James Alex Fields Jr. pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes Wednesday in federal court in Charlottesville, Virginia, to avoid the possibility of the death penalty.
Under a plea agreement, Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 federal charges stemming from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Prosecutors dropped the one count that carried a potential death penalty, with the approval of U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
Fields appeared stoic, with hands folded in front of him for much of the hearing. He did not speak, except to repeatedly respond “yes, sir,” when U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski asked him if he was pleading guilty knowingly and voluntarily.
Urbanski scheduled sentencing for July 3. Fields faces a life sentence for each of the convictions.
Fields is already facing life in prison plus 419 years after being convicted in state court in December of first-degree murder and other charges related to the death of Heather Heyer and serious injuries caused to others along the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, during the 2017 white nationalist rally.
Of the two federal counts related to Heyer’s death, the maximum penalty for “Hate Crime Act Resulting in Death,” is life in prison, but federal prosecutors also originally charged him with “Bias-Motivated Interference with Federally Protected Activity Resulting in Death,” which can be punishable by execution.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the one death-eligible count, after receiving a letter last week from Barr.
“You are authorized and directed not to seek the death penalty against James Alex Fields, Jr., conditioned on his entering in a plea agreement in accordance with the terms delineated in your March 19, 2019 memorandum,” Barr wrote, in the one-paragraph letter dated March 22.
Fields, 21, was convicted in December of first-degree murder and other state charges for killing anti-racism activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. A jury found that Fields intentionally plowed his car into a crowd of people protesting against the white nationalists.
The “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017, drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds more turned out to protest against the white nationalists.
President Donald Trump sparked a national uproar when he blamed the violence at the rally on “both sides,” a statement critics saw as a refusal to condemn racism.
The car attack by Fields came after violent brawling between the two sides prompted police to disband the crowds.
During his state trial, prosecutors said Fields — who described himself on social media as an admirer of Adolf Hitler — drove his car directly into a crowd of counterprotesters because he was angry after witnessing earlier clashes between the two groups.
The jury rejected a claim by Fields’ lawyers that he acted in self-defense because he feared for his life after witnessing the earlier violence.
More than 30 people were hurt in the car attack. Some who received life-altering injuries described them in anguished detail during the state trial.
Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joseph Platania said the verdict and sentence in Fields’ federal case “will have no impact on our plan or ability to ask the state court to formally impose the jury’s recommended sentence of life plus a term of 419 years in prison,” in July.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
