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Jury recommends life in prison for man who drove car into protesters

James Alex Fields Jr targeted crowds opposing a right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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James Alex Fields Jr

A jury has recommended life in prison plus 419 years for a man convicted of murder for driving his car into counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally last year.

The jury made its recommendation for James Alex Fields Jr a day after listening to emotional statements from the mother of a woman who was killed and from numerous people who were injured.

Fields ploughed into counter-protesters during a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 2017.

The jury reached its sentencing verdict after about four hours of deliberations over two days.

Jurors also recommended 70 years for each of five malicious wounding charges, 20 for each of three malicious wounding charges, and nine years on one charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

On Friday, the jury convicted Fields of first-degree murder and other felonies, rejecting his lawyers’ arguments that he acted in self-defence.

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