After being convicted of the murder of activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others when he plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters during the infamous Charlottesville rally, James Alex Fields Jr. is begging the judge responsible for his sentencing to show him mercy.
WJLA reports that Fieldsβ legal team believes that the 22-year-old should not spend the rest of his life in prison due to his age, his traumatic childhood and his history of mental illness.
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βNo amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people. But this Court should find that retribution has limits,β his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo submitted on Friday.
Additionally, his attorneyβs pointed out that βno individual is wholly defined by their worst momentsβ and leniency in his sentencing would be appreciated as an βexpression of mercy.β
Prosecutors countered that the Adolf Hitler admirer and devout anti-Semite has yet to demonstrate any remorse for his actions and should be punished accordingly. They also pointed to years of documented racist behavior exhibited by Field prior to taking Heyerβs life and that he was recorded on a jail phone call last month making inflammatory remarks about Heyerβs mother.
Prosecutors also refused to accept Fieldsβ history of mental illness as an excuse for his behavior.
βAny mental health concerns raised by the defendant do not overcome the defendantβs demonstrated lack of remorse and his prior history of substantial racial animus,β prosecutors wrote.
Fields struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors to take the death penalty off of the table, but under federal sentencing guidelines, heβs expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Fields sentencing is scheduled for June 28.
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