Jasmine Crockett Explains Why She Thinks Karmelo Anthony Was Justified

Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett doubled down on her defense of Karmelo Anthony, claiming his murder conviction for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was evidence of a “broken system.” 

Crockett told TMZ on Wednesday that the sentence of 35 years was excessive “for a kid who had decided to go under a tent that was not his team’s tent, as it was raining, and simply didn’t want to be put out in the rain by some random kid that he didn’t know, who was larger than him.” 

“Because if a white boy would have said that they were afraid of a black boy, something tells me that that jury that didn’t have any black people on it, they would have believed him in his fear,” she added.

 The failed Senate candidate said her “heart breaks for so many reasons.” Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of stabbing Metcalf at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April 2025. 

“It takes me back to what actually made me decide to get into this legislative work in the first place, because I know that our systems are broken. And what we saw with that verdict is the evidence of a broken system,” Crockett said. 

Jasmine Crockett tells @jacob_wass there was one major factor in the Karmelo Anthony verdict. pic.twitter.com/XYX5bNJagz

— TMZ (@TMZ) June 10, 2026

She went on to claim that “a lot of people don’t know what it is to live as a black person in this country” and that the outcome would have been different had Anthony been white instead of black. 

“Oh my God. I know Collin County. So absolutely,” she said when asked if she thought race was a factor. “And unfortunately, that was not the county for a black boy.”

Crockett continued to downplay the incident, noting that some people referred to the murder weapon “as a tool” and called the knife a “small object.” She also claimed that Anthony should have been given mercy because he only stabbed Metcalf once. 

Those remarks echoed previous comments Crockett made that the knife used in the stabbing should not count as a “deadly weapon” because of its size. 

During a Tuesday podcast, Crockett claimed that the Metcalf family, who are white, doesn’t understand the “fear and agony” of black women.  

“Black women, especially black women who have black male children live in fear and agony every single day … fear and agony that I promise you the Metcalfs probably never spent a day living that way and we’re going to have to have just some real conversations about race in this country,” Crockett said.

The case has garnered national headlines as leftist activists claim that the jury was racist, despite testimony from multiple black teen witnesses who reportedly said Anthony was in the wrong.