Earlier today, a jury recommended that James Fields get a sentence of life plus 419 years for plowing his car through a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville and killing one of them, Heather Heyer. This all but assures that Fields will never get out of prison alive. The judge gave a pretty good indication that he will uphold the jury’s recommendation; according to The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress, he said it was “well-reasoned.”
But Fields faces another trial. Sometime next year, he will be tried on federal hate crimes charges—one of which carries the possibility of a death sentence. It’s not too early to start putting the pressure on the feds to pull the death penalty off the table.
Besides the obvious problem of punishing one act of barbarism with another, executing Fields will liekly have the effect of making him a martyr, like the far right made Tim McVeigh a martyr of sorts. Moreover, if Fields is sentenced to death, the sentencing phase will focus on him and how he somehow went astray, rather than where it should rightly be—on Heather and his other victims. The all-but-certain appeals will only serve to deny the victims closure. Especially for Heather’s family—remember, they have had to bury Heather’s ashes in a secret and protected spot due to repeated trolling and threats from alt-right thugs.
One argument I’ve heard for the death penalty is that it ensures that if a murderer’s sentence is commuted, he will never get out. The sentence imposed today blows apart that argument. Unless I’m very wrong, Fields will not be eligible for parole until he serves 314 years—which virtually assures he will die in prison.
Simply put, there is no defensible reason to pursue the death penalty for Fields. Lock him up, throw away the key, and allow him to wait for the Supreme Judge to render his judgment.