For the record, I'm not saying that I believe he is innocent, but that, as a juror, I don't know that I could have voted to convict, based on the evidence presented at trial.
The prosecution struck me as desperately resorting to character assasination and miss-representing facts. I found Leanna to be extremely credible on the stand and, as the closest thing to a living victim, her belief that it was an accident carried immense weight for me (as an armchair juror).
I simply can't balance torturing one's own child to death in a public place with any of the motives given:
1) 20K insurance???
2) A divorce that his wife freely offered? People have mentioned the financial burden but Leanna strikes me as someone who would have been more than willing to take Cooper to Alabama and start a new life. If Ross wanted out, I think she have traded full custody for minimal or no financial support.
3) "Life Style?" That was a creation of the Prosecution. I can't believe he committed murder to be with any of the women paraded before the jury. I suspect he would have grown old seeing the same prostitute once every other month for decades.
Cap it off with making no effort to cover his online tracks, and choosing a crime scene surrounded by people and security cameras.
I know the explaination for this is that "he thought he was smarter than everyone." Jodi acted that way her whole life - she still acts like that, if you follow her tweets. I simply don't see it in Ross.
If I had to pick an option, I think it was an experiment in thrill seeking that went wrong. I don't believe he was consciously aware that he was being filmed at Cobb HQ. When he put his head in his hands and said "what were you thinkng," it wasn't an act, it was a confession. He had been spiraling into ever more dangerous behavior - watching




in bed next to his sleeping wife, chatting with strangers, meeting with strangers, seeing prostitutes, sexting underage girls, talking about hooking up with men, etc. Scott Peterson was a sex-fiend - he ordered



channels on his TV within days of Laci's murder. For all the "danger" in Ross's behavior, there really wasn't that much actual "sex." I can see a situation where thrills were getting harder to come by and he left Cooper in the car to take it up a notch. He either didn't have an "end game," or he was unable to stop what he started.