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Jury awards millions in damages for Unite the Right violence

In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, white nationalist demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va.
Steve Helber
/
AP
In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, white nationalist demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va.

A jury has awarded millions of dollars in damages against white nationalist leaders for violence that erupted during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

After a nearly monthlong civil trial, a jury in U.S. District Court in deadlocked on two key claims Tuesday but found the white nationalists liable on four other counts. The jury awarded slightly more than $25 million to nine people who suffered physical or emotional injuries during two days of demonstrations.

The lawsuit accused some of the country’s most well-known white nationalists of plotting the violence, including Jason Kessler, the rally’s main organizer; Richard Spencer, who coined the term “alt-right”; and Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacist who became known as the “crying Nazi.”

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