White nationalist convicted of murdering counterprotester in Charlottesville, Virginia

[rooster59]

White nationalist convicted of murdering counterprotester in Charlottesville, Virginia

By Gary Robertson

 

FILE PHOTO: James Alex Fields Jr., attends the "Unite the Right" rally in Emancipation Park, before being arrested by police and charged with charged with one count of second degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death after police say he drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters later in the afternoon in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Eze Amos/File Photo

 

Charlottesville, Va. (Reuters) - A white nationalist who drove his car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, killing one of the counterdemonstrators, was found guilty on Friday of first-degree murder and nine other counts.

 

The jury deliberated for about seven hours before convicting James Fields, 21, of all charges stemming from the deadly attack that occurred after police had declared an unlawful assembly and cleared a city park of white supremacists gathered for the "Unite the Right" rally.

 

Fields, who did not take the witness stand to defend himself, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. The 12 members of the mostly white jury - seven women and five men - were to return to court on Monday for the start of the penalty phase of the trial.

 

Defense attorneys never disputed that Fields was behind the wheel of the Dodge Charger that sent bodies flying when it crashed into a crowd on Aug. 12, 2017, killing counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32 and injuring 19 others.

 

Instead, Fields' lawyers suggested he felt intimidated by a hostile crowd and acted to protect himself.

 

Prosecutors said Field was motivated by hatred and had come to the rally to harm others.

 

The car-ramming incident capped a day of tensions and physical clashes between hundreds of white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who had assembled in Charlottesville to protest plans to remove statues of two Confederate generals, and groups of opposing demonstrators.

 

The night before, the "Unite the Right" protesters had staged a torchlit march through the nearby University of Virginia campus, chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans.

 

Republican U.S. President Donald Trump was strongly condemned by fellow Republicans as well as Democrats for saying afterward that "both sides" were to blame for the violence.

 

Fields was photographed hours before last year's attack carrying a shield with the emblem of a far-right hate group, and people who knew him in high school have said he expressed Nazi sympathies as a student.

 

Fields also faces separate federal hate crime charges, which carry a potential death sentence. He has pleaded not guilty in that case as well.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-08

[Tug]

Good throw the book at him scum bag

[Odysseus123]

Good.

 

String him up.

 

Hopefully they have already taken the AR-15 (every American's birthright) off him.

[Emster23]

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo? Seems more suited to "the fairer sex"

[quandow]

11 hours ago, Emster23 said:

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo? Seems more suited to "the fairer sex"

That was my first impression, too - rolling pins.

[LawrenceN]

18 hours ago, Emster23 said:

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo? Seems more suited to "the fairer sex"

Militant pastry chefs.

[Kiwiken]

Whats his group the White Nancy Boys Club?

[BritManToo]

38 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

There are real concerns over this conviction.

7 women on the jury, he was going down right from the start.

[attrayant]

20 hours ago, Emster23 said:

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo?

 

It's the fasces, the symbol from the flag of the National Fascist Party. It was earlier used as the the symbol of Italian Fascism.

 

 

[Becker]

I see some shrill man-child supporters have really gotten their teats in a twist over this conviction. Deplorable and funny at the same time.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 There are real concerns over this conviction. It would appear at worst to be manslaughter. Antifa had illegally blocked roads and corralled James down a blocked road. Then the rioters attacked his car from the rear and side and another rioter threw a block of frozen urine that smashed and lodged in his windscreen. James then panicked and drove at approx 30mph to get away from the immediate threat to his life. When he realized the crowd of rioters blocking his escape were not going to split for his approaching car he broke hard and only hit the rioters at a tickle over 20mph. It was pure bad luck that one of the rioters died at such a low velocity impact. I see no evidence that he planned to use his car as a weapon on that day.

 

 Then crowd funding for James was blocked and he was given some rubbish lawyer, and the rest is history.

 

 I would expect him to appeal and based on evidence be acquitted.

Seems the predominantly white jury disagreed with you.

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Seems the predominantly white jury disagreed with you.

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

[Tug]

I’m male and blue collar I don’t abide by rasist Nazis types stop insulting the majority of Americans that punk got off easy

[stevenl]

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

Also deserves a laughing emoticon besides the sad one. What a nonsense.

[Credo]

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 There are real concerns over this conviction. It would appear at worst to be manslaughter. Antifa had illegally blocked roads and corralled James down a blocked road. Then the rioters attacked his car from the rear and side and another rioter threw a block of frozen urine that smashed and lodged in his windscreen. James then panicked and drove at approx 30mph to get away from the immediate threat to his life. When he realized the crowd of rioters blocking his escape were not going to split for his approaching car he broke hard and only hit the rioters at a tickle over 20mph. It was pure bad luck that one of the rioters died at such a low velocity impact. I see no evidence that he planned to use his car as a weapon on that day.

 

 Then crowd funding for James was blocked and he was given some rubbish lawyer, and the rest is history.

 

 I would expect him to appeal and based on evidence be acquitted.

He was found guilty by a jury.   It's going to be very difficult to make an appeal based on evidence, unless they somehow show she's not deceased.   

 

Appeals are generally based on a judicial error in the trial, not on the verdict.   If they do find the judge erred, such as in his instructions to the jury, or admitting evidence that should not be admitted or vice versa, the appeal court will usually send it back for a re-trial.   

 

The jury was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he did what he was accused of.   

[Ulic]

Both sides a bunch of idiots as far as I am concerned. Nobody has the moral high ground.

You have fascists with a permit to march being attacked by counter-protestors. I don't like

white supremacist fascists but I don't condone the attack on them by counterdemonstrators.

Both sides are a bunch of losers. 

 

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.

[Credo]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

7 women on the jury, he was going down right from the start.

 

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

If it was 7 women, then there were 5 males.   Verdicts are unanimous.   If they can't agree, then it's a hung jury and the case is either dismissed or retried.

[mikebike]

7 minutes ago, Ulic said:

Both sides a bunch of idiots as far as I am concerned. Nobody has the moral high ground.

You have fascists with a permit to march being attacked by counter-protestors. I don't like

white supremacist fascists but I don't condone the attack on them by counterdemonstrators.

Both sides are a bunch of losers. 

 

Yeah... 50-50. Murder v counter protesting. Good call.

[Chomper Higgot]

22 hours ago, Emster23 said:

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo? Seems more suited to "the fairer sex"

It’s a representation of ‘fasces’ an Estruscan and later Roman motif used by magistrates in Ancient Rome. 

 

At that time the sticks and axe were real and represented the power of the magistrate to dole out punishment.

 

The ‘fasces’ symbol was later adompted by the Italian fascists in the run up to their startling performance in WW2.

 

Not to be confused with ‘feces’, though the association is understandable.

[bristolboy]

5 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 There are real concerns over this conviction. It would appear at worst to be manslaughter. Antifa had illegally blocked roads and corralled James down a blocked road. Then the rioters attacked his car from the rear and side and another rioter threw a block of frozen urine that smashed and lodged in his windscreen. James then panicked and drove at approx 30mph to get away from the immediate threat to his life. When he realized the crowd of rioters blocking his escape were not going to split for his approaching car he broke hard and only hit the rioters at a tickle over 20mph. It was pure bad luck that one of the rioters died at such a low velocity impact. I see no evidence that he planned to use his car as a weapon on that day.

 

 Then crowd funding for James was blocked and he was given some rubbish lawyer, and the rest is history.

 

 I would expect him to appeal and based on evidence be acquitted.

And what neo Nazi website did you get that version of what happened. His car was only attacked after he smashed into the crowd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottesville_car_attack

[dick dasterdly]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

"I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature."

 

Really?! ????????

[Chomper Higgot]

2 hours ago, Ulic said:

Both sides a bunch of idiots as far as I am concerned. Nobody has the moral high ground.

You have fascists with a permit to march being attacked by counter-protestors. I don't like

white supremacist fascists but I don't condone the attack on them by counterdemonstrators.

Both sides are a bunch of losers. 

 

When one side are neo-Nazis you believe nobody (ie those opposing the neo-Nazi) has the moral high ground.

 

Doh! 

[metisdead]

A post with an unsubstantiated claim has been removed.  

[bendejo]

On 12/7/2018 at 9:21 PM, Emster23 said:

What is that white design on the shield? Battle axe and rolling pin combo? Seems more suited to "the fairer sex"

 

It looks like a variation on Odin's Cross, very much the favored replacement for the swastika among the young fascists in the US.  Not going to post one on here, easy enough to look up.

 

 

[Nyezhov]

18 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

You are correct that the most favorable jury here would have been male, although if the whole defense strategy was to aim for a lesser included offense (ie manslaughter or whatever they call non intentional or negligent homicide down there), you may want educated folks who could understand the nuances of culpable mental states. Regardless, we dont know those details,

 

But the jury makeup itself does not mean the lawyer was incompetant, you take your panel as they are provided and have limits on your voir dire.

[Bill Miller]

On 12/9/2018 at 8:59 AM, BritManToo said:

I think predominantly female was the damage here, females are inherently leftwing, it's in their nature.

His lawyer must have been incompetent to allow such a jury.

Male, blue-collar workers was the way to go. 

While you are, evidently, primarily fascist and misogynistic.
The man murdered someone via vehicular homicide, and had the lack of sense to admit it during monitored phone calls with his mother.
The prosecution proved the case, and none of your BNP type muttering is going to change that.

[BritManToo]

24 minutes ago, Bill Miller said:

While you are, evidently, primarily fascist and misogynistic.
The man murdered someone via vehicular homicide, and had the lack of sense to admit it during monitored phone calls with his mother.
The prosecution proved the case, and none of your BNP type muttering is going to change that.

You forgot homophobic.

[stevenl]

46 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You forgot homophobic.

Maybe, but that is not clear from your posts in this thread.