Flowers, candles and chalk messages surround a photograph of Heather Heyer where she was killed and 19 others injured when a car plowed into a crowd protesting against a rally by the white extremist party, August 16, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Flowers, candles and chalk messages surround a photograph of Heather Heyer where she was killed and 19 others injured when a car plowed into a crowd protesting against a rally by the white extremist party, August 16, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty
A Virginia jury has found a group of white nationalists who organized the deadly “United Right” rally in Charlottesville to be responsible for participating in a conspiracy prior to the violent protest, awards to plaintiffs who caused the case more than $25 million in damages.
But after three days of deliberation, jurors were unable to reach a verdict on two federal conspiracy counts as to whether the organizers conspired to commit racially motivated violence or whether they knew about it and cannot be prevented. Both felonies fall under a federal civil statute known as the KKK Act.
Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler and Christopher Cantwell and other white supremacists and neo-Nazis, had to pay 9 plaintiffs in the civil trial millions of dollars in restitution and punishment. for physical and mental harm.
The plaintiffs – all residents or former residents of Charlottesville – sued a group of two dozen white nationalist activists and organizations in federal court. They allege that the organizers and participants of the protest conspired to commit violence and interfere with their 13th Amendment rights in order to be free from racist violence.
During a two-day protest in August 2017, neo-Nazi James Fields Jr drove his car into a crowd of protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring rows. dozens of others. Four of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they were beaten during the car attack, while others say they continue to suffer profound psychological distress from the incident.
Nearly half of the damages awarded by the jury were against Fields, who is currently sentenced to life in prison for murder. He is among those named in the lawsuit as a defendant. Kessler, a major organizer of the rally, was also named. Other famous white nationalists and white supremacists include Spencer, Cantwell, Andrew Anglin, Matthew Heimbach and others were also named as defendants.
The nonprofit Integrity First for America backed the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege that the night-time march, where about 300 white supremacists held lit torches, was intended to evoke fear similar to the Ku Klux Klan rallies and Nazi Germany. At one point, white supremacists surrounded the counterattackers and several clashes broke out. Several plaintiffs were present and said they were terrified for their lives.
Charlottesville residents searched Damage 7-10 million dollars, while others participating asked for 3-5 million dollars.
The defendants tried to distance themselves from Fields during their testimony, saying they only engaged in violence when attacked.
Surname also said that Their language on internet forums and chat rooms is hyperbolic and protected by the First Amendment.
“The bravery of the plaintiffs and the horrific injuries suffered by many of them do not prove conspiracy,” defense attorney James Kolenich said in his conclusion. “They’ve proven to you that right is a substitute. They’re racist. They’re antis. No kidding. You knew that when you walked in here.”
Spencer, who is representing herself, called the trial “a weapon against free speech.”
Civil trials have a lower burden than criminal trials to prove their case. Thus, plaintiffs do not need to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, but instead only by “superior evidence” – that it is more likely to be true than not.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys have acknowledged that one of the goals of the lawsuit is to reduce white supremacists’ ability to spread the message and influence by draining their finances.
Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, “We know that we can indeed bankrupt, disrupt, and destroy hate groups and their leaders through civil lawsuits. ” told NPR in October.
