Parents Behaving Badly: The Case of Justin Ross Harris

As a pediatric nurse, I've been intrigued by the case of Justin Ross Harris, who is accused of killing his son by leaving him in a hot car.

This is one of those things, personally, that I do kind of scratch my head at. I know people get stressed. I could even understand leaving a child behind for a few moments before your rationale brain kicked in and said, "Hey, the baby's in the car."

I mean, we treat phones so much better.

He has pled innocent but this CNN HLN article brings up some interesting points that came from his hearing that I thought I would highlight here. These come directly from their piece.

1. It was a normal morning. Meaning, he was the one who usually took his kid to school. It wan't unusual for them to stop at Chik-fil-A for breakfast. When you do things repeatedly, there's less room for error.

2. It's a short distance from Chik-fil-A to his daycare. Like one minute. So, in one minute, he loaded his son up in the car but then forgot he was there.

3. You could see the child from the rear view mirror. This is a pretty interesting point. Evidently, Harris backed into his parking spot. He doesn't have a rear view camera so would have had to look in his mirror. When they placed a mannequin of similar size in that seat it was visible in the mirror.

4. Bizarre behavior. Witnesses felt like he was "working" at being emotional.

5. Strange statements. One alleged statement: "I dreaded how he would look."

6. Additional Injuries. Abrasions to the back of the head.

7. Sexting. Harris was sexting six different women as his son died including sending explicit photos.

8. Life Insurance. The child had two life insurance policies on their son and might have been in financial trouble from credit card use.

9. Internet Activity. Disturbing internet searches for videos with people dying, how to be child-free, how to survive prison and the age of consent for Georgia.

10. Harris is deaf in his right ear. This is used by the defense to perhaps explain that he didn't hear his son in the car.

Whatever happens in this case, one good thing that might come from these deaths is the invention from one teen, designed to alert parents if they do accidentally leave their child in the car.

What do you think from what you've hear of the Harris case? Do you think he committed murder?