A judge will allow prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against Craig Stephen Hicks, the man charged in the Chapel Hill shootings that sparked global debate about whether the motive was the escalation of a parking dispute or a hate crime perpetrated in cold blood. Hicks, 46, is accused of murdering Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. The killings occurred late in the afternoon of Feb. 10 at the Finley Forest condominium complex on the eastern edge of Chapel Hill. As news spread quickly and globally on social media about the violent deaths of the three college-aged Muslims, questions grew about whether the motive for the killings was religious bias. The New York Times reported