Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico claimed the criminal justice system “is not working for black Texans” in a video of his remarks on Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial that resurfaced Wednesday.
The clip, drawn from Talarico’s August 5 appearance on the New York radio show The Breakfast Club, resurfaced after the Texas Democrat was asked to explain why he had earlier nodded along as a town hall attendee called Anthony’s conviction a “tragedy.”
Talarico said his work on justice reform in the Texas House convinced him the state fails black defendants, then rested his argument on the makeup of the jury that convicted Anthony.
“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,” Talarico said.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), who represents Texas’s 26th Congressional District, argued the candidate was siding with a killer. He wrote that Anthony “stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death for absolutely no reason.”
A Collin County jury convicted Anthony of murder on June 9 and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the April 2025 stabbing death of Metcalf at a Frisco track meet, an outcome Talarico nodded along with when a Houston voter condemned it weeks earlier. Jurors rejected the defense’s “sudden passion” argument.
Critics noted the 589-person jury pool contained multiple prospective black jurors, and prosecutors dismissed some after they said they could not be impartial. The defense has attacked the verdict over the all-non-black jury. That effort scored a win Wednesday, when State District Judge John Roach Jr. was removed from the appeals process ahead of a Thursday hearing on the request for a new trial.
Talarico has been trying to win back black voters. A bitter primary left them cold. He beat Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat who said he ran “a racist race,” and now faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in November.
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