A man charged with first-degree murder after ramming his car into a group protesting against a white supremacist rally in the United States last summer is to argue he was trying to defend himself.

The legal team of James Alex Fields Jr, 21, will also say he had mental health difficulties at the time of the incident, which led to the death of 32-year-old paralegal and social activist Heather Heyer.

Mr Fields also faces hit-and-run charges and eight counts of causing serious injury.

He was photographed marching with the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America before the car-ramming incident.

The incident took place on August 12, 2017, when hundreds of white supremacists marched through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us”, as a rival group opposed them.

The white supremacists were heard shouting “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us”, made Nazi salutes and used the Nazi slogan “blood and soil” during the Unite the Right rally.

The car crashed into a crowd of people in the counter-protest in broad daylight, killing Ms Heyer and injuring 28 others.

“There will be evidence the defendant took these actions in an attempt to defend himself,” Mr Fields’s defence lawyer John Hill said on the second day of jury selection.

Denise Lunsford, another of his lawyers, said they intended to call experts from the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.

In a process that lasted into the night, more than 100 jurors were questioned over the course of Monday.

Speaking to the prospective jurors on Tuesday morning, Judge Richard Moore asked whether any had “heard, seen or read anything about” the case in the media.

When all raised their hands, he added: “Can you set these aside, or are they going to intrude on your decision making process?”

None raised their hand.

If convicted, Mr Fields faces a sentence of between 20 years and life in prison.

The violence in Charlottesville came at a time of rising global concern over the threat of white supremacist violence.

The incident shook the United States and became a symbol of the growing boldness of America’s far-right since Donald Trump’s election in 2016.