Karmelo Anthony is seeking a new trial in Texas as tensions increase over the conviction for the murder of Austin Metcalf. The criminal case was not a difficult one for the prosecution with overwhelming witness and video evidence of the stabbing. Anthony’s motion for a new trial is extremely weak, in my view, because it focuses on his decision not to testify (despite a record showing he made that decision knowingly and freely). At the same time, the case is now becoming a political issue with Democratic senatorial nominee James Talarico declaring that the case “prove[s] this system is not working for black Texans.”
The grounds for the new trial are extremely dubious, as Anthony now suggests that he wants to testify. Such later regrets are common after a conviction, and courts, including this one, anticipate such objections by creating a clear record that the defendant made the decision knowingly and freely.
Ironically, a new trial could bring forth even more damaging evidence. New messages have surfaced showing that Anthony was threatening his former girlfriend and expressing violent ideations just hours before killing Metcalf.
Text messages allegedly include a picture of the knife he used in Metcalf’s killing. Anthony’s girlfriend, Valeria, went to the school on the morning of April 2, 2025, before he stabbed Metcalf. She reportedly told school officials that Anthony was stalking her after she broke up with him.
The evidence shows Anthony told her, “I’m low key on the verge” and “When I stab somebody I’m gonna lick their blood off the blade,” prosecutors alleged.
New information also raises questions about the victim, who was accused of spray-painting racist messages and engaging in threatening conduct. The jury never heard this information about both individuals due to a “gentleman’s agreement” between the prosecution and the defense.
Meanwhile, Talarico has publicly portrayed the conviction as a failure of the legal system. In his appearance on the New York radio show The Breakfast Club, he discussed how he nodded along as a town hall attendee who called Anthony’s conviction a “tragedy.”
He added: “I’m not an expert on this particular case, but I know that there were no black members of the jury, and to me, that’s, that’s the only evidence you need to, to really prove this system is not working for black Texans.”
The Supreme Court has long addressed the use of race to select jurors, particularly when evidence shows jurors were barred from the jury because of their race. It is not considered a constitutional violation to have a jury without a member who shares the race or other characteristics with the defendant.
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees trial by an impartial jury, not a particular racial makeup. The Equal Protection Clause also protects after discrimination in jury selection.
Under Batson v. Kentucky, the defense can challenge the use of peremptory challenges by the prosecution on the issue of race. However, the issue is not simply the result of the challenges but the motivation behind such challenges.
In the case of James Kirkland Batson, the defendant was charged with burglary and receipt of stolen goods. The prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to remove all four African Americans from the jury pool. Justice Powell ultimately wrote the opinion for the Supreme Court and held that, while a defendant is not entitled to have jurors who meet certain racial criteria, the state is not permitted to use its peremptory challenges to automatically exclude potential members of the jury because of their race.
In the Anthony case, challenges to black prospective jurors drew criticism before the trial. However, the prosecutors objected to a number of individuals because they were educators and the crime occurred on school grounds. The ultimate jury was not “all-White” as commonly claimed. It included Asian, Indian, and Hispanic members.
It is another high hurdle for the defense to argue that the racial makeup of the jury was an unconstitutional element at the trial.
Moreover, calling the trial a “tragedy” and evidence that the system is failing black Texans ignores the overwhelming evidence against Anthony.
I do not believe that a new trial is likely based on the failure to testify. There were ample reasons for the “gentleman’s agreement” and the decision to remain silent. Anthony would have faced a withering cross-examination, and much of this evidence of his prior alleged threats and stalking would likely have been brought out for impeachment and rebuttal purposes.
That Karmelo Anthony’s conviction has given rise to division is a triumph of the propaganda machine of the Left.
Track teams bring their own EZ Ups, branded with their school name, to track meets, which go on in scorching heat as well as rain. The team puts their duffle bags, snacks, drinks, and personal items under this EZ up, typically with little room left over for teammates to get under out of the sun or, in this case, the rain. The coach and assistant coach are out on the field for each event, rain or shine, so it’s just the students under the canopy.
These spaces are reserved seating for each team, like a dugout is reserved for a baseball team.
Karmelo Anthony had been suspended from school for bringing a knife, and was not allowed to compete at that track event. He went to the track meet, anyway, again bringing a knife not allowed on school property, walked past empty bleachers, and overhangs where people not on a team were sheltering out of the rain, and he demanded to sit underneath Memorial High Schools EZ Up. Then he fatally stabbed Metcalf for trying to make him leave.
What Karmelo Anthony did was akin to barging into the dugout of a baseball team, at a game where he wasn’t playing, getting belligerent when told to leave, and then fatally stabbing a player who tried to push him out of the dugout. Anthony was the aggressor every step of the way.
Instead of taking accountability for his act of murder, he has tried to portray himself as a victim of racism, and modern day Rosa Parks.
Here is a link to the Frisco Memorial High School track records, to see this bastion of white supremacy who made poor Karmelo Anthony so terrified at being asked to leave where he had trespassed, that he felt the need to kill unarmed Austin Metcalf.
Frisco Memorial High School (Austin Metcalf’s school) Track Records:
Paul Espinoza-Perry 2026
Ja’ir Pearson 2023
Treyrece Coleman 2024
Jaykwon Green 2024
Deandre Stanley 2022
Oluwatimileyin Adebanjo 2022
I don’t know any of these athletes. Maybe Oluwatimileyin Adebanjo is a WASP.
https://www.athletic.net/team/75449/track-and-field-outdoor/2025/team-records/m/lj
On the Frisco Memorial High School website, there is a photo of the girls basketball team, where whites were the minority.
https://www.friscoisd.org/o/mhs
Maybe Oluwatimileyin Adebanjo is a WASP.
Karen – I would say that wins best comment!
Former President Obama has now clarified that if he had a son who said, “When I stab somebody I’m gonna lick their blood off the blade,” he would look just like Karmelo Anthony.
That wins best comment.
So I guess it is perfectly ok to stab someone in the heart if there were no black on the jury. Talarico doesn’t have a chance in Texas.
vvvvvvvvvv CCP DISINFORMATION vvvvvvvvvv
Talarico’s Opponent Corrupt To The Core
When Paxton was a Texas House member representing McKinney in 2008, the Associated PresCorrupts reported that he and another lawmaker had investments in a company that got millions from state contracts — contracts that Paxton had voted on through state spending bills.
Paxton had profited from the contracts that Watchguard, a video equipment company that supplies police stations, secured while he was in office. His investment in the company came to light after a competing company sued, saying that the contract bidding was rigged in Watchdog’s favor.
Paxton claimed he had no knowledge of the company’s state contracts at the time, which he would have been required to disclose to the Texas Ethics Commission under state law. However, the Associated Press reported that Watchguard’s website boasted that the company was “held by an influential shareholder group that includes three state representatives.”
https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/
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Currently most polls show Talarico leads Paxton by 2 or 3 points which is shocking for Texas where Republicans have dominated for 30 years. So Fox News asked Turley to write a column smearing Talarico as some far-left race-baiter.
Paxton Paid Restitution For Securities Fraud
Paxton was indicted in the late summer of 2015 over accusations of defrauding investors, according to Chron. The charges stemmed from accusations that Paxton had encouraged other legislators to invest in McKinney-based company Servergy in 2011 without telling them he would make a commission, Chron reported. Paxton allegedly misrepresented himself as an investor in the company, which was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.
Paxton did not go quietly. After pleading not guilty to the charges, the case was stalled by disputes over how much the prosecutors should be paid, following pushback by commissioners in Paxton’s hometown of Collin County, according to the Associated Press. Back and forth changes to the legal venue between Collin County and Houston further delayed the case.
After nine years, during which time Paxton was reelected as attorney general twice, Paxton struck a deal with prosecutors in 2024, agreeing to pay about $300,000 in restitution and do community service with local food pantry organizations in Collin County to get the charges dropped, the Associated Press reported.
https://www.thebarbedwire.com/ken-paxton-scandal-timeline/
^^^^^^^^CCP DISINFORMATION^^^^^^^^^^
Austin had a creepy old math tutor who would touch his penis.
Lame as usual MORON ANON
Is this the new American justice, a timorous and dastardly adjudication of contrived sacred cows of the protected class and beneficiaries of imaginary guilt by men who have lost their will, their resolve, and the courage of their convictions?
This scoundrel would have been immediately disarticulated from his head a few brief centuries ago in Great Britain.
What would the evidently conservative American Founders think of you?
What a ——ing joke.
“A foole and his money be soone at debate: which after with sorow repents him too late.”
Thomas Tusser, 1573
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A fool and his money are soon parted.
You are never going to please these voracious parasites; they are going to play on your imaginary guilt until you are extinct.
The Israelite slaves were out of Egypt before the ink was dry on their release papers, but then, they had the capacity and acumen sufficient for the task.
Update: A new judge has been assigned to hear Anthony’s motion for a new trial.
Also, SCOTUS just released an order temporarily allowing Trump administration to continue with Ballroom construction (in the interim before final hearing and order).
That takes care of the ballroom.
Now, who’s gonna make American babies, considering that the American fertility rate is in a “death spiral” as is the country?
Interestingly foreign born women have higher birth rates than native born women. I guess that’s who will populate the US. Who won’t be populating the US is liberal women as they have the lowest birth rates. Christians and Jews also have higher birth rates. A good omen for the decades ahead.
If it is the duty of a man to fight his nation’s wars, is it the duty of a woman to make her nation’s citizens?
Have you discovered another way? Nobel prize is waiting.
Ummmm, Usha and JD Vance? 🤔
Makin’ Injuns!
The sooner and more complete that ballroom is, the more delicious it will be to see it torn down and replaced with a nice lawn again.
On brand, the left loves to destroy things. Ironically, that’s what is causing their own destruction.
TEXAS NOT WORKING FOR BLACKS – LIBERIA IS
“At the same time, the case is now becoming a political issue with Democratic senatorial nominee James Talarico declaring that the case “prove[s] this system is not working for black Texans.’”
– Professor Turley
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AI Overview
Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States, with the first group of 20 arriving in Monrovia on August 20, 2026. The New Deportation Agreement The Deal: Liberia will receive up to 1,200 noncitizen migrants from the U.S. over time. Who is Involved: The people being sent are not Liberian citizens. They come from other parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South America. The Arrivals: As reported by PBS NewsHour, “The United States sent 20 deportees to Liberia, who arrived on Thursday as part of 1,200 migrants that the African country will receive under a new deal.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
“My first impulse would be to free all the slaves and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Ottawa, Illinois, on August 21, 1858
_____________________________________________________________
“[Racial separation] [is necessary], and [though difficult] must be effected by colonization… The enterprise is a difficult one, but ‘where there is a will there is a way’; and what colonization needs most is a hearty will… Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and at the same time [not against] our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857
Because Talarico has a black support problem. I personally think everyone’s tired of the racial pandering in the least racist country on planet earth.
This late discovery of text messages etc. is a recurring issue in these cases. It must place a great deal of pressure on the prosecution to continually scan social media, and to examine all possible electronic sources for statements of the parties and witnesses. The Discovery obligation on the prosecution is a continuing one. It may not be an issue in this case since it seems that the newly found information is not exculpatory, but this has to be an ongoing issue for prosecutors who want to ensure a sustainable and just conviction. I would think that it will also be an issue in the sure to come claims of ineffective assistance of defense counsel. Of course, however the case proceeds, the underlying facts are a tragedy that cannot be remedied.
It was already known by the prosecution, the defense, and the judge. They chose not to use it at trial because it doesn’t bear directly on the case. Had they used it, it could have been used as a means to request a new trial as it’s prejudicial to the defendant but not a part of the crime he was charged with.
. . . because it doesn’t bear directly on the case.
I thought it was not used because it was part of the gentleman’s agreement. Expressing violent ideations in the hours before the incident does seem, to me at least, to bear on the central issue in the case, namely, whether Mr. Anthony acted in self-defense.
#. Ooops! Karmelo was not ELLIGIBLE for the death sentence, Judge Gregory. Age discrimination if ever seen. Does anyone think the age and sentencing contributed to the crime? I can murder and live?
Later
Professor Turley says the argument for a new trial is focused on the decision not to testify. Is it also based on the exclusion of black jurors, ostensibly because they were educators? If so, what is the theory — were educators who were not black on the jury?
Translation: Americans have black fatigue
Translation: Republikkkans have black fatigue.
. . . were educators who were not black on the jury?
It depends on how broadly you define “educator.” There was an aesthetician from a trade school (so, not a K-12 educator). But that is one level removed from being an educator in the school district where the killing occurred, and where both victim and defendant attended school. “This is close enough to home that I’m not confident that I could be completely fair,” as one prospective juror put it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/jurors-karmelo-anthony-murder-trial/
Seems pretty remote.
In any event, the argument for the new trial appears unrelated to jury selection.
Talarico may be pandering to black voters here. He needs them and does not have the support he likely needs to win.
Talarico may be pandering to black voters here.
I think he definitely is, no maybe about it.
The theory that this is the least racist country on earth and both white and black people, in fact ALL peoples here, are able to view both victims and defendants without racial animus. Give me a count of all the racist and non-racist people in your life. I’m 0-1.
The left doesn’t appear to have any use for law or legal decisions. If they manage to get him retried, though the whole thing is tragic for everyone involved, I hope he is found even more guilty. This precedent where literally getting away with murder due to exceptionalism or lawfare is a thing has got to be stopped in its tracks, this insanity has gone far enough. Nancy and her minions egged all of it on, for years.
Don’t know if anyone else has seen that young people on the left are now cosplaying the Black Panthers, which has been resurrected, fighting imaginary enemies that scarcely exist outside of their minds or indoctrination, around every bush. It has gone way, way too far. Those of us old enough to remember can only shake our heads and either laugh or cry.
What are we going to do with all of these unwell people when this has run its course, which I believe it will, because most people in actual fact, are not insane?
The anarchy of the dictatorship of the majority—the poor—is precisely what “democracy” has endeavored to avoid by severe vote restrictions since inception in Greece in 508 B.C.
America is rapidly becoming dangerous with the loss of solid and steady leadership of men of coherence, rationality, resolve, and conviction.
What a waste of precious resources. And that Talarico guy should be told to shut up.
Karmelo Anthony and Chucky Doll have a few things in common. Except for 1.
Chucky Doll does not discriminate.
Just a question for Prof Turley. I can see the admissability of Anthny’s relatively contemporaneous statements of intent to stab someone and lick the blood from the blade as an admission of sorts (not a confession by any means) or evidence of his state of mind, ie., mens rea at the time of the event. On what theory of evidence would Metcalf’s conduct in spraying racist messages (if true and proved) be admissible? Even if he was ‘racist’ on some other occaision, it does not prove racial animus at the timne in question, nor was there any proof of racial epithets being directed at Anthony. So why would that be admissable?
Good point ⬆️
So Talarico believes in Black Privilege including cold-blooded murder is okeydokey if you’re black. And he’s ahead in the polls??!! Today’s Texans would have surrendered the Alamo with an apology and a land acknowledgement. 😡
I was censored. I told the truth. Truth does not matter.
What if Austin had been black. I’m sure a black man was murdered by a black somewhere in Texas. Was it in the news? Why not?
Isn’t the article about race baitors?
The gentleman’s agreement was limiting the scope at trial to the specific events of murder. Anthony suffered home abuse kept out of trial. His statement of he touched me as a rationale for murder had to be a learned belief. He knew where the heart is and a cut to the heart is unsurvivable.
I’m only stunned he was sentenced to 35 years and not death.
Have a good and prosperous day…
Karmelo fits the 17-44 black male profile. Is that approximately 4% of the US population?
Be safe
Anonymous comments requesting DD-214s should probably be accompanied by their own DD-214s, as a sign of good faith.
michaeldix,
Really think the failure to launch annony could even pass the ASVAB let alone graduate from boot camp?
What about you, ever serve? No you did not.
You got a big mouth, but the fact is you are a constant liar, lying about a college degree, I saw that interchange. You make an ass of yourself with every word you type.
Oh, no. Poor, poor annony. His lack of reading comprehension is showing again.
You say you saw the interchange. Should be easy enough for you to link to my comment making that claim.
This is what passes for higher-educa-, er, I should say higher-indoctrination these days.