Atlanta

The suspect in the Atlanta-area shootings could face the death penalty

March 18, 2021

robert aaron long

  • Robert Long, 21, was charged with eight counts of murder by Georgia prosecutors Wednesday.
  • Eight people, six of whom were Asian, were killed at three Atlanta massage parlours on Tuesday.
  • Long said he did it to remove sexual temptation but prosecutors are considering hate crime charges.

The suspect in Tuesday night’s Atlanta-area shootings could meet the threshold for receiving the death penalty under Georgia law.

On Wednesday, prosecutors charged Robert Aaron Long, 21, with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault after shootings took place at three massage parlors across the city area.

In a press conference on Wednesday, law enforcement officials said that Long admitted to carrying out the attacks. However, he has yet to enter a plea to the charges.

He is due to appear in court Thursday, where he may issue a plea but does not have to.

If Long is ultimately convicted, the charges open him to Georgia’s death penalty. Prosecutors would have to choose whether to pursue it, and so far have not discussed the matter in public.

Robert Long Georgia Shooting
Security footage released by the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office in Georgia shows the 21-year-old suspect, Robert Long, getting into a car. Cherokee Sheriff’s Office

Under title 17 of the 2010 Georgia Code, most murders do not qualify for punishment by death.

But if one of 11 criteria are met, then it can be considered. They are listed here by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which also reported that Long could face the death penalty.

Some of the criteria – such as if the offender was on the run from prison, or if the victim was a police officer – appear not to apply. Others are broader, such as if the killings took place during another crime, or using a particularly dangerous weapon.

In Georgia, the death penalty is carried out by lethal injection. As of January, 39 men and one woman were on death row, state Department of Corrections data shows.

Out of the eight people killed on Tuesday night, six were Asian women, meaning prosecutors are deciding whether to charge Long with a hate crime, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and 11Alive reported.

Long told law enforcement that race did not play a part in the attack, saying instead that he was a sex addict and wanted to remove temptation.

“During his interview, he gave no indicators that this was racially motivated,” Frank Reynolds, Cherokee County Sheriff, said Wednesday.

“We asked him that specifically and the answer was no.”

The attack on Tuesday is the latest in a series which indicates attacks on Asian Americans in the US is on the rise.

As of Thursday morning, four of the Atlanta-area victims had been identified: Xiaojie Tan, 49, Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, and Daoyou Feng, 44.

David Barkley, senior Southeast counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, told the AJC: “We would urge the local prosecutor to bring hate crime charges along with the other charges.”

Atlanta – Prosecutor John Tanner’s religious remarks get killer new death penalty hearing – Anthony Farina

january, 31, 2014

DAYTONA BEACH — A federal appeals court in Atlanta, citing former state attorney John Tanner’s biblical references during sentencing, has thrown out the death sentence against a man convicted in the killing of a teenage worker during a robbery at a Taco Bell in Daytona Beach in 1992.

Anthony Farina

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ordered a new sentencing for Anthony Farina, 40, who was convicted in the slaying of 17-year-old Michelle Van Ness during the robbery on May 9, 1992, at the Taco Bell on Beville Road. Also convicted in the killing was Farina’s brother Jeffrey Farina, the triggerman.

The brothers forced four workers into a freezer and then Jeffrey Farina shot three of them before the gun misfired. That’s when Anthony Farina handed his brother a knife and Jeffrey Farina stabbed a fourth employee. All survived except for Van Ness.

Tanner, who lost his bid for re-election in 2008 against R.J. Larizza, could not be reached Thursday.

The state plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Both brothers received the death sentence but the Florida Supreme Court reduced Jeffrey Farina’s to life because he as 16 at the time he killed Van Ness.

The appeals court said Tanner went too far when questioning the Rev. James Davis, a prison pastor who had been called by defense attorney William Hathaway to testify about counseling Anthony Farina at prison.

Tanner drew heavily from the Bible during his questioning of Davis, “urging the implementation of God’s law,” the 11th Circuit ruling states.

“While elevating his own station as divinely-ordained authority, the prosecutor made clear that the death penalty was the sole acceptable punishment under divine law, noting how Christ himself refused to grant a felon forgiveness from the death penalty.”

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