A federal jury on Tuesday found that white supremacists conspired to take part in violence during a 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia which left three people dead. The jury in the civil trial ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on four of the six counts they faced, but deadlocked on two federal conspiracy counts. The defendants — 12 individuals and five white nationalist organizations — were ordered to pay $26 million in damages for the violent protest. Half of that amount must be paid by James Fields, who’s serving life in prison for driving his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotestors, killing activist Heather Heyer.
The Unite the Right rally, which was held Aug. 11, 2017 on the campus of the University of Virginia, protested the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park. There were protests at the park the next day, leading to violence between the white supremacists and counter-demonstrators, during which Heyer was killed.
In addition to Fields, the defendants in the civil trial include prominent white nationalists and self-proclaimed members of the “alt-right,” such as Richard Spencer, Christopher Cantwell, Jason Kessler, Elliot Kline, Nathan Damico, Matthew Heimbach, Jeff Schoep, Andrew Anglin, Matthew Parrott and others.
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