CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CNN) — The man who killed a woman and injured dozens of other people when he rammed his car into a crowd of counter protesters in a rally in Charlottesville two years ago will be sentenced Friday by a federal judge.

James Alex Fields, Jr. pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes  in March as part of a plea agreement that eliminated the death penalty as a possible punishment.

He is to appear in US District Court for the Western District of Virginia, in Charlottesville, on Friday morning.

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that life in prison is the only appropriate sentence.

Fields, in his memorandum, pleads for mercy and asks for a lesser sentence. Through his public defender, he says the court should not give him a life sentence because of his age, history of mental illness and childhood trauma, and to show that no one is defined by their worst moments.