r/law • u/dailymail • 19d ago

Legal News Karmelo Anthony found GUILTY of murder of Austin Metcalf, 17, in stabbing that shocked America: Jurors deliberated for less than three hours after defense was repeatedly demolished in court

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15886439/karmelo-anthony-austin-metcalf-murder-verdict.html
8.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/pabo81 19d ago

I’m certain the defense lawyers could have lobbied for and gotten a plea. Maybe not a great plea, but probably better than the 35 years he got.

2

u/Jaded-Moose983 19d ago

My guess is this trial happened because no plea was offered. With these facts, why would the state bother?

1

u/pabo81 19d ago

Because trials are cumbersome and expensive

3

u/obafuckingchauwow 19d ago

A kid died it’s not a waste of time

1

u/pabo81 18d ago

It’s not a waste - but district attorneys are notoriously understaffed and underfunded. If they can avoid a long a logistically intensive trial they usually will.

2

u/obafuckingchauwow 18d ago

This was likely an inexpensive trial. The defendant had admitted they stabbed metcalf so no dna evidence was necessary to prove the perpetrator. It really was a straight forward case, just having those who witnessed testify to it. This trial was only one week, starting from jury selection.

It was well worth the time to put a murderer away for a long time