Rally-death driver convicted of murder United States

A man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia last year has been convicted of first-degree murder, a verdict that community leaders and civil rights activists hope will help to heal a community still scarred by the violence and the racial and political tensions it inflamed nationwide.

A state jury yesterday rejected defence arguments that James Alex Fields Jr, pictured, acted in self-defence during a ‘‘Unite the Right’’ rally in Charlottesville on August 12,

2017.

Jurors also convicted

Fields of eight other charges, including aggravated malicious wounding and hit-and-run.

Fields, 21, drove to Virginia from his home in Maumee, Ohio to support the white nationalists. As a large group of counterprotesters marched through Charlottesville singing and laughing, he stopped his car, backed up and then sped into the crowd, according to testimony from witnesses and video surveillance shown to jurors.

Prosecutors told the jury that Fields was angry after witnessing violent clashes between the two sides earlier in the day. The violence prompted police to shut down the rally before it even officially began.

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, was killed, and nearly three dozen others were injured. The trial featured emotional testimony from survivors.

After the verdict was read in court, some of those who were injured embraced Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro. She left the courthouse without commenting.

The jury will reconvene on Tuesday to recommend a sentence. Under Virginia law, jurors can recommend from 20 years to life in prison.

Fields is eligible for the death penalty if convicted of separate federal hate crime charges. No trial has been scheduled yet.