White Supremacist Richard Spencer Can’t Find a Lawyer for Charlottesville Case

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Summary: White supremacist Richard Spencer filed a motion to dismiss the federal case that alleged he incited violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Richard Spencer said that he can’t find a lawyer to help him fight a federal lawsuit that claims he was responsible for the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last August. According to CNN, the neo-Nazi leader filed a motion on Tuesday to dismiss the case, and it was written and signed by himself.

  

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Spencer and other leaders of the alt-right were sued for the death of counter-protestor Heather Heyer and the injuries of many others. In his motion, Spencer said that he was not responsible for the violence. Instead, anti-fascists, also known as Antifa, and police were to blame.

Spencer, 39, acknowledged that his white nationalist beliefs were controversial, but he said that he had the right to free speech.

“Harsh and bold words, as well as scuffles, are simply a reality of political protests, which are, by their very nature, contentious and controversial,” Spencer said in the motion. “Free societies, not only in the United States but around the world, accept this as a cost of free assembly and maintaining a vibrant political culture.”

Spencer said that he was forced to represent himself because no lawyer in Virginia would take his case.

“Spencer, by contrast, has searched for legal help and has not been able to find a lawyer in Virginia to take his case, despite the supposed but apparently illusory ethical obligation lawyers have to represent unpopular clients and to assure at least a semblance of a fair trial,” Spencer wrote in his motion.

In October, plaintiffs filed a lawsuit to bar Spencer and other white nationalists from staging more events in Charlottesville. The plaintiffs said those rallies called their lives to be “ruptured in this horribly dramatic and gruesome way.”

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys, Roberta Kaplan and Karen Dunn.

In his motion to dismiss, Spencer said that the plaintiffs were trying to silence free speech and damage controversial figures. He cited his lack of legal representation and said this violated the Sixth Amendment, which CNN said guarantees a criminal defendant the right to an attorney, not a civil one.

Spencer added that his free speech is protected by the First Amendment and that he was a speaker at Unite the Right, not an organizer.

Spencer was not the only defendant who could not find representation. According to Southern Poverty Law Center, Michael Peinovich and the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knight also could not find lawyers.

• Charlottesville Joins Lawsuit to Stop White Nationalist Summer Rally 
• $3 Million Lawsuit Filed against Unite the Right’s Organizer, Jason Kessler
• Charlottesville Murder Suspect Assigned Public Defender Related to Victim
• Lawsuit Filed against Charlottesville Attacker

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