Ep. 1826 - INSANE: Prosecutors In Karmelo Anthony Case Hid The Most Damning Evidence

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Matt Walsh** (0:28)
The adversarial justice system is easy to take for granted, but it's one of the most important legal concepts we have. We could not function as a civilization without it. It prevents us from turning into North Korea overnight. It keeps our courts from devolving into inquisitions and show trials where enemies of the state are railroaded, while allies of the government can do whatever they want. In an adversarial justice system, prosecutors are on one side with a mandate to pursue justice and secure convictions where appropriate. The defense is on the other side with a mandate to get their client acquitted one way or another. Crucially, the two sides are not friends. They don't look out for one another. They have competing interests. They are locked in a duel. A judge mediates disputes as they arise, and then after both sides pursue the evidence to the best of their ability, and make the best argument possible for their side, a jury deliberates and renders a verdict. This is how every criminal trial must work in this country, or else we might as well abandon the concept of criminal trials altogether. It really is that simple. Well, we're now learning that the trial of Karmelo Anthony, who was the black high school student who stabbed a white teenager named Austin Metcalf to death at a track meet last year, did not even come close to following this well-established, fundamental, all-important adversarial process. Instead, critical evidence against Karmelo Anthony was withheld from the jury by the prosecutors, the very people who under our adversarial system should have presented that evidence. This evidence was not withheld because of a ruling by a judge, but instead by a gentleman's agreement between the district attorney and the defense lawyers. As you're about to see, the hidden evidence would have been overwhelmingly beneficial to the prosecution's case against Karmelo Anthony. We're talking about what was in effect a confession by Anthony to premeditated murder. It was hidden by the prosecutors for reasons that simply don't add up and we'll get into all of that. In other words, the prosecution gave Anthony's defense team a huge leg up while also burying critical information so that the jury and the public at large couldn't see it. Now, there's no other way to say this. The fact that Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison occurred despite the efforts of the prosecution to give his defense team a major legal advantage in a case that just so happens to involve the brutal slaughter of a white teenager by a black criminal. We're learning about this new evidence because Anthony's lawyers are now seeking a new trial, absurdly. And as part of that process, the judge is now hearing arguments about all of the evidence in the case including evidence that was not presented to the jury. Now, we'll talk more about this motion for a new trial and all the arguments which are all very stupid, the defense is making in a moment. But first, we need to discuss the hidden evidence itself. So, in court yesterday, the prosecutor, Collin County Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirsky, admitted that the state possessed several violent text messages that Anthony sent to an ex-girlfriend. And in one of those text messages, on the morning he stabbed Austin Metcalf, he sent a picture of his knife along with the caption, I'm low-key on the verge, as in on the verge of snapping.
Additionally, the prosecutor disclosed that, quote, there's a text message where he fantasizes about stabbing someone and licking the blood off the blade.
Now we don't know exactly when that especially gruesome message was sent, but it was at some point prior to Anthony stabbing Metcalf to death.
Now it's important to emphasize that these were not random edgy texts from five years ago.
Anthony was telling his ex-girlfriend that he was spiraling out of control. On the exact same day, he later stabbed Metcalf in the heart.
And she took those threats seriously, as you'd expect. On the morning of April 2nd, the day Anthony stabbed Metcalf, Anthony's ex-girlfriend went to an assistant principal at her school to complain that Anthony was stalking her and sending her these threatening messages following their breakup. The ex-girlfriend reported that Anthony was obsessed with fights, guns, and knives. Watch.