Man convicted in Charlottesville attack asks for "mercy" [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Alan Suderman, Associated Press Updated 1:53 pm CDT, Saturday, June 22, 2019



Photo: AP
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail shows James
Alex Fields Jr. A sentencing hearing has been moved up for the self-avowed white supremacist
convicted of federal hate crimes for plowing his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters at a 2017
white nationalist rally in Virginia. Fields was originally scheduled to be sentenced July 3, 2019. A
notice filed in court says the hearing has been moved to June 28. (Albemarle-Charlottesville
Regional Jail via AP, File)


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Adolf Hitler admirer who plowed his car through a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one person and injuring dozens, has asked a judge to show mercy and sentence him to a prison term shorter than a life sentence.

Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents Friday that he should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.

"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," his attorneys wrote.

But prosecutors countered that the avowed anti-Semite has shown no remorse since he drove the car on on Aug. 12, 2017 into anti-racism activist Heather Heyer, killing her, and injuring the others protesting against the white nationalists.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Man-convicted-in-Charlottesville-attack-asks-for-14030379.php