White Supremacist Who Killed Woman In Charlottesville Sentenced To Life
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The man who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyer, has been sentenced to life in prison.
James Alex Fields, Jr., a self-identified white supremacist, had pleaded guilty to the attack at the “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017, according to NBC’s Washington, D.C., affiliate. In addition to killing Heyer, the attack injured more than two dozen others.
Fields will be sentenced on separate state charges next month. By pleading guilty, he avoided the death penalty. He apologized for his crime at the sentencing hearing.
“I apologize for the hurt and loss I’ve caused,” he said, according to NBC. “Every day I think about how things could have gone differently and how I regret my actions. I’m sorry.”
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
