Charlottesville Attacker Pleads Guilty In Federal Hate Crime Case

(Charlottesville)- The man convicted of killing a woman during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville is avoiding the death penalty for federal hate crime charges. James Fields originally pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen charges, but changed his plea in court yesterday to guilty to avoid being sentenced to death. He was found guilty in December of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed when Fields drove into a crowd of counter-protesters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally.