2nd try at jury selection begins in hot car death trial

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A second attempt at jury selection in the trial of a metro Atlanta man charged with killing his toddler son began Monday, at a new courthouse 275 miles (440 kilometers) from the suburban parking lot where the child died in the back seat of a hot SUV.

Justin Ross Harris is charged with murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. Nearly three weeks of efforts to find an impartial jury in Cobb County fell apart in May, with the judge agreeing to move the trial because of pretrial publicity.

Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark reconvened the case Monday in coastal Glynn County, where dozens of potential jurors filed into the courthouse in the morning. The total size of the jury pool was not known. But more than 80 people at one point stood in a slow-moving line stretching from the front door and up a flight of stairs to a second-floor jury room.

At least 35 potential panelists asked to be excused due to various hardships, but it appeared they were going to have a tough time getting their wish. Of the six people questioned before lunch, just one was dismissed altogether: a man who claimed he was suffering from excruciating back pain and needed to take strong painkillers that made him drowsy.

Those who will remain in the pool for possible inclusion on the final jury include a father-to-be who said he expects his child to be born this week, a man whose daughter is getting married this weekend in Virginia, and a doctor who works in the emergency room of a rural hospital that typically has just one physician working every 12-hour shift.

The judge granted each of those possible jurors time to attend to affairs away from the courthouse, where jury selection could take two weeks. But they were all ordered to return before a final jury gets seated.

Harris, who moved to Georgia in 2012 from Alabama, is charged with murder. Prosecutors say he intentionally left his son to die at a time when Harris was unhappy in his marriage and looking for relationships with other women. Defense attorneys say the death was a tragic accident.