Karmelo Anthony gets new legal team to take over his case pro bono as appeal process begins
TheGrio...
The team, comprised of appellate, civil rights and criminal defense attorneys, will look into the trial record and explore avenues of appeal for the 19-year-old, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on a first-degree murder charge on June 9.
A new legal team composed of appellate, civil rights and criminal defense attorneys is now taking on the case of Karmelo Anthony.
In a statement drafted by the Stand With Karmelo Coalition, the team, which is serving pro bono, will review the trial record of Anthony’s trial in the stabbing death of high school student Austin Metcalf at a track meet last April and pursue all available avenues of a potential appeal.
Anthony was found guilty on June 9 of first-degree murder following a brief trial. Hours after the guilty verdict was read, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
His new legal team includes Russell Wilson of the Law Office of Russell Wilson II in Dallas, Gary Bledsoe of the Bledsoe Law Firm PLLC and President of the Texas Chapter of the NAACP, Michael L. Ware of the Law Office of Michael Ware, Brooke Cluse of Ben Crump Law, Sean Daredia of Daredia Law Firm and Justin A. Moore of Stafford Moore PLLC. Wilson will serve as lead counsel, with Ware as second chair and Bledsoe as third chair.
“Our appellate team has been retained following the conviction to conduct a fresh, independent review of the trial record,” the statement from the coalition read. “We recognize the profound loss suffered by one young man’s family and the uncertainty facing another, and we extend our respect to everyone whose lives have been forever changed by these events. Our responsibility is to determine whether a legal error occurred and to ensure that every issue supported by the record is fully and vigorously presented on appeal.
“The appellate process exists for precisely this purpose.”
The diverse group is all located in various municipalities in Texas, from Dallas to Austin, Frisco and Fort Worth. Cluse, who works with noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump, works out of the Frisco office, the same rising Dallas suburb where the crime occurred.
On Friday (June 19), the Collin County court, where Anthony’s trial was held, released a large batch of evidence related to the case, including body cam footage of Anthony’s arrest, photos of the knife used in the stabbing and surveillance footage of Anthony and Metcalf at the track meet and what occurred in the lead up to the stabbing.
“I understood the public’s desire to know what happened in the courtroom. The overwhelming focus on my ruling regarding the media in courtroom was to protect the process, witnesses, and jury,” Judge John Roach, who presided over the trial, said.