The civil jury trial about the 2017 “Unite the Right” Charlottesville, Virginia, rally got off to an emotional start Thursday, as high-profile attorneys urged the jury to “do justice” for the plaintiffs in the case.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s Karen Dunn and Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink delivered opening statements in the case to a jury of 12 people, selected over the past three days. In the afternoon, defense lawyers took the lectern to deliver arguments for their respective clients, an event that at times felt out of place in the setting of a federal courtroom.