James Alex Fields Jr. has been sentenced to life in prison after driving his vehicle into a crowd of activists protesting white nationalists in Charlottesville, an attack which resulted in the death of one of the protestors, Heather Heyer, CBC News reported.
The 22-year-old self described neo-Nazi also injured 19 other people who were attending the 2017 Unite the Right rally.
During the trial, authorities showed the jury video footage of Fields driving his car into the crowd of counter-protesters.
He admitted to deliberately driving his car into the crowd of people who were protesting against those at the rally fighting to prevent the removal of a controversial statute of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Fields was charged with 29 hate crime counts and count of “racially motivated violent interference.”
He pleaded guilty to all 29 counts in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to pursue the death penalty but rather a life sentence.
However, last week his lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Michael Urbankski to consider a sentence of “less than life.”
“No amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people,” Fields’ attorneys wrote. “But this Court should find that retribution has limits.”
The lawyer hoped the judge would take into consideration Fields’ “troubled childhood” and mental issues, including being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 6 and later schizoid personality disorder.
However, prosecutors said Fields has a long history of racist and antisemitic behavior.
They also argued that he showed no remorse for his crimes and that he event keeps a photo of Adolf Hitler on his bedside table, indicating he’s a passionate white supremacist.
On Friday, Heyer’s parents took the stand and recounted the pain of losing their 32-year-old daughter in the attack.
“It was an incident I will never fully recover from,” Heyer’s father, Mark Heyer, told the sentencing hearing. His wife and Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, broke down in tears as she described herself as “deeply wounded.”
Speaking at the hearing, Bro said she hoped to see Fields imprisoned for life.
“I don’t necessarily want to see him out and about again because I think it sends the wrong message,” she said prior to the sentencing. “I’m hoping that justice is served, but I’m also hoping he can get some help.”
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Trump previously sparked criticism after his comments following the tragic 2017 event in which he blamed the violence at the rally on “both sides” in attendance, which people saw as a refusal to condemn the racism at play.
h/t: CBC News
