WASHINGTON, June 28 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. white nationalist who plowed his car into a group of peaceful counterprotesters against a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison, local media reported Friday.
James Alex Fields, now 22, pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 federal hate crimes in March for the car attack killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer while injuring nearly 20 others in August 2017.
"No amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people. But this Court should find that retribution has limits," Fields' attorneys wrote.
The charges included one count of a hate crime act that resulted in the death of Heyer, and 28 counts of hate crime acts that caused bodily injury and involved an attempt to kill other people within the crowd. Each of the 29 counts carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of up to 250,000 U.S. dollars.
According to a statement of facts agreed to and signed by Fields, and entered into the court record at his guilty plea hearing, the Ohio man admitted that he drove into the crowd because of the actual and perceived race, color, national origin, and religion of its members.
He also admitted that his actions killed 32-year-old Heyer, and that he intended to kill other victims he struck and injured with his car.
Fields attended the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville's Emancipation Park on Aug. 12, 2017.
That morning, multiple groups and individuals espousing white-supremacist ideology also attended the rally. These participants engaged in chants promoting or expressing white supremacist and other racist and anti-Semitic views.
Shortly before the scheduled start of the rally, law enforcement declared it an "unlawful assembly" and required rally participants to disperse. Fields later returned to his vehicle and began to drive on the streets of Charlottesville before dashing into a crowd protesting against racial and other forms of discrimination.
Jurors in his state case found him guilty of murder and recommended he be sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years.
