Prosecutors in spa shootings could be first to weigh Georgia's new hate crime law

Prosecutors investigating the killings of six Asian women and two other people at Atlanta-area spas last week could be the first to use Georgia's hate crime law if they decide to pursue a hate crime sentencing enhancement for the 21-year-old suspect under the new statute.

Georgia was one of four states without hate crime laws on its books --  along with South Carolina, Arkansas and Wyoming -- until a hate crimes bill was passed into law there last year. The effort to pass the bill was renewed after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was gunned down by two White men as he jogged through a coastal Georgia neighborhood in February 2020. The new Georgia law has not been used since it was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in June, said Chuck Efstration, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives who championed the bill with bipartisan support. It mandates enhanced sentencing for defendants convicted of targeting a victim because of their "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability."