Howard Professor Blames Jeff Metcalf After Son's Killer Gets 35 Years

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 12

A day after Karmelo Anthony was sentenced to 35 years for murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, Howard professor Stacey Patton published a Substack essay blaming Jeff Metcalf’s parenting and arguing the death “did not begin with the knife.”
Patton cast Anthony’s actions as tied to racial boundaries and suggested Jeff Metcalf’s courtroom remarks that Anthony did “not belong” reflected a longer history of anti-Black exclusion rather than only a grieving father’s anger.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Patton said she was critiquing “racial power,” not excusing violence or attacking a grieving family, and argued Anthony was “caged inside a racial imagination that had already convicted him.”
The Texas case has become a broader racial flashpoint, with protests outside the McKinney courthouse, appeal talk including a possible Batson jury-selection claim, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett separately questioning whether Anthony received a fair trial.