Sentencing looms in Charlottesville attack as defendant seeks mercy

RICHMOND, Va. — The avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counterdemonstrators opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one person and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.

Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents Friday that the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness. He pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in March and is set to be sentenced on June 28.

“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 and Adolf Hitler admirer has shown no remorse since he drove the car into the counterdemonstrators on Aug. 12, 2017, killing antiracism activist Heather Heyer and injuring others protesting against the white nationalists.

The attorneys for the white supremacist said giving him something less than a life sentence would be akin to an “expression of mercy” and a “conviction that no individual is wholly defined by their worst moments.”

But prosecutors said Friday that the defendant deserves a life sentence, adding that would help deter others from committing “similar acts of domestic terrorism.”

The dueling memos were filed week as the federal sentencing looms on Friday.

The case has stirred racial tensions around the country.

Under a plea deal, federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty. The charges call for life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Fields was convicted in December in a Virginia court of first-degree murder and other state charges. Sentencing on the state charges is scheduled for next month.

The rally in 2017 drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds of counterprotesters demonstrated against the white nationalists.

In Friday’s memo, the defendant’s attorneys highlighted his difficult upbringing and history of mental illness, but many of the details were redacted from public view.