Thread by @socialistdogmom

today is the 4th day in the trial of james alex fields jr. he’s charged with 1st degree murder of heather heyer, 5 counts of aggravated malicious wounding, 3 counts of malicious wounding, & 1 felony hit & run.
jury selection took 3 full days. opening statements will begin today.

the original indictment showed 3 aggravated malicious wounding and 5 malicious wounding, but 2 of the malicious wounding charges were upgraded to aggravated just before the trial began. the difference being that aggravated means the injury caused permanent injury or disability.

a malicious wounding in virginia carries a sentence of 5-20 years. aggravated malicious wounding carries the same penalty as the 1st degree murder charge: 20 to life. he could face six life sentences if convicted on all changes in this case.

28 jurors will appear this morning. peremptory strikes will begin at 9:30 - each side will remove 6 jurors for any reason or no reason at all, leaving us with 16. there will be 4 alternate jurors hearing the case (though they won’t know they’re alternates until it’s over)

once we have 16 jurors, they’ll be sworn in, and opening statements will begin.

headed to the courthouse now. i’ll update you all as often as i can, probably at lunchtime. take care of each other. this is going to be a very difficult time for many of you ❤️

a moving 20min opening statement from ACA Antony described some of the testimony we will hear during the trial. she emphasized fields’ idled on the mall before accelerating into the crowd. one witness will testify that the force was so great she thought a bomb had gone off.

she also described a text exchange fields had with his mother before arriving at the rally. she told him, as mothers do, to be careful. he responded “we’re not the ones who need to be careful.”

she also described an instagram photo fields posted in may of 2017. the photo shows a car ramming a crowd of protesters.
the commonwealth has to prove premeditation for the first degree murder charge.

the defense’s opening statement was brief and focused, as predicted, on self defense. he “was in fear of serious bodily injury or death,” they claim. he planned to attend a community college orientation on august 16th.

we’re in a brief recess — the judge wants to hear from a few witnesses before lunch. i’ll update in more detail then.

we’ve heard from two witnesses for the commonwealth - one who saw fields’ car idling on the mall before the attack and one victim of the attack. there was audible crying in the courtroom during the victim’s testimony.

the defense is making no friends on the jury by aggressively questioning a tearful victim in furtherance of their weird conspiracy theory. i know to some extent defense counsel has to honor their client’s wishes, but hill & lunsford are better attorneys than this.

i wrote in my notes on monday that it would seem difficult to seat a jury in a case where it’s clear the defendant is guilty. scrawled under that, “issue at trial unlikely to be whether he did it, but why,” which is almost exactly what both the CW and defense said this morning.

ACA nina antony said in her opening statement “this case isn’t about what he did. it’s about what his intent was when he did it.” hill for the defense said “this is not a whodunit case,” we know who drove the challenger, “i need to show you why this event took place.”

i want to warn folks again that coverage of this trial is going to include a lot of disturbing, sometimes graphic content. it will be especially difficult for folks with trauma from A11/12. please mute me entirely for the next two weeks if that’s what you need to do to be well.

the prosecution opened by describing heather heyer as a loving & caring person who always treated others well. antony later described how her blood and flesh were embedded in fields’ windshield as he fled the scene.

defense says fields “operated his vehicle in such a way that caused a death and some serious injuries” because he was “in fear of serious bodily injury or death.” a witness was very clear that fields was completely alone before the attack, describing the mall as “a ghost town.”

again, i understand everyone is entitled to a vigorous defense & attorneys have an obligation to represent their clients to the best of their abilities. but it always makes my skin crawl to watch an attorney contort facts, reason, and language itself to this end.

defense counsel hill told the jury that fields was “leaving, not fleeing” the scene of the “incident.”
when you’ve just injured dozens of people & a sheriff’s deputy has lights & sirens on & you continue to drive towards the interstate... that’s fleeing. words mean things.

the first witness we heard was not a victim, had not even attended the rally in any way. he & his girlfriend were going downtown to have lunch when they saw a gray challenger idling on 4th street. his testimony will be critical in refuting self defense & proving premeditation.

he emphasized several times in his testimony that there was NO ONE anywhere near fields’ car at the time he came to a stop on 4th before the attack. no counter protesters attacking the car. nothing behind him to prevent him from backing out back into market street & leaving.

he was standing on the mall when the car moved. his gf, who was facing the car, “audibly gasped” at the same time he heard the revving of the challenger’s engine. he turned around in time to see the car bounce over the speed bump as it left the mall on 4th. and then the screaming

he ran toward the scene of the attack. people were pulling each other out of the road. he got to 4th street in time to see fields reverse back onto the mall. as the car bounced over the speed bump, a tennis shoe dislodged from the grille and dropped to the ground.

i’ll fill in some of the gaps and organize this information in a way that’s hopefully a bit more coherent when i sit down with my notes tonight. i just wanted to fill you all in on the broad strokes of where we are today.

the second witness was one if the victims, one whose injuries fields was indicted for malicious wounding in.
i’ve cried in the courtroom before. more than a few times. it never gets easier to transcribe while your heart is breaking.

i’m about to head back to the courthouse for the afternoon. i hope you’ll all hold a little space in your hearts for these victims. testifying in front of the nazi who killed your friend, who nearly killed you, who nearly killed your friends & your fiancée... i can’t imagine.

the victim testified, “all i could think about was getting my wife out of the way.” fields broke the man’s left tibia and ankle. he’ll have those screws in his bones as a reminder for the rest of his life.

we heard from 3 more witnesses after lunch - 2 victims and 1 man who filmed fields marching leaving the park after the unlawful assembly was declared. in the video, fields was holding a shield and chanting “jews will not replace us.”

heading home now to have dinner & write up my notes. on a slightly less serious note, it would appear that no journalist eats enough. the sounds of stomachs growling from the press seats was as loud as the testimony throughout the day.

the audio recap of the first day of testimony in the trial of james alex fields is up now. please be aware that it contains extremely graphic descriptions of victim testimony. it will be very difficult to listen to. be kind to yourselves.

soundcloud.com/wtju/the-trial…