Jury Awards $25 Million in Charlottesville "Unite The Right" Rally Civil Case
CHARLOTTESVILLE (CBS NEWS) -- A federal jury has returned a partial verdict in a civil case about whether the white nationalist organizers of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville four years ago conspired to commit racially motivated violence that left one person dead and scores injured.
Judge Norman Moon announced Tuesday that the jury considers that it had arrived at a verdict in the case.
It was not able to reach a decision on whether the defendants had, under an obscure federal statute, conspired to commit racially motivated violence. It did conclude that all of the defendants had committed conspiracy under Virginia laws and awarded plaintiffs a total of about $25 million in punitive and compensatory damages.
The jury sent a note to the court saying that it had deadlocked on the first two claims — the reliance of the case on the "KKK Act," an 1871 statute designed to protect African Americans from the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups — and whether the defendants conspired to commit racially motivated violence.
According to the note from the jury. "We have unanimously decided on claims 3,4,5,6. After reviewing final jury instructions and decided claims 1 and 2 at length, we are deadlocked. We do not believe this will change."
