Author: Kate Bloomback
Associated Press
Robert Aaron Long
Canton, Georgia (AP)-A man accused of killing 8 people, most of them Asian women, in a massage parlor in the Atlanta area, pleaded guilty to four murders on July 27 and was sentenced to four Second life imprisonment. speech.
Robert Aaron Long, 22, still faces the death penalty in four other death cases, which are being prosecuted in different counties. A series of shootings in three different companies in March aroused the anger and fear of Asian Americans who were already facing growing hostility related to the coronavirus pandemic. Many people are particularly disturbed when the authorities imply that Dragon’s crimes were not racially motivated but derived from sex addiction. Sex addiction is not considered an official disease.
A prosecutor reiterated that the Cherokee County investigators found no evidence of racial prejudice, which will certainly make those who think Long targets Asian women even more frustrated. This is inconsistent with the increase in hate crimes faced by the white Lang in the four deaths in Atlanta.
“This is not any hate crime,” District Attorney Shannon Wallace said.
According to the police, on March 16, Long shot and killed four people at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, including three women and two Asians. The fifth person was injured.
Police said Lang then drove to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at the Gold Spa, then crossed the road to the Aromatherapy Spa and shot another woman. All the victims in Atlanta are Asian.
In Atlanta, if convicted in four deaths, Lang could be sentenced to death. There, in addition to murder, he also faced charges of serious assault and domestic terrorism, and prosecutors said they would seek to classify death as a hate crime.
Wallace explained that the Cherokee County Attorney came to a different conclusion. When Lang walked into the first spa to “shoot anyone and everyone he saw,” Wallace said he told investigators that his motivation was “sex addiction,” and that he wanted to engage in sexual activity in him The desire to eliminate the source of temptation in the company. Wallace said investigators interviewed people who had known him for many years, including three people of Asian descent. They said they had never heard him make any derogatory comments about any racial or ethnic group.
As for gender prejudice, Wallace said that seeking the enhancement of hate crimes based on hatred of women will not significantly extend his sentence.
The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize sex addiction in its main reference guide for mental disorders. Clinical psychologist and author of the book “The Myth of Sex Addiction,” David Ley said that although some people struggle to control their sexual behavior, it is usually related to other recognized obstacles or moral concepts about sex.
Wallace said that if Lang pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor plans to seek the death penalty. She added that in order to get justice quickly, all relatives of the victims they can contact support the plea agreement.
By phone, the former husband of the victim Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, Michael Weber, stated that his family was “very satisfied” with this request.
Bonnie Michels and her 24-year-old husband Paul were the first to be killed. She told the judge that his death had left a loophole in her life.
“Part of me died with him that day,” she said. “My heart is broken.”
The prosecutor said that the defendant signed a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to all charges in Cherokee County, where he was charged with malicious murder, felony murder, attempted murder and severe assault. Chief Justice Ellen McElyea of the Cherokee County Superior Court accepted the agreement and sentenced him to 4 life imprisonment without parole, plus 35 years.
The people killed at the Cherokee County Spa were: Tan, 49 years old; Michels, 54; Feng Daoyou, 44; and Delaina Yaun, 33 years old. The victims in Atlanta are: Suncha Kim, 69 years old; Park Soon Jung, 74 years old; Hyun Jung Grant, 51 years old; He Yong Aiyue, 63 years old.
Lang said that he planned to commit suicide that day and then went to the massage parlor, thinking that paying the price for sex-which he thought was wrong-would prompt him to do so. But at some point, he was sitting in the car outside the first spa and decided to kill the people inside.
After being arrested in southern Georgia, Lang told detectives about his struggles with pornography and sex. Wallace said that he considers himself a drug addict and feels very guilty and ashamed when he watches porn or engages in sex in a massage parlor.
Lang said his motive was to “punish” the people who worked there.
Lang is scheduled to appear again in Fulton County next month, where District Attorney Fani Willis filed a notice stating that she intends to seek aggravation and death penalty for so-called hate crimes.
Georgia’s new hate crime law does not provide for a separate hate crime. After a person is found guilty of a potential crime, the jury will determine whether the person is prejudiced, which will be subject to additional penalties.
