CNN: Testimony in Charlottesville Unite the Right civil trial wraps up

By Mark Morales and Steve Almasy, CNN. Read the full article here.

Charlottesville, Virginia (CNN) - The final witnesses testified Wednesday in the civil case involving White nationalists who organized a two-day rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 that saw one person killed and others injured in the chaos that ensued.

The violence -- which surrounded the Unite the Right rally to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee -- reached a crescendo when James Fields, who was protesting the statue's removal, drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring dozens and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Four witnesses testified Wednesday, including two who were recalled to the stand, before US District Judge Norman K. Moon began explaining the complex instructions to the jury.

Fourteen people and 10 White supremacist and nationalist organizations are named in the lawsuit that prompted the trial. Organizers of the rally are accused of engaging in a conspiracy to commit violence. The plaintiffs, who include town residents and counterprotesters injured in clashes, are seeking "compensatory and statutory" damages for physical and emotional injuries they suffered.

The jury will decide in each instance whether a defendant is liable for damages. In a civil trial, plaintiffs' attorneys only have to show a defendant is liable by a "preponderance of evidence," Moon told jurors.
The almost three-week trial featured attorneys for victims of the violence putting together puzzle pieces for jurors and arguing that the defendants acted as an interconnected web, meant to goad counterprotesters into violent battles.

"Our plaintiffs have provided overwhelming evidence that Unite the Right was never intended to be peaceful protest -- rather, it was a meticulously planned weekend of racist, antisemitic violence," Integrity First for America executive director Amy Spitalnick said in a statement. "We're incredibly proud to support these courageous plaintiffs as they seek much-needed accountability and justice."

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