By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A jury resumed deliberations Monday in the civil trial of white nationalists accused of conspiring to commit racially motivated violence at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
The jury in U.S. District Court is being asked to decide whether white supremacists, neo-Nazis and white nationalist organizations are responsible for violence during two days of demonstrations. Jurors will also decide if the defendants are liable for compensatory and punitive damages for nine people who filed a federal lawsuit after they received physical or psychological injuries.
FILE – In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. A trial is beginning in Charlottesville, Virginia to determine whether white nationalists who planned the so-called “Unite the Right” rally will be held civilly responsible for the violence that erupted. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)
Jurors deliberated for about 7 1/2 hours on Friday without reaching a verdict.
Hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville on Aug. 11-12, 2017, ostensibly to protest the city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
During a march on the University of Virginia grounds, white nationalists surrounded counterprotesters, shouted “Jews will not replace us!” and threw burning tiki torches at them. The next day, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler intentionally drove his car into a crowd, killing one woman and injuring 19.
James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, is serving life in prison for murder and hate crimes for the car attack. He is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are relying in part on a 150-year-old law passed after the Civil War to shield freed slaves from violence and protect their civil rights. Commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, the law contains a rarely used provision that allows private citizens to sue other citizens for civil rights violations.
During closing arguments, lawyers for the plaintiffs told jurors that the defendants “planned, executed and then celebrated” racially motivated violence that killed one counterprotester and injured dozens over the course of the two days.
The defendants used their closing arguments to distance themselves from Fields. Several defendants testified that they resorted to violence only after they or their associates were attacked. They’ve blamed the violence on anti-fascist protesters known as antifa, and also each other.
The lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages and a judgment that the defendants violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, is being funded by Integrity First for America, a nonprofit civil rights organization.
