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A man convicted of hate crimes by the federal government for throwing his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was sentenced to life imprisonment under the head of the 39; State.
James Alex Fields Jr, 22, was sentenced Monday to life imprisonment plus 419 years for the murder of one person and dozens of injuries at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017 .
Judge Richard Moore formally imposed the recommended sentence by a Virginia jury that sentenced Fields in December.
"Mr. Fields, you had a choice, we all have choices," said Moore. "You made the wrong choice and you did a lot of harm … You hurt all over the world when people saw what you were doing. "
Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced last month to life imprisonment on 29 counts of hate crime in the federal government. The sentence of the state is mainly symbolic since he has already been sentenced to life imprisonment for a federal charge.
"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.
The attack on the car took place at a rally of hundreds of white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville to protest the plan to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
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.
The event also attracted counter-protesters. The violent skirmishes between the two sides 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 crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring more than two dozen other people.
The event fueled racial tensions across the country. Donald Trump sparked controversy by accusing the protesters of the violence at the rally, a statement that critics saw as a refusal to condemn racism.
At the trial in Fields State, his lawyers focused on his history of mental illness and traumatic childhood.
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