CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to give a life sentence to a man convicted of hate crimes for plowing his car into a crowd demonstrating against a white nationalist rally two years ago in Virginia.
But lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr. will argue the 22-year-old man deserves some leniency because he had a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled Friday in Charlottesville.
Prosecutors argue that Fields deserves life in prison for killing a woman and injuring dozens of others when he deliberately drove into the anti-racist demonstrators on Aug. 12, 2017.
Fields' lawyers argue that a sentence shorter than life is appropriate because of Fields' young age and his struggles with mental illness.
