The Latest: After hot car death, parents talked of more kids

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

The Latest: After hot car death, parents talked of more kids

Updated 3:48 pm, Friday, October 21, 2016



BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The Latest on the trial of a Georgia man charged with murder after his toddler son died in the back of a hot SUV (all times local):

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4:40 p.m.

In a video recording made a few hours after their son died in the back of a hot car, a Georgia man and his wife can be heard talking about having more children.

Jurors in the murder trial of Justin Ross Harris watched police video Friday of Harris and his wife as they saw each other for the first time after their 22-month-old son, Cooper, died June 18, 2014.

Harris weeps as his wife, Leanna, consoles him. She remains calm throughout the 40-minute video. At one point she asks if Harris is willing to have more children.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/The-Latest-Tape-shows-interrogation-of-dad-in-10047972.php

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Something similar happened to me.

I was legally representing an indigent mother whose five children were removed by Child Protection. Her husband (the father) had his own counsel. They were taken away after he choked her in front of the children.

When the kids were initially removed, my client's husband tried to convince her to run away with him to another state, abandon the children (don't try to get them back), and they could have more children.

Epilogue: She divorced the bastard. We got her the kids back after 3-1/2 years in foster care, and they're together with her mother.

[StevieM]

3. Thank goodness they were ultimately reunited with their mother.

Our society is way too quick to dismiss the importance of family reunification.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. It was horrific. The Division equated poverty with child neglect.

The Division was supposed to provide financial services and programs as well as aid for domestic violence.

The Agency hoped to bolster its image by having five siblings adopted by their foster family. Plus the caseworker was to be paid $8000 for each child adopted. You do the math . . . . .

[StevieM]

6. This doesn't surprise me. These agencies can often be as ruthless as the adoption industry.

In a sense they are a part of the adoption industry.

People don't realize how hard they sometimes push for an adoption. And not because the kids need a home, but because they want more adoptions period. Sometimes the driving force is financial. Other times it is ideological.

They often threaten the parents in some way and make them feel they have no choice. By the time the duress wears off the papers have been signed and it is too late to get their kids back, at least in most states.

I have heard that it is even worse in Great Britain with UK Social Services.

[Chemisse]

2. It's hard to know how we would react if this happened to us.

As a mother, I think I would probably want more children. I don't think I would be thinking about that a few hours after the baby's death, but who knows? The agony must be so intense; I might grasp anything I could think of that would help the pain.

[mdbl]

4. The whole thing is bizarre

I would never have left my infant/toddler son in hot car. I would not even have left him alone in a cool car.

[Bradical79]

8. Why do they think he killed his son deliberately?

I'm not clear on the motive. Do they think he was trying to cut ties with the wife to go after this teenage girl?

[JI7]

9. he did internet search for it. bad acting on video

I remember reading about it and i think he killed him on purpose.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Here's more on the case from a thread posted earlier in October:

Jury told Georgia dad sought 'escape' in son's hot car death
Oct 4, 3:05 AM EDT
By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) -- Obsessed with seeking sex outside his marriage, prosecutors say, a Georgia man left his toddler son to die inside a hot SUV so he could "escape from one life into another."

Prosecutors opened their case Monday against Justin Ross Harris, who is charged with malice murder and other crimes in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring called Harris a deceptive man who saw his wife and child as obstacles to fulfilling his sexual desires.

"This case is about death, deception and a double life," Boring told a jury evenly split between men and women during his opening statement Monday.

Harris' defense attorneys will get their first chance to speak to the jury Tuesday morning. The defense team's opening statement got pushed back after court was delayed for 90 minutes late Monday afternoon. Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark recessed for the evening without giving an explanation.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HOT_CAR_DEATH_GEORGIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-10-04-02-58-48


[center]

Justin Ross Harris