No Black jurors selected for murder trial over killing at 2025 Texas high school

Adria Walker, The Guardian

Karmelo Anthony, who is Black, is accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf, who was white, at track meet in an affluent Dallas suburb

After a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, ended with one student dead and another accused of murder, Karmelo Anthony, then 17, was indicted on first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 17. Social media posts about the death divided the case into racial lines, sparking national outrage. Anthony, who is being tried as an adult, is Black; Metcalf was white.

This week marked the beginning of Anthony’s murder trial.

After three days of juror selection, attorneys selected 12 jurors and six alternates for the trial, narrowed down from 600 initial summonses. None of the jurors are Black.

Defense lawyers accused prosecutors of improperly striking the only three remaining Black prospective jurors, according to a local NBC affiliate. The district judge John Roach, however, accepted the state’s explanation that they were removed because they are educators.

“The prosecution used its final strikes to remove the remaining qualified Black jurors from the jury pool, raising serious concerns about fairness and equal justice,” the Next Generation Action Network civil rights organization, based in Dallas, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.

“We respect the court, but we will not remain silent … Every person deserves a fair trial and confidence that justice is being administered without bias. We are calling on the court to ensure Mr Anthony’s constitutional rights are fully protected.”

Learn more about the case.

More breaking Black news.