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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia – A declared white supremacist was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 419 years in prison for deliberately driving his car to the hands of anti-racist protesters at a white nationalist protest in Virginia.
James Alex Fields Jr., 22, was sentenced for the murder of one person and dozens of injuries at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.
Last month, Fields was sentenced to life in prison for 29 hate crimes charges by the federal government.
Judge Richard Moore of the Charlottesville Circuit Court followed the recommendations of a state jury on sentencing. According to state law, he was allowed to go lower than the recommendation, but not higher.
"Mr. Fields, you had a choice, we all have a choice," Moore said. "You made the wrong choice and you did a lot of harm … You hurt around the world when people saw what you did."
The sentence of the state is mainly symbolic given its previous sentence on federal charges.
"As for him, he has a life to give, so it's an essentially academic exercise," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University.
Fields, a recognized white supremacist who kept a picture of Adolf Hitler on his bedside table, returned from his home in Maumee, Ohio, to attend the rally, which brought together hundreds of white nationalists in Charlottesville to protest the plan to remove the Confederate statue. General Robert E. Lee. The event also attracted counter-partners who demonstrated against white nationalists.
Violent clashes between the two parties prompted the police to declare an illegal meeting and order the groups to dissolve before the rally began. Later in the day, Fields threw his car into a host of counterparts, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring more than two dozen other people.
The event fueled racial tensions across the country. President Donald Trump sparked controversy by accusing both sides of the rally's violence, a statement that critics saw as a refusal to condemn racism.
During the Fields trial, his lawyers focused on his history of mental illness and traumatic childhood.
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