Robert Long murdered eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian women. If convicted, he will not be breathing free air ever again. But that wasn’t good enough for Fani Willis, District Attorney of Fulton County who ran for office as a progressive prosecutor against the death penalty.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says she will seek death penalty for the Atlanta spa shootings suspect, despite campaigning on her opposition to it: "Unfortunately, a case has arisen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants the ultimate penalty" pic.twitter.com/edvxmvcf4F
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 11, 2021
Because murder isn’t bad enough, Willis decided that the case needed to be prosecuted as a hate crime as well.
This reversal is tied to Willis’ decision to pursue the case against Long as a hate crime. Georgia passed a law in 2020 that allow prosecutors to seek enhanced penalties against those who target victims based on their perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability.
Whether it was a hate crime is dubious, as Long claimed that he committed the murders because of his “sex addiction,” having been a customer at two of the massage parlors involved. Whether it was motivated by hate, or coincidental that his victims included six Asian women, is unclear. Long didn’t shoot random Asian women, but the women at the massage parlors who happened to be Asian.
Either way, adding a hate crime atop the murders contributes nothing to the legal cause, even if it serves the purpose of assuaging public outrage and enhancing Willis’ progressive cred. But it didn’t stop with the mere piling on of an enhancement for hate atop the murders.
While making the announcement Tuesday, Willis acknowledged that on the campaign trail (she was elected in November) she told voters she “could not imagine a circumstance where [she] would seek [the death penalty].” But she now says she believes Long deserves the “ultimate penalty.”
And, for those who either support capital punishment or are not averse to it, this is entirely understandable. The problem for progressive prosecutors in general, and Willis in particular, is that being against the death penalty is invariably tested by someone who did something terrible. That’s the nature of the offense and the punishment sought. Nobody demands execution for being a good guy, but for committing a horrific crime. Long’s crimes were horrific.
When Willis makes a death penalty exception for a hate crime, what she’s signaling is that she actually is a supporter of this form of punishment, and furthermore, she believes it should be applied in response not to the needs of justice, but to cultural and political pressures that result from a high-profile incident. That is actually the opposite of justice.
If one is against capital punishment, then it manifests with the worst cases, the most notorious murders. There is no being against capital punishment except when you really hate the defendant or the crime.
Willis was tested.
Willis failed.
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