new cases, their practices suffer severely. But
Speaker 1: these guys have never once complained because they know that
Speaker 1: the justice system would collapse if there isn't a truly
Speaker 1: vigorous adversarial process. We were, quite frankly bufuddled. We didn't
Speaker 1: understand why he had been arrested and charged with murder.
Speaker 1: The more we looked into it and investigated it over
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks, and the more we found
Speaker 1: out about it, and the more we talked to Ross
Speaker 1: and family members and co workers, we became even more
Speaker 1: befuddled why he had why he had been charged. I
Speaker 1: believe that the hardest thing about Maddox's job as Justin
Speaker 1: Ross Harris's defense counsel was to fight through the strong
Speaker 1: public opinion, the public outrage that so many people felt
Speaker 1: towards his client. A great many people publicly perceived him
Speaker 1: as a complete monster. Now, Maddox truly believes in harrass
Speaker 1: his innocence. There's a difference between Maddox as a human
Speaker 1: being and Maddox as a lawyer, and as a human being,
Speaker 1: when you feel this way, it's a really hard thing
Speaker 1: to deal with. He believed strongly in Harass his actual innocence,
Speaker 1: but as his lawyer, he had to be very careful
Speaker 1: with what he presented to the public. How did he
Speaker 1: deal with that emotionally as a lawyer, How did he
Speaker 1: deal with that emotionally as a human being, as a father,
Speaker 1: as a spouse. How did he deal with this is
Speaker 1: something he had to take home with him every single day.
Speaker 1: There was never any question that Ross was responsible for
Speaker 1: his child's death. I mean from the very beginning he
Speaker 1: understood that he was responsible. And of course when I
Speaker 1: saw him at the jail that very first meeting, in
Speaker 1: every subsequent meeting for the next two plus years, he
Speaker 1: carried with him that hurt, that burden of that pain
Speaker 1: of not just the loss of his little boy, but
Speaker 1: the realization that it was by his own hand. What
Speaker 1: we do is defend people who were charged with crimes.
Speaker 1: And it's rare that someone who has charged with crime
Speaker 1: and that crime is reported. Uh, It's rare that they
Speaker 1: would be Um a favored personality in social media. So
Speaker 1: we're certainly accustomed to our clients being looked at as
Speaker 1: the bad guys and being assumed that they're guilty. But
Speaker 1: this case was different. I mean, Ross was absolutely just
Speaker 1: slaughtered in social media, in print media, talking heads, on
Speaker 1: the television. We realized that he was not guilty of
Speaker 1: what he was charged with, and so regardless of what
Speaker 1: was being how he was being portrayed aid in media
Speaker 1: and social media, it created an enormous amount of anxiety
Speaker 1: on our part to try to make sure that he
Speaker 1: was not convicted. Sleepless nights, that's that's that's absolutely part
Speaker 1: of the job, and in this case, Um, it was
Speaker 1: more than two years of sleepless nights and anxiety and
Speaker 1: stress over getting ready to defend Ross. The media was
Speaker 1: a huge part of this case. There was such an
Speaker 1: inundation of media, especially in Cobb County, that it was
Speaker 1: hard not to have an opinion of some sort on
Speaker 1: Justin Ross Harris, and even harder not to have a
Speaker 1: negative one. When someone's arrested, there's an enormous amount of
Speaker 1: information that gets pumped into the public arena, and that
Speaker 1: could be on the news television, news, radio, print media,
Speaker 1: but more so than ever, social media, Facebook, Twitter, whatever.
Speaker 1: And when someone's arrested for a serious case, primarily I'm
Speaker 1: talking about cases involving children, they're immediately deemed a monster,
Speaker 1: and so you're you're really starting with two strikes against you.
Speaker 1: There is an absolute assumption of guilt in in the
Speaker 1: in the public eye, no doubt about it. This wasn't
Speaker 1: entirely the case at first. At first, there was a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of support for Ross Harris. There were go
Speaker 1: fund me accounts, public pleased to have the charges dismissed.
Speaker 1: And then suddenly all of that took a turn and
Speaker 1: a turn for the worst for Mr Harris. The media
Speaker 1: started reporting on information that was located in search warrants
Speaker 1: or search warrant applications that have been filed by the
Speaker 1: Cobb County Police Department. We discovered at the probable cause hearing,
Speaker 1: and subsequently when we received recordings of Ross's interview and
Speaker 1: other pieces of evidence, we discovered that there was a
Speaker 1: lot of very um false information that was that was
Speaker 1: in those search warrant applications. And once the media reported
Speaker 1: that information, then it certainly uh it had its desired effect,
Speaker 1: which was to make Uh make Ross look like a killer,
Speaker 1: make it look like he had planned Uh to kill
Speaker 1: his child. That's when the public perception really turned against him.
Speaker 1: And then, of course that was exacerbated after the probable
Speaker 1: cause hearing, where there was a lot of very damning
Speaker 1: sounding testimony that came out during that hearing. Of course,
Speaker 1: over the next two years we discovered that a lot
Speaker 1: of the testimony was absolutely misleading and faults. But at
Speaker 1: that point, the damage had been done. The public had
Speaker 1: already heard exactly what law enforcement wanted them to hear
Speaker 1: and um and so we were swimming upstream from there.
Speaker 1: I sat in the courtroom in Cobb County for the
Speaker 1: better part of two weeks while we watched the lawyers
Speaker 1: and the court do their damned best to try to
Speaker 1: find an impartial jury in Cobb County. I think in
Speaker 1: the end, it was the right thing to do for
Speaker 1: the case to be moved outside of the Atlanta media market,
Speaker 1: because while people have heard about this case, the feelings
Speaker 1: were not so strong and so strongly held as the
Speaker 1: feelings that we heard expressed by the potential jurors when
Speaker 1: they were questioned in Cobb County. Before the case was moved.
Speaker 1: Juries are really hard creatures to understand. You do your
Speaker 1: best to try to weed out people that may lean
Speaker 1: one way or may lean another way, may be supportive
Speaker 1: of the other side's case, but it's kind of like
Speaker 1: reading tea leaves. You really can't quite know until it's
Speaker 1: all over and done with what people are really thinking.
Speaker 1: We like to hope that most of the time it
Speaker 1: all works out right in the end, but we also
Speaker 1: know that sometimes it doesn't. You sort of have to
Speaker 1: pay attention to not getting caught up in the spin
Speaker 1: and looking at what is actually presented at trial. But
Speaker 1: I think for the jury in this case, emotion did
Speaker 1: really lead the way because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: a lot of people just couldn't imagine that somebody could
Speaker 1: forget their kid. And in either case, and in any case,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people thought, even if you
Speaker 1: were distracted, no matter what you were doing, you still
Speaker 1: have to pay the price for leaving your kid in
Speaker 1: the car. This is Veronica Waters, the reporter from w
Speaker 1: s B Radio who we heard from in the last episode. Well,
Speaker 1: you don't reporters don't like anything that's saying. Keep out media.
Speaker 1: The media lawyers were quick to be hired for that
Speaker 1: and argue in court for why the open court process
Speaker 1: was a valuable thing. An invaluable thing really for people
Speaker 1: to know what was happening, and we shouldn't be shut
Speaker 1: out of that. I do understand that the defense was like,
Speaker 1: we don't care if they come for the trial once
Speaker 1: we decide to, you know, pick a jury and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but right now we are afraid
Speaker 1: that we're going to taint the jury pool because there
Speaker 1: is so much coverage on this. According to Veronica, there's
Speaker 1: two sides to that coin. We had people who were saying,
Speaker 1: I get it, I've been distracted, I've forgotten stuff, And
Speaker 1: in quiet moments, there are some people who will actually
Speaker 1: tell you I have forgotten my kid in the car.
Speaker 1: Didn't happen for eight hours on a summer day, but
Speaker 1: I've walked away from the car for X number of
Speaker 1: seconds or minutes and forgotten that I had a kid
Speaker 1: in the car. Then you have other people like the
Speaker 1: guy that we first saw the first time that they
Speaker 1: tried to pick a jury in Cobb County. And this
Speaker 1: guy said, I don't even like subway sandwiches, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't forget my lunch on the seat, you know, let
Speaker 1: alone my kid. So a lot of people were super angry.
Speaker 1: They were shocked, and they were furious, and they thought
Speaker 1: even if he was distracted, he needed to pay for that. Yes,
Speaker 1: you have emotions about this case, and of course we
Speaker 1: think it's horrible and you feel as if you sort
Speaker 1: of have an opinion about it. But if you had
Speaker 1: to listen to the facts before you made a decision,
Speaker 1: could you do that? And I think people are put
Speaker 1: in that position. You don't want to say, like, no,
Speaker 1: there's no way that I could ever And although we
Speaker 1: did have some people say no, there's no way that
Speaker 1: I could ever ignore what I feel about this right now,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people said, well, yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I could, because we want to do what we feel
Speaker 1: is the right thing, and we don't want to see
Speaker 1: seem I think, super closed minded, so we're gonna say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we could. I think I could maybe sort
Speaker 1: of hear everything out before I levy a decision um.
Speaker 1: And so we had a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: jury pool who were like that, and the defense carefully
Speaker 1: took notes for those three weeks and then said this
Speaker 1: is how many we have who have been okayed to
Speaker 1: go through for potential striking later and look how many
Speaker 1: of them said, I've got an opinion on this case.
Speaker 1: You can't force anybody to not be biased basically about
Speaker 1: the case. And they met the standard of whatever that
Speaker 1: statute is, that law, and the judge said, okay, we're
Speaker 1: moving the trial. So the trial has moved due to
Speaker 1: what seemed like the promise of a heavily biased theory.
Speaker 1: Not everyone increased with that motion. Vinnie Politan, the former
Speaker 1: prosecutor and eleven Alive anchor who we spoke to last episode,
Speaker 1: shared his thoughts with us. During my entire career at
Speaker 1: Court TV hl N now at eleven Alive, I have
Speaker 1: covered dozens and dozens of high profile cases. At court TV,
Speaker 1: we didn't we didn't cover cases that weren't high profile
Speaker 1: because once Court TV showed up, it became high profile.
Speaker 1: This one was no different. This one was, yes, a
Speaker 1: national story, everybody was talking about it, but this case
Speaker 1: was not higher profile than Casey Anthony O. J. Simpson,
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. So the reports are out there and they're
Speaker 1: going to be out there, but our system is set
Speaker 1: up that, hey, you can overcome pre trial publicity and
Speaker 1: give defendants fair trials, and in history has shown us
Speaker 1: this Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder, Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson was not guilty of sexually assaulting that child. O. J.
Speaker 1: Simpson was found not guilty of murder. So clearly, in
Speaker 1: three cases that are incredibly high profile criminal defendants got
Speaker 1: fair trials. So it gets done. Our system works. In
Speaker 1: this case, there was an incredible concentration of coverage of
Speaker 1: this case, especially in Cobb County where it happened. So
Speaker 1: during the jury selection process, it seemed like everybody had
Speaker 1: been exposed and a lot of people had made preconceived
Speaker 1: notions of guilt or innocence and a view of what
Speaker 1: it meant in terms of what Ross Harris did. And
Speaker 1: as a result, you listen to these jurors during the selection,
Speaker 1: the initial selection process, and you're like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if we'll be able to get a jury. But the
Speaker 1: judge was able to qualify because the test is can
Speaker 1: you or can you not take whatever you know about
Speaker 1: this case ahead of time, put it aside and base
Speaker 1: your verdict just on what you hear in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: And that's what juries do. Ask O. J. Simpson as
Speaker 1: Casey Anthony. So people throw that aside. The role of
Speaker 1: the media and the impact that the media can have
Speaker 1: on on jury selection, to me is a non issue.
Speaker 1: It's something that just gets completely thrown out of whack
Speaker 1: by defense attorneys. And the reason being is ultimately everyone
Speaker 1: gets a fair trial, whether you pick the jury from
Speaker 1: the county where it happened, or if you move it
Speaker 1: to a different part of the state. Eventually you will
Speaker 1: find twelve people who can put anything that they heard
Speaker 1: about the case or may have heard about the case
Speaker 1: aside and and give a true verdict based upon the
Speaker 1: evidence inside the courtroom as instructed by the judge. Now
Speaker 1: back to the trial. During the trial, the prosecution played
Speaker 1: for the jury a dash camp video from one of
Speaker 1: the first officers who arrived on the scene. Gross Harris
Speaker 1: can be heard in the background screaming. Upon their arrival,
Speaker 1: an officer asked Mr Harris for his I D. And
Speaker 1: he lashed out towards the officer with some obscene language.
Speaker 1: Not too long after the police arrived, Harris was placed
Speaker 1: in handcuffs and put in the back of a squad card.
Speaker 1: The dash camp continued rolling. Prosecution paused the video to
Speaker 1: ask Officer Jacqueline Piper while she was on the stand
Speaker 1: in the courtroom, are you Officer Piper um Stead there
Speaker 1: that you said I turned all the windows down, It's okay,
Speaker 1: all the way up? What have you said right before that?
Speaker 1: Was it not captured on the audio since he was
Speaker 1: in the back that it was hot in the vehicle.
Speaker 1: Ross Harris had asked for the windows to be rolled
Speaker 1: down because it was too hot in the cop car.
Speaker 1: In this case, the advantage prosecutors had was that Ross
Speaker 1: Harris didn't testify. This jury, did not hear, did not
Speaker 1: have the defendant get up on the witness stand, look
Speaker 1: the jury in the eyes and say, listen, I didn't
Speaker 1: do this. I loved my son. I don't know why
Speaker 1: the defense didn't put him on the witness stand, and
Speaker 1: maybe because of that double life he had, But that
Speaker 1: double life was already in front of this jury and
Speaker 1: it was basically there without any sort of explanation, and
Speaker 1: there was no heart felt apology from Ross Harris to
Speaker 1: his son for letting him down. There was no Ross
Speaker 1: Harris talking to this jury and telling them that it
Speaker 1: was an accident. And to me, the new evidence that
Speaker 1: I would have feared most as a prosecutor would have
Speaker 1: been a defendant, a father who got up on that
Speaker 1: witness stand and was genuine. Ross Harris had been sexting
Speaker 1: with multiple women, including an underage girl on June eight,
Speaker 1: all this as Cooper was dying of hyperthermia in the
Speaker 1: back of a boiling hot car. One woman who was
Speaker 1: a part of Ross Harris's other life, named Caitlin Floyd,
Speaker 1: was called to testify during the trial. Did he ever
Speaker 1: inform you that during these times, uh, that he may
Speaker 1: have been messaging you some mornings that there was a
Speaker 1: child in the backseat and you asked him how long
Speaker 1: they did marry? And how does he respond? And how
Speaker 1: do you respond? Asked him happy? How does he respond
Speaker 1: arry minus sex? What does he say about it? That
Speaker 1: is too much of a sexual frank? Does he ask
Speaker 1: you to perform some type of sex act? And does
Speaker 1: he want to do that in public? Yes? Okay? What
Speaker 1: was your response? I said, I don't want to get rested?
Speaker 1: And did you send him a photograph after that? What
Speaker 1: was his response? UMM? Asked him if you wanted to
Speaker 1: play with him? And how did he respond? Because it
Speaker 1: says yes I do and did you respond, I did
Speaker 1: What'd you say? Well, good things come to those who
Speaker 1: won't and how did he respond? Ultimately, at trial, some
Speaker 1: of the most damning and compelling evidence presented by the
Speaker 1: prosecution were the graphic details of Ross Harris's extramarital sex
Speaker 1: life and the notion that his baby boy, Cooper Harris,
Speaker 1: was in the way of his pursuit of other women,
Speaker 1: and he was in the way of Ross Harris is
Speaker 1: being able to lead this different life in the spirit
Speaker 1: got County, State of Georgia's State of Georgia, Earth and
Speaker 1: dustin law scares and base number nine three Lange here four.
Speaker 1: Any time of verdicts coming down, you are supertense, So
Speaker 1: you know, everybody wants to be first with it. Everybody's fascinated, fascinated,
Speaker 1: you want to know, you know what the what? What
Speaker 1: are the jury see And a lot of times that's
Speaker 1: why we like to watch their faces and see how
Speaker 1: they look at Ross Harris. Do they seem compassionate? And
Speaker 1: then when they're walking in the courtroom, you're trying to
Speaker 1: look at them and see are they looking at the
Speaker 1: defendant or are they not making eye contact with him?
Speaker 1: And a lot of times if they are not looking
Speaker 1: at them, then you if they have sort of this
Speaker 1: stony looking face and they won't make eye contact with
Speaker 1: the defendant, you can kind of tell. So when we
Speaker 1: were waiting, you know, every you know, the the era
Speaker 1: is electric find as follows cow, one mouse or still
Speaker 1: be more container. I remember that when malice murder was
Speaker 1: that was the very first count, and when they said
Speaker 1: guilty on that, I was like, he's going down. If
Speaker 1: they convicted him on malice murder, they're convicting him on everything.
Speaker 1: Riss Harris was found guilty of all eight charges, including
Speaker 1: malice murder, even after tremendous efforts made by the defense.
Speaker 1: Even though Maddox killed Gore and the defense team believed
Speaker 1: in his innocence and did the very best that they
Speaker 1: possibly could to defend him, the jury could not be
Speaker 1: convinced otherwise. Their decision may have had to do with
Speaker 1: the idea that Ross did in fact want to be
Speaker 1: freed from his predictable and domestic lifestyle, which the States
Speaker 1: supported with the evidence of his own line sexual exploits
Speaker 1: and affairs. Their decision may have had to do with
Speaker 1: the extensive media coverage, Even though the took extraordinary measures
Speaker 1: to prevent the media's influence. It may have had to
Speaker 1: do with what seemed like Ross's abnormal reactions as a
Speaker 1: grieving father. Regardless, Ross Harris was found guilty. Very disappointing,
Speaker 1: very surprising, very disappointing. We were surprised. We were very
Speaker 1: very surprised when we got the verdict that we were
Speaker 1: not expecting. We were surprised, but we had already had
Speaker 1: lots of conversations with with Ross as we do, as
Speaker 1: you do any client, you know what could happen and
Speaker 1: what it means. In January, Maddox Kilgore filed a motion
Speaker 1: for new trial. After that, new appellate council was appointed
Speaker 1: to represent Mr Harris through his appeals. I talked with
Speaker 1: his appellate lawyer just the other day in the courthouse,
Speaker 1: and he told me that because of the length of
Speaker 1: this case, the length of the trial, it may very
Speaker 1: well be early before there's even a transcript that can
Speaker 1: be prepared that he can look at to review for
Speaker 1: potential error so that there could be an appeal. Until then,
Speaker 1: Ross Harris remains behind bars in Valdosta State Prison, sentenced
Speaker 1: to life without parole for the murder of his twenty
Speaker 1: two month old son Cooper Harris may he rest in peace.
Speaker 1: Sworn is produced by Tenderfoot TV Atlant Story production and
Speaker 1: sound design by Payne Lindsay. Executive produce us Donald Albright
Speaker 1: and Payne Lindsay, and if you have it yet, please
Speaker 1: check out our sister podcast, Up and Vantage, that follows
Speaker 1: the investigation into the disappearance of Georgia High school teacher
Speaker 1: and beauty queen Tera Brinstead. Up and Vantage is available
Speaker 1: now on ethel Podcasts. Sworn is mixed and mastered by
Speaker 1: Resonate Recordings. If you're in the market for podcast production,
Speaker 1: go to Resonate Recordings dot com to get your first
Speaker 1: episode produced for free. If you haven't already, please head
Speaker 1: over to iTunes now to subscribe, rate, and review Sworn
Speaker 1: and make sure you check us out online at Sworn
Speaker 1: podcast dot com and follow us on social media at
Speaker 1: Sworn podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and you can follow
Speaker 1: me your host, Philip Holloway at phil holloway e s
Speaker 1: Q on Twitter. Eat Your Last Eat Seed I Seed,
Speaker 1: Blood in the Fro jam Jamney, Blood in the Water