Six years after a white nationalist rally brought death and destruction to Charlottesville, Virginia, a new HBO documentary pulls back the curtain on how lawyers intended to hold the organizers accountable.
Addressed There is no accidentdocumentary follows attorneys Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan and Karen Dunn as they launch (and ultimately win) the case Sines v. Kessler, which declared the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally responsible for the violence that occurred.
There is no accident promises “bomb after bomb”, shedding light on the victims of the violence and detailing the communications between those who committed it. (The communications lawyers suggest show a concerted effort to sow mayhem).
“These are not just isolated people,” Kaplan says in a trailer for the documentary he shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “It’s part of the movement.”
Looking back at photos of the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville
The “Unite the Right” rally – organized by alt-right and white supremacist groups – began with white nationalists marching through the streets of Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue depicting Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The first day of the rally was met with violent reactions as white nationalists violently clashed with a large number of counter-protesters.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in response to the violence and declared the rally illegal. But the violence didn’t stop, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a group of counter-protesters on August 12, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring at least 19 people.
Instead of immediately condemning the attacks and ordering the prosecution of those who instigated them, then-President Donald Trump insisted that bad actors were on “both sides” of the event — a comment sharply criticized by those on both sides of the political aisle.
‘There’s only one side’: Celebrities and politicians criticize Trump for response to Charlottesville violence
Clashes at the 2017 Charlottesville rally organized by white nationalists. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
After Trump’s comments and sensing that the Justice Department would not intervene, attorneys Kaplan and Dunn filed a civil suit against 17 white nationalist leaders and organizations on behalf of nine plaintiffs who suffered physical or emotional injuries while protesting the rally.
The lawsuit alleges that the event was not an isolated, spontaneous gathering, but “a well-planned and coordinated conspiracy to incite racially motivated violence and promote an agenda of race war.”
There is no accident shows the lawyers formulating their argument that when Fields drove into the crowd, it was not a mistake but the result of “secret planning.”
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James Alex Fields Jr., the man who drove his car into counter-protesters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail/Getty Images
How the case ended is well established at this point.
In 2021, a jury in Virginia found a group of white nationalists who had organized a rally liable for participating in a conspiracy ahead of violent protests, awarding plaintiffs more than $25 million in damages.
Fields, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes and was sentenced to life in prison in June 2019.
There is no accidentdirected by Emmy Award winner Kristi Jacobson, premieres on HBO Tuesday, October 10, at 9:00 PM and will be available to stream on Max.
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Source: HIS Education