hours of deliberation.

This is big news in Texas and sadly divided on racial lines versus facts harkening back to the OJ trial.

🤬 🤬 🤬

Prosecution thought that was a legitimate reason considering that the murder occurred at a HS track meet.

Prosecutors should be praying for a jury of teachers for a crime that happens at a school. But for some reason they didn't want those three I wonder why.

Their were also African Americans that got themselves removed from the jury pool.

was that they'd have have a hard time convicting such a young black man of murder, that he was just a child that just made a mistake, that they couldn't vote to put another black man in jail, and generally acknowledging that they couldn't be unbiased in the case.

One has to admire that level of self-awareness and honesty.

You tell the prosecutor that you'd be the perfect juror because you can spot guilty people (finger snap) just like that.

I miss that funny man.

There were at least three jurors that were struck with one of Texas’s extremely generous ten peremptory strikes. Somehow most states can get by with less. My state gets by with only three. I’m suspicious of Texas’s need for so many. There was a Batson challenge that was denied by the judge. I’m not sure any of us are in position to say whether the strikes were race based or not unless we have more information. I’d be careful to paint the black members of the jury pool with such a broad brush from published replies from one or two prospective jurors.

I've heard it reported that the jury was composed, in part, of at least more than one Hispanic person and at least one Indian.

So the jury wasn't "all white"; it was just "no black."

He was so thoroughly and obviously guilty. There were 24 witnesses basically all telling coherent stories that aligned with the physical and video evidence. The people whose stories varied wildly in the media were disproved with evidence, and they changed their tunes real quick once on the stand with perjury being a thing that exists.

When even the defense's own witnesses were on the stand going, "Yeah, he's pretty much guilty," his goose was cooked.

I still can't believe it even went to trial. He and his family seem to have gotten rotten advice from the start. There should have been a plea, and then this young man could serve his sentence for the tragedy he caused and still have the bulk of his life ahead of him.

I don't know if they were getting all gassed up from social media or what, but the prosecutors barely had to try here, and the defense literally had nothing. It was frankly weird to see just how little they had in way of defense, and yet it still went to trial.

I do think he regrets it. All the testimony that came after signifies that. If they ultimately go with 20 years, I think that would be just given things. But that's up to the jury.

I think family got terrible advice and I think their legal team was seeing the massive amount of money they got in Gofundme type donations (600k) and bled them dry. Granted no was this kid walked too many witnesses but a negotiated plea would have let him salvage some part of his life.

They blew $650K on houses and cars.
Had no money for the kids defense and didn’t try and get a plea deal. It’s just stupid.
Their defense was ….the blade was shorter than the would channel??? Just horrible. It’s not the lawyers fault because they had an indefensible case to deal with.

But that Anthony (possibly with the encouragement of his family and the remora surrounding the family) said absolutely not.

If a client doesn't want to accept a deal, his attorney has to abide by that.

I'm glad that he didn't accept a plea though, this will be proper punishment for what he did. He likely regrets it only being he's in jail.

The defense was paper thin. He should have plea bargained. Now the piper must be paid.

sentence.

Thanks for this entry……35 years isn’t life for this young man.

And you're correct! He'll be up for parole in about 17 years.

and said this site, among a few others, was a good place for election discussions ahead of November. As for the sentencing, I have not yet formed a final personal opinion on how long his punishment should be. His defense team was woefully unprepared and, if the rumors of his family spending the donation money in that manner are true, that is very sad.

What it SHOULD be are academic at this point.

be granted parole upon his first application. It's likely he'll be in Huntsville until at least 2046.

What is wrong with you?

He isn't going to be mellowed, especially after being in prison.

sad all the way around.Two young lives destroyed in an instance and all for what...

5 years was the low end at what the guidelines are

Ya know, those white and Asian guys— they get a pass when they kill— There has been talk of the orange one pardoning Chauvin (and I hope that’s not true).
It’s been no secret, especially in the south, that Black (males) receive harsher punishment than non Black people for similar crimes. Heck, there was once a time a Black person could be accused of a crime and extrajudicial killing to punish, with the killers walking free.

It’s just another day in Amerikkka!

For at most a push. I think he deserved worse than 35 years. The other boy was literally murdered at a school track meet. There was zero excuse for it and literally zero defense from his attorney, not because he had bad lawyers, but because it was an indefensible crime. To top it off, I believe his family didn’t accept a plea deal so that could continue the scam of a go fund me that was used for new cars and house. I have zero understanding how this gets twisted into some kind of crime against race, when nobody should be trying to hold this boys acts up as anything more that what the jury saw.