{"id":500227,"date":"2021-05-12T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=500227"},"modified":"2021-05-12T12:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:51:02","slug":"prosecutor-seeks-death-penalty-and-hate-crime-charges-in-atlanta-spa-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prosecutor-seeks-death-penalty-and-hate-crime-charges-in-atlanta-spa-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty And Hate Crime Charges in Atlanta Spa Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprosecutor-seeks-death-penalty-and-hate-crime-charges-in-atlanta-spa-shootings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=500227&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ECEAB61E-3DA0-47E3-B4CB-011263468DC1_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">On Tuesday, two separate grand juries indicted a man accused of killing eight people at spas in the Atlanta area on murder charges as one prosecutor said she will seek hate crime charges and the death penalty.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lifestyle-spas-massage-business-shootings-shootings-8b4fa8d0217180eef6f02111d5354345\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a> by The Associated Press, the 19-count Fulton County indictment includes charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and domestic terrorism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The domestic terrorism charge said the shooter committed multiple illegal acts \u201cwhich were interrelated by distinguishing characteristics, with the intent to cause serious bodily harm and to kill individuals and groups of individuals, and with the intent to intimidate the civilian population of this state and of its political subdivisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Six of the eight victims in the shootings were of Asian descent and the shooter is white. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice that she will seek a hate crime sentence enhancement and the death penalty against the man. AP reported, \u201cThe hate crime charges are based on the actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender of the four women killed, the notice says.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At a news conference Tuesday, Willis said that her decisions to seek out such charges \u201csend a message that everyone within this community is valued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a news release, Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said, \u201cToday we have taken another step forward in seeking justice for the victims of this crime and for their family members.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The arraignment has not yet been scheduled, but Wallace said she will decide whether or not to seek the death penalty before it takes place.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Willis changed her previous pledge to not seek death penalty charges as district attorney. At a 2020 candidate forum during her campaign for district attorney last year, Willis was asked \u201cWill you commit to refuse to seek the death penalty?\u201d Willis answered yes to the question.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cLast year I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek (the death penalty),\u201d Willis said during the recent news conference. \u201cUnfortunately, a case has arisen \u2026 that I believe warrants the ultimate penalty and we shall seek it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">AP reported that the killings are eligible for the death penalty because each was done while the shooter was in the act of carrying out another capital offense, namely the killings of\u00a0<span class=\"s2\">the other victims<\/span>, Willis\u2019 notice of intent said. Each killing was also \u201coutrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved depravity of mind\u201d and was done during an act of domestic terrorism, the notice says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/georgia-mass-shooting-kills-8-media-races-to-speculate-on-motive\">The series of shootings<\/a><\/span> at Atlanta-area massage parlors in March left eight dead, and after an extended manhunt, police arrested a 21-year-old man.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Daily Wire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/georgia-mass-shooting-kills-8-media-races-to-speculate-on-motive\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"36.975050573163\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Although a motive was not immediately apparent, media,\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/16\/us\/atlanta-shootings-massage-parlor.html\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>including The New York Times<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>, began to speculate that the suspect\u2019s decision to target the massage parlors, staffed largely by Asian females, was indicative of an anti-Asian hate crime and connected the shooting spree to recent attacks on elderly individuals of Asian descent in places like San Francisco, California, and New York City (though even the most high-profile of those attacks do not appear to have been motivated specifically by racial animus).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The suspect, however, spoke directly to police shortly after capture and took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for the attacks,\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/atlanta-shooting-suspect-police-attacks-not-racially-motivated-sex-addiction\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>per Fox News<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>. Authorities said in a news conference that, based on his confession, they believe the shootings were \u201cnot racially motivated\u201d and that \u201c[the shooter] instead allegedly opened fire because he saw the locations as \u2018an outlet for him\u2019 to succumb to purported sex-addiction temptations.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAccording to police, [the shooter] claimed his attacks were not racially motivated, but rather sees the massage parlor locations as allowing him to feed \u2018a temptation\u2019 that he was trying \u2018to eliminate,\u2019 police said,\u201d per Fox. The shooter also intended to carry out further attacks, and had planned to drive from Atlanta to an unknown location in Florida. He reportedly \u201cmade indicators that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past,\u201d the police noted.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>AP <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/race-and-ethnicity-shootings-georgia-ahmaud-arbery-coronavirus-pandemic-cd68207150500f76e248fdc899717cd5\">reported<\/a> in March that Georgia\u2019s new hate crimes law does not allow for a standalone hate crime, but is rather a sentence enhancer. \u201cA hate crime charge can be included in an indictment or added at some point before trial,\u201d per the outlet. A jury can decide whether it was a hate crime after someone is convicted, resulting in an extra penalty. <\/span><span>Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed the bill into law last summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span>member<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, two separate grand juries indicted a man accused of killing eight people at spas in the Atlanta area on murder charges as one prosecutor said she will seek &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277920,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ECEAB61E-3DA0-47E3-B4CB-011263468DC1_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty And Hate Crime Charges in Atlanta Spa Shootings","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ECEAB61E-3DA0-47E3-B4CB-011263468DC1_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty And Hate Crime Charges in Atlanta Spa Shootings","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}