Indictments Issued for Torch-Carrying Marchers in Charlottesville Rally

Three men who carried torches at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville have been indicted by a grand jury in Virginia for violating a rarely enforced criminal statute, which makes it a crime to burn objects with intent to intimidate. The torch carriers violated the statute when they marched around the University of Virginia campus on Aug. 11, 2017, while chanting “You will not replace us” and the Nazi slogan “Blood and soil.” The Charlottesville white supremacist rally turned deadly the next day, when a man rammed his vehicle into a group of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring others.