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Karmelo Anthony Sentenced to 35 Years. Civil Rights Attorney Lee Merritt Breaks Down What Comes Next · The Breakfast Club

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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, June eleventh, and on today's episode A Front Page,
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  Speaker 1: we talked to civil rights attorney Lee Merritt about the
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  Speaker 1: sentencing phase of the Carmelo Anthony trial. I'm well, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for having me, absolutely so, I really want to
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  Speaker 1: jump into this Carmelo Anthony case. Carmelo Anthony has now
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  Speaker 1: been sentenced to thirty five years. From a legal standpoint,
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  Speaker 1: what does this sentence tell you?
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  Speaker 2: This sentence tells me everything that I need to know
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  Speaker 2: about the Texas legal system. I've been prosecuting police officers
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  Speaker 2: for wrongful death cases civily and criminally throughout the state
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  Speaker 2: of Texas for the last decade. This is, in fact,
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  Speaker 2: not the worst sentence that I've seen, the most significant
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  Speaker 2: sentence that I've seen, but this is three times the
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  Speaker 2: most significant sentence that I've seen for murder. It tells
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  Speaker 2: us where we are, and it's very sad.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I know you're familiar with the town and
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  Speaker 3: you're familiar with this case from the beginning. Give us
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  Speaker 3: some what should people understand about this community where all
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  Speaker 3: of this happened.
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  Speaker 2: This took place in Frisco, Texas, which is just north
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  Speaker 2: of Dallas. It's probably one of the most conservative jurisdictions
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  Speaker 2: or counties in the state of Texas, one of the
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  Speaker 2: red estates in the country. From the beginning with this is,
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  Speaker 2: in fact, just two seventeen year olds. I have teenagers
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  Speaker 2: in this community. This is not a school that is
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  Speaker 2: often involved in violence, or a school district that's often
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  Speaker 2: involved in violence. This is Carmelo was a honor roll student,
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  Speaker 2: no prior criminal activity, no violence, And this event really
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  Speaker 2: took this community by storm in the sense that no
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  Speaker 2: one saw it coming. This is not the kind of
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  Speaker 2: conflict that we see in this community all the time,
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  Speaker 2: but it immediately became racialized, and their white supremacist groups
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  Speaker 2: immediately began calling for the lynching of Carmelo Anthony. The
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  Speaker 2: Black Lives Matter group immediately began saying that he was
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  Speaker 2: completely justified it spending their own narrative. And it was
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  Speaker 2: really unfortunate to see how much of this played outside
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  Speaker 2: of court and how much those sentiments fell into what.
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  Speaker 3: Happened in the courtroom, you know, And speaking of what
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  Speaker 3: happened inside the courtroom, I know you've been following this
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  Speaker 3: trial or you know enough to know the defense, the prosecution,
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  Speaker 3: both sides a little bit what are your thoughts on
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  Speaker 3: the way this whole case played out.
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  Speaker 2: I think that from the beginning, the prosecution was over
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  Speaker 2: zealous in going for a murder one charge. Murder one
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  Speaker 2: means murder with malice with af Ford thought, that means
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  Speaker 2: that's not a heat of the moment. This is not
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  Speaker 2: a response. Carmelo said, it was self defense. All the
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  Speaker 2: evidence that we saw says that Austin Metcalf, the victim,
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  Speaker 2: was the initial aggressor, and so I would have liked
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  Speaker 2: to see both a prosecution pursue more realistic charges based
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  Speaker 2: on the facts that we saw, and then I would
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  Speaker 2: have liked to see the defense take a completely different tact.
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  Speaker 2: I think that we went to. When I say we,
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  Speaker 2: I think the defense went too public too soon. I
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  Speaker 2: think that they did not have their narrative straight in
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  Speaker 2: order to prove self defense. It's what they should have
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  Speaker 2: been establishing, both in the courtroom and outside of the courtroom,
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  Speaker 2: that it was reasonable for a very small Carmelo Anthony
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  Speaker 2: to be intimidated to fear serious bodily injury from two
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  Speaker 2: large individuals. Instead, what we had was a victim blame
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  Speaker 2: game that I often see in reverse when a white
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  Speaker 2: officer kills a black person, I initially see a character
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  Speaker 2: assassination of that person, and I saw our community, the
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  Speaker 2: black community, try to do the same thing, a character
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  Speaker 2: attack on Austin. But Austin was not on trial, Carmelo was.
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  Speaker 2: And I don't think it was handled well.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and before this trial even started, social
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  Speaker 3: media had already picked sides. How much of public opinion
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  Speaker 3: do you think shape a case like this.
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  Speaker 2: The way our legal system is set up, the public
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  Speaker 2: opinion should not come into the courtroom at all. It's
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  Speaker 2: just not the way it happens. For example, offer Carmelo
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  Speaker 2: a historically high bail amount of over a million dollars,
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  Speaker 2: and of course it picked in all white jury, something
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  Speaker 2: that we've been seen in this country since Emmit tills
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  Speaker 2: lynching and the criminal charges against the men who were
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  Speaker 2: responsible for his murder. And then we saw a lackluster defense,
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  Speaker 2: a defense that only put up one character witness at
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  Speaker 2: the sentencing phase, six witnesses altogether, no expert witnesses, and
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  Speaker 2: in my opinion, no real effort to win this case.
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  Speaker 3: I was literally just getting ready to ask you if
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  Speaker 3: you thought the defense did enough to humanize Carmelo Anthony
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  Speaker 3: in front of the jury before the sentencing, and now
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  Speaker 3: that we have the sentencing, we know what that is.
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  Speaker 3: But you know a lot of that starts during the trial.
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  Speaker 3: And clearly it seems as if the defense did not
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  Speaker 3: do enough to humanize this young man.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what their strategy was to humanize them.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a responsibility for every defense attorney out there.
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  Speaker 2: And if they knew, and it was their decision to
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  Speaker 2: make that they didn't feel like Carmelo Anthony would have
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  Speaker 2: made a good witness on the stand, then it would
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  Speaker 2: have been essential for them to call someone else that
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  Speaker 2: can humanize him, that can put this situation in context,
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  Speaker 2: that will do this in this jurisdiction for this jury
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  Speaker 2: to bring it home for them. And like I said,
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  Speaker 2: it's not that they failed to do it. I don't
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  Speaker 2: think they ever attempted. They never attempted to make him
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  Speaker 2: a sympathetic figure that was worthy of self defense that
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  Speaker 2: all citizens have a right to do.
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  Speaker 3: You think the defense team underestimated how big this case
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  Speaker 3: would eventually get.
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  Speaker 2: So these attorneys I'm actually familiar with. These attorneys were
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  Speaker 2: involved in the defense of Roy Oliver for the murder
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  Speaker 2: of Jordan Edwards in twenty seventeen. These are prominent criminal
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  Speaker 2: defense attorneys in the Dallas County area. They had to
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  Speaker 2: understand that there will be a lot of attention and
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  Speaker 2: eyeballs on this case. I think that they made the
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  Speaker 2: mistake of believing that the court could handle it. And
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  Speaker 2: this is how the court handled it. They said, no
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  Speaker 2: cameras in the room. There will be no cameras in
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  Speaker 2: the court room. There was very low publicity. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of the video evidence that we knew was out there
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  Speaker 2: in this case was not made available to the public,
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  Speaker 2: and that should have given the defense some consternation. They
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  Speaker 2: should have been intimidated by the idea that the prosecutor
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  Speaker 2: and the court was able to essentially try this case
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  Speaker 2: in a black box. We need public eyes on this. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 2: places like Colin County who are still stuck in the
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  Speaker 2: nineteen fifties and Jim Corp segregation, that kind of atmosphere
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  Speaker 2: will show up in the senenc and I think that's
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  Speaker 2: what we saw here.
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  Speaker 3: We know that Carmelo was sentenced thirty five years seventeen
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  Speaker 3: and a half years. He will be eligible for probation.
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  Speaker 3: You know and I know that you are not a
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  Speaker 3: defense attorney, but you know, just from your perspective, what's next.
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  Speaker 2: Let me be the first to say the phrase ineffective
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  Speaker 2: assistance of council. That is the most popular rounds for
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  Speaker 2: appealing this kind of conviction, and here the assistance of
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  Speaker 2: council was completely ineffective. That's why it only took the
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  Speaker 2: jury three hours to deliberate on the conviction. And that's
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  Speaker 2: why we only saw one character witness, the defendant's mother,
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  Speaker 2: during the sentencing phase. So there's strong appellate ground here.
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  Speaker 2: And what strikes me the most, because I've been doing
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  Speaker 2: so much work in the Dallas Fort Worth area that's
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  Speaker 2: where this case took place, is that the conviction of
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  Speaker 2: Roy Oliver for killing fifteen year old Jordan Edwards by
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  Speaker 2: pointing a high power rifle at his car and blowing
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  Speaker 2: his head off was fifteen years. That's the most that
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  Speaker 2: we've ever seen a copy convicted for in the Dallas
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  Speaker 2: County area. Aaron Dean murdered a Tatiyana Jefferson in her home.
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  Speaker 2: He got eleven years. Amber Geiger murdered both from Jah
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  Speaker 2: in Dallas County the same courts in his home while
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  Speaker 2: eating a bowl of ice cream. She received ten years.
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  Speaker 2: That means all three of those people, their sentences together
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  Speaker 2: don't make the thirty five years that Carmelo got. That's
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  Speaker 2: if that's not a direct demonstration that there is something
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  Speaker 2: imbalanced here. I don't know what it is.
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  Speaker 3: That's a really good point, you know, and I want
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  Speaker 3: to I know that there's we cannot ignore politics. And
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  Speaker 3: I know that you are. You live in the area,
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  Speaker 3: You're familiar with the politics in that area. Do you
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  Speaker 3: think that that played into any of what we're seeing?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Unfortunately, I think that the black community was punished
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  Speaker 2: for their voice here. I think that Carmelo, I should
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  Speaker 2: say more accurately, was punished for the political underpinnings of
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  Speaker 2: this case. The prosecutors wanted to send a message to
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  Speaker 2: this individual. They weren't dealing with in my opinion, they
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  Speaker 2: weren't dealing with Carmelo as a person, as a who
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  Speaker 2: had never committed a criminal offense. They didn't go after
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  Speaker 2: him as someone who was deserving of the benefit of
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  Speaker 2: the doubt. I think because of the political nature of
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  Speaker 2: this case, because of when it took place, in the
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  Speaker 2: racial tension surrounding it, the prosecutors chose the side, and
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  Speaker 2: they chose the side of white supremacy.
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  Speaker 3: And lastly, Lias somebody you know from that community, how
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  Speaker 3: has this case impacted you personally? I know you have
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  Speaker 3: children in the area. You know, I know you watched
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  Speaker 3: it play out from beginning to end. You know, talk
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  Speaker 3: to me about your feelings as an individual from that
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  Speaker 3: community watching something like this happen, you know where you live.
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  Speaker 2: As a father, I'm always concerned about the violence that
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  Speaker 2: any of our youth faced. I sympathized with Austin Metcalf
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  Speaker 2: and his family, sympathized with Carmelo Anthony in his family.
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  Speaker 2: What I'm really concerned about is that the myth of
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  Speaker 2: progress that this community has been moving forward for the
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  Speaker 2: past decade or since I've been working here, prior to
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  Speaker 2: the work that I've been doing here, that this community
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  Speaker 2: in terms of racial relations and fairness and justice is
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  Speaker 2: getting better. And so a lot of people in our
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  Speaker 2: community would have pointed it to the conviction of Amber
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  Speaker 2: Geiger for the murder of both of them, or a Tatiana,
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  Speaker 2: or Erandean for the murder of a Tatiana or those
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  Speaker 2: other murders that I talked about in those convictions to say, hey,
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  Speaker 2: we're moving the needle. But this quickly reminds us just
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  Speaker 2: one murder, which wiped out all of those those years,
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  Speaker 2: reminds us that we're not moving forward. I think that's
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  Speaker 2: very frustrating for the black community here, and more importantly,
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  Speaker 2: I think it radicalizes certain aspects of the white community.
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  Speaker 2: The men and women who were there to support Austin
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  Speaker 2: Medcalf were not peaceful Christians. These were people who were
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  Speaker 2: saying he should be lynched, he should be hung outside
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  Speaker 2: of the courtroom, that we shouldn't bother with the judicial
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  Speaker 2: process at all. Those are the kind of people who
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  Speaker 2: are empowered by the sentence.
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  Speaker 3: That's heartbreaking. Well, Lee, we'll have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 3: We'll continued to watch this case and how it plays out.
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  Speaker 3: I Mimi Brown, and this is Front Page. This podcast
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  Speaker 3: was brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 3: M