Neo-Nazi on trial over deadly US car rampage
AN AMERICAN neo-Nazi went on trial for murder on Monday for allegedly ramming his car into counter-protesters at a 2017 white supremacist rally that made the city of Charlottesville a byword for rising racial tensions under US President Donald Trump.
Suspect James Fields sat wordlessly through the proceedings as Judge Richard Moore informed the court he had pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the deadly rampage in August last year.
The 21-year-old is charged with first-degree murder over the death of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and social activist, as well as hitand-run charges and eight counts of causing serious injury with his black Dodge Challenger during the “Unite the Right” protest.
Offering a hint into their strategy, Fields’ legal team asked prospective jurors on Monday whether they thought violence was ever permissible in self-defence, according to an activist who was present.
The rampage in Virginia highlighted the growing audacity of the far right under Trump, whose rhetoric and policies are blamed by critics for a spike in racist and anti-Semitic violence.
The president drew broad criticism following the attack when he spoke of “blame on both sides,” and appeared to establish a moral equivalence between the white supremacists who came to the liberal university city to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, and those who opposed them.
Jury selection is expected to last around two days, with the full trial pencilled in to last until mid-December.
The precincts of the courthouse were quiet but police had put up water-filled barriers around the building, anticipating crowds later in the week, and four armed officers stood guard.
If convicted of first degree murder Fields faces 20 years to life in prison.
Fields has been separately charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, federal hate crimes including one offense which carries the death penalty. A trial date has not yet been set for that case, and prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek the maximum punishment.
The Unite t he Rig ht ra l ly wa s or g a n i s e d b y w h it e nationalists Jason Kessler and Richa rd Spencer to protest t he remova l of a stat ue of Robert E Lee, the top genera l of t he pro-slaver y Confederacy during the 1861-1865 US Civ il War.
The protest saw hundreds of neo-Nazi sympathisers, accompanied by rifle-carrying men, yelling white nationalist slogans and wielding flaming torches in scenes eerily reminiscent of racist rallies held in the US South before the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
On the second day of demonstrations, August 12, fighting broke out between neo-Nazi supporters and anti-fascists from a black-clad group called Antifa.
The violence culminated with Fields’ alleged attack.
According to his federal hate crimes indictment, Fields had multiple social media accounts where he expressed support for white supremacism as well as the racial policies of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, and advocated violence against black people and Jews.