The Verdict, The Sentence, The Aftermath

Considering that the crime and the trial took place less than an hour south of where I live, I have paid a fair amount of attention to the Karmelo Anthony-Austin Metcalf story;  from the time Karmelo stabbed and killed Austin right up through the trial, the guilty verdict, the 35-year prison sentence and the aftermath.

Most white folks feel that the verdict was right and the sentence was appropriate, if anything perhaps Anthony should have received a life sentence or worse.  And they are fed up with black politicians and activists playing the race card every time they don’t like the answer or the outcome.  I take it all with a grain of salt. This is just part of their job description.  It’s the way things work.

But at a deeper level I am guessing that a lot of blacks are once again having questions about our justice system.  While many, if not most blacks likely agree that Karmelo Anthony was guilty; they are asking themselves how this would have turned out if Karmelo had been a white kid represented by a blue-chip defense attorney.  Probably a guilty verdict of some sort, but perhaps to a lesser charge, maybe just manslaughter.  Even if he’d been found guilty of the same charge carrying the same range of sentencing, would he have gotten 35 years?

There remains in the black community a nagging sense that white people tend to get the benefit of the doubt.  When it’s between a 5 or a 99 year sentence the young white kid gets 10 or 15 tops, the black kid gets more, as in 35 years.  If there is potential for a lesser charge or a reduced sentence, the white guy is more likely to receive it or so it seems.

One may say that is no longer the way it works.  That these days the scales are balanced, maybe even tipping slightly in favor of non-whites.  I don’t think that is the case, but even if it were, it’s a recent development.  The black experience in America has seen enough injustice to last well beyond the lives of those who suffered the most from it.  Therefore, the questions and the doubts are never far away and tend to readily surface in cases such as this one.

 “Time heals all wounds, but it does not erase the scars.”- Jane Yolen