{"id":20462,"date":"2021-11-24T05:30:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=20462"},"modified":"2021-11-24T05:30:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:30:59","slug":"us-jury-awards-25m-in-damages-over-unite-the-right-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/11\/24\/us-jury-awards-25m-in-damages-over-unite-the-right-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"US jury awards $25m in damages over Unite the Right rally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A US jury has awarded $25m (\u00a319m) in damages against the organisers of a deadly far-right rally in August 2017.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The defendants were found liable in four out of six counts over the bloodshed at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The civil lawsuit was filed by nine people who suffered physical or emotional injuries in the rally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A woman was killed and dozens were hurt after an avowed neo-Nazi drove a car into counter-protesters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In court, the jury awarded $500,000 in punitive damages against 12 defendants, and $1m against five white supremacist organisations. Punitive damages are awarded at a court’s discretion to punish a defendant for conduct judged to be especially harmful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A total of $12m in punitive damages was also imposed against the driver of the car in the fatal incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The jury of 11 deliberated for over three days following nearly a month of testimony at the trial in Charlottesville.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The two federal conspiracy charges that jurors could not agree on alleged that the defendants had plotted to commit racially motivated violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said they plan to refile the lawsuit so a new jury can decide on those two charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The legal action alleged that the defendants “brought with them to Charlottesville the imagery of the Holocaust, of slavery, of Jim Crow and of fascism”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“They also brought with them semi-automatic weapons, pistols, mace, rods, armour, shields and torches,” the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The statue of General Robert E Lee was towed away from Market Street Park, Charlottesville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The defendants include several prominent figures in America’s white nationalist and far-right sphere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Among those found liable in the case were Jason Kessler, the rally’s main organiser, and Richard Spencer, who came up with the term “alt-right” and spoke at the event.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Another defendant, Christopher Cantwell, became famous as “the crying Nazi” after an emotional YouTube video he posted once the rally went viral.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The lawsuit largely rested on an 1871 law passed after the US Civil War to protect black Americans, following their emancipation from slavery, from the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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