Charlottesville civil trial over deadly 2017 'Unite the Right' rally set to begin
ABC News
"The aim of this lawsuit is to ensure that nothing like this will happen again."
A dark moment in U.S. history is being revisited as a federal civil trial began in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday over a violent 2017 white nationalist rally that ended with an alleged neo-Nazi ramming his car into counterprotesters, killing one and injuring more than 30.
Jury selection got underway in the high-profile civil case in the U.S. district court in Charlottesville against organizers and certain participants of the "Unite the Right" rally. Nine people injured over the two-day event are accusing promoters of exhorting followers to "defend the South and Western civilization" from non-white people and their allies, according to the lawsuit.
"There is one thing about this case that should be made crystal-clear at the outset -- the violence in Charlottesville was no accident," contends the suit that is seeking unspecified damages from 24 defendants, including James Alex Fields Jr., the Ohio man who plowed his Dodge Challenger into a group of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants started questioning potential jurors at about 9:30 a.m. Monday and quickly learned that candidates have developed strong views on the case.
