Lifelong Plus 419 Years Imprisonment For US Neo-Nazi, After Assault In The US-State, Charlottesville

A Neonazi, already sentenced to life imprisonment has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the US plus 419 years in prison. A court in the state of Virginia imposed this punishment on Monday against the 22-year-old James Alex Fields. He crashed into a group of counter-demonstrators in August 2017 on the brink of a neo-Nazi demo in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring 29 more people.

Because of the murder of the 32-year-old counter-demonstrator, James Alex Fields had already been convicted by a jury last December. At the end of June, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for 29 hate crimes. Fields had escaped the death penalty for pleading guilty.

Fields had traveled from his hometown of Maumee, Ohio, to Charlottesville to attend the March of Right Wing Extremists on August 12, 2017. On video footage shown in the process was seen how he participated in racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic chants.

Months before, the young man had uploaded images on Instagram, on which a car raced in protesters. The prosecution saw it as proof that his act was planned.

The deployment of neo-Nazis and other racists in Charlottesville had made headlines around the world, not least, because US President Donald Trump soon after identified the behavior of right-wing extremists and counter-demonstrators and spoke of "violence on many sides".

Francis Tawiah (Duisburg - Germany)