Charlottesville: Car driver demands ‘mercy’ in his sentence
The man who drove into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville’s “Unite the Right” rally two years ago has pleaded for mercy and asked for a sentence less than life imprisonment in his federal hate crimes case.
“James did not come to Charlottesville with any plan to commit an act of violence. In the space of only a few minutes, caught in circumstances he did not intend to create, he acted in an aggressive and impulsive manner consistent with his mental health history and his age.”
Charlottesville car attacker pleads guilty to 29 hate crimes and avoids the death penalty. The memorandum notes that Fields’ grandfather killed his grandmother and then himself, and that his father died in a car accident before Fields was born. The memo also says he has been taking medication since his imprisonment that has controlled his symptoms. The memo comes ahead of his sentencing in his federal case, in which he pleaded guilty to 29 hate crimes in order to avoid the death penalty. Robert E. Lee. During a day of violent clashes in the city, Fields drove his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old paralegal. Fields was convicted in state court of first-degree murder and other charges, and the jury recommended a sentence of life in prison.