Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have been given the green light to seek the death penalty for Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of the horrific Atlanta spa shootings that occurred in 2021. Despite defense efforts to argue against the constitutionality of Georgia’s death penalty process, Chief Judge Ural Glanville ruled against their motions, paving the way for the death penalty trial to proceed, as detailed in court documents cited by WABE.

Long, who pleaded not guilty to murdering four women of Asian descent in Fulton County, is already saddled with four consecutive life sentences without parole plus an additional 35 years for previous convictions. The prosecution, led by District Attorney Fani Willis, is not only pursuing the ultimate punishment but also intends to apply hate crime sentence enhancements, reports WABE. Long's laundry list of charges includes murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, domestic terrorism, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

While the judicial gears turn, the victims' families have faced a grueling journey through a labyrinthine legal system. The pace at which death penalty cases move is notoriously glacial, but Long's case is suffering from additional slowdowns as Fulton County clears the backlog wrought by pandemic-related delays, as per a 2023 WABE report.

The case's progress is also impeded by Judge Glanville's concurrent oversight of the prolonged trial involving Atlanta rapper Young Thug, the longest of its kind in Georgia's history. Amidst these legal entanglements, a date for Long's own death penalty trial remains undetermined, a waiting game that continues to stretch on for those seeking closure from the high-profile case.