Jemele Hill weighed in on Karmelo Anthony’s conviction for the 2025 fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf in Frisco, Texas. Anthony, 19, was found guilty of murder on June 9 and sentenced to 35 years in a state prison. His lawyer filed a notice of appeal on June 10, and asked the court to appoint an appeals attorney because Anthony is indigent.
Hill said she feels “terribly sad” for Anthony because his defense lawyer was white. “This is just terribly sad,” the former ESPN sports commentator wrote in a post on Threads. “Also, there were black attorneys that reached out, but there are some hard lessons in this case that our community needs to remember.”
OutKick texted Hill to ask whether she feels more sympathy for Karmelo Anthony than for Austin Metcalf, but she did not respond.
“Let this be a lesson to us, especially to teach our young black boys,” Hill said on her podcast “SPOLITICS Live!” on Wednesday.
“We need to be having conversations with our young black boys regarding emotional regulation, and decision making and discernment and wisdom,” she added. Hill said she believes Anthony should have been convicted of a lesser crime, not first-degree murder.
“I do believe that Karmelo Anthony should have been convicted of a crime. I don’t think it should have been first-degree murder. I think he should have been convicted of a lesser crime because of the unequal and imbalance in the level of force that was applied.”
She added: “We have to have [these conversations]. To save them.
ESPN suspended Hill in 2017 for violating the network’s social media rules. After Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated that players who don’t respect the American flag will not play for the Cowboys, Hill tweeted that fans who disagree should boycott the football team’s advertisers. But ESPN said it was not Hill’s place as a sports journalist to express her personal opinions on social media.
ESPN bought out Hill’s contract and she left the network. She was ousted from Spotify in 2023 after she demanded a $100 million contract.