Trial starts for man accused of killing counterprotester in Charlottesville

Dodge Charger alledgedly driven by James Fields.
(Image credit: Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)

Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of James Fields, the self-described neo-Nazi accused of driving his Dodge Challenger into a group of counterprotesters and killing Heather Heyer at last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, reports CNN.

Heyer, 32, attended the event to speak out against white supremacists who were rallying in Charlottesville. Fields is charged with first-degree murder, as well as numerous accounts of malicious wounding. Fields' defense team has asked to move the trial out of Charlottesville, saying Fields "has come to symbolize the community trauma" suffered during the violent rally so it will be impossible to find objective jurors. Prosecutors say the pretrial publicity doesn't justify a change of venue.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.