RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The self-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. Fields pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in March and is set to be sentenced on June 28.
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 anti-racism activist Heather Heyer and injuring others protesting against the white nationalists.
The attorneys for Fields said that 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 Fields deserves a life sentence, adding that would help deter others from committing "similar acts of domestic terrorism."
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