Atty. Sean Deradia Discusses Karmelo Anthony, Nolan Wells, & Why Serving on Juries is Important

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1:0135 years, we were talking about that and it appeared that he was overcharged and it appears that there's not going to be a retrial. It's not going to move forward. Give us some details, your experience on that case, your overall thoughts, and also the discussion around the jurors and the black jurors who were struck and what they're currently saying about that. So break it down for us. Well, first of all, he got 35 years, he wasn't it wasn't about being overcharged. The sentence he received was was egregious or what happened. I'm sorry, over sentence, forgive me, over sentence. Yeah. Well, you know, let's talk about the sentence first. You hear about like standard ground laws, you know, back in the trade on Martin case George Zimmerman claimed standard ground. That's what he was kind of saying like he had a right to be there. Why is it that when Carmelo Anthony a young black man is using self defense, he was in a tent. He was told to leave. He stood his ground when a black man tries to use self defense.

2:03It's rejected, right? The media doesn't side with them. Jurors, and we're going to get into the jurors. Jurors don't want to side with them. But then if it's a different race, they don't get that same benefit that that is one issue we had. In regards to the retrial, we had a motion for neutral. We did not win that motion for neutral, but we still have an appeal, a direct appeal is in process. And we are confident that this case will come back on appeal. And we are confident that he will be getting a new trial shortly. And as far as the jurors, what happened with that? Because that was a story. I think some folks were confused about as far as the jurors who were struck and trying to prove that it was about race. But with the jurors, if you remember when you were covering it, there's three eligible black jurors that could have been on the panel out of the 12. All three were struck by the state. You know, in under batson, which is a Supreme Court case, you can't strike a juror based solely on their race or gender ethnicity. And so the states said, hey, we're not striking these three jurors because they're black.

3:06We're striking them because they're teachers or educators. We don't want them on our jury. And then the judge at the time was like, that's fine. That's a neutral reason. But after the motion for neutral hearing, we had just last month. We learned that there was 50 plus racial incidents by, you know, Austin Metcac. And you're talking about spray painting, hail Hitler, KKK, kill all blacks using the N word with a hard R. I'm talking assault. For being on probation, being arrested for assault multiple times. So when you find all that information out, now we look back at what happened back in court when they're saying, hey, we have to strike these jurors because of, you know, not because they're black or because their teachers. You know, it doesn't add up because there were racial incidents that were kept out. And so it just, we believe that's going to be an issue on appeal as well. How does something like this happen? I mean, it seems so clear striking three black jurors.

4:06I mean, it just, how does this happen? Is this because we're in Texas? I mean, it's happened all over the country, but how does something like this happen? And it feels like, um, just doesn't feel balanced or fair. I don't think it has anything to do with the state or location. I just feel like as a whole black young men are not getting the same treatment as other races. And I don't mean to start the pod or cause issues. But if you look at the Lindsey Clancy case, you look at that. There was, there was a white mother, white female. She got a juror. There was one black juror on that entire jury. One in that one juror was the one that held out. So the rest of the jurors were people of her peers. And there's nothing wrong with that is just why are young black men not getting that same benefit? And we know we want black jurors to serve on juries in America. That's important. But then when you look at the Lindsey Clancy case, you see her defense attorney now is trying to subpoena and look at the phone records of that black juror.

5:09He wants to have him brought in. He wants to have him disciplined, investigated. So when a black young man, black man, black female serves in a jury. And they want to vote their conscious. They get, they get criticized. They get attacked after, after they choose their verdict. So I think there's a disparity not so in the location. I think there's a disparity in how the jury system is working right now. I think it's, it's set up right now to penalize black men and women to serve on juries. And that's why you see a disconnect when you see someone like Carmelo Anthony versus Lindsey Clancy. You look at the jury makeup. There's such a disconnect. There's such a difference in what you're, what we're seeing now. It's true. It does feel like an active intimidation. If they feel like that, if you didn't do what they wanted you to do, they could subpoena you or whatever they're trying to do with the current black juror. It's interesting to me. And then even with that Lindsey Clancy, be honest with you, I barely, I barely followed it.

6:09I didn't, I didn't really follow it at all. The little that I knew about it, I thought it was odd, but I did see, I believe there was a statement from him that he chose to put focus on the three angels. And I just thought it was even weird how the black, how the this jurors name came out, how it came out of the media. I'm like, why is he being targeted? I'm gonna say the brother's name because he has been public now, but was it Michael P. Dersonavil, am I saying it right? Yeah, I believe so. And I think with that, it's so unfair. So can you imagine if it was reverse, can you imagine if a black defense attorney took out a white jurors name and was saying I'm an investigative call for investigation, call for looking into them. And then I was saying, what's in the backlash? And while we're speaking on backlash, Lindsey Clancy, she was her crime was she murdered her three children, eight month old three year old five year old, she murdered them.

7:10And there were, I mean, there's thousands, there was thousands of people, I had a friend who was down the thousands of people outside, wearing pink shirts, flyers, posters, supporting her. That's fine. People have the right to support who they want to support. They have the right, you know, I know there's mental health. There's a lot of things that go into it. We're not discounting that. But can you, I imagine you been doing this for a while. Imagine if it was reverse. Can you imagine if a black mother had killed her three black children, eight months, three year old five year old. You think, you think the media would be providing that support. You think there'd be thousands outside supporting her. You think the same people would be supporting her or absolutely not. Yeah. And for folks who don't know that juror declined to find, declined to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity. He said he just declined to do that. Yeah. I tell people we got to serve on juries. It is crucial to serve on juries. It's as important as voting. They, they don't want us to serve on juries.

8:11They don't want us to serve on juries. And I was really disturbed shortly after this that he was being attacked and being scrutinized. And I know it's, I know it's annoying doing jury duty and all that kind of stuff. But I do it whenever I can. And I always feel like I don't get chosen. I always feel like they, they see something to me. I'm just saying this man. No, not famous. They're like, they, they see something to me. But yeah, that's a really, that's a really disturbing and sad story. And I know you were working on the Daniel Irving case. And that is the young man that I believe he drowned. Give us the background of the Daniel Irving case. And what, what you can tell us on it now, I know you're not on it anymore. And Daniel Irving, I can say this, it was a young, but it was a summer known well as he, he drowned under suspicious circumstances. The two young men that were investigated, they threw away his clothes, they threw away his phone, they hit us, they deleted messages, they did all that.

9:14But in the DA's office, they said they didn't have enough to get him a murder, get those two boys are murder, but they did get indicted. They move forward on a tampering charges. So they're currently in the vast county court system. They're both facing felony tampering charges. But no murder charges came of that as well. And no them wells, I know you weren't on that case, but I'd love to get your analysis of it. I believe you said you were at a press conference with the Urban League. It's just so sad. There's all these questions being asked now, as far as the bruises on his body, the phone, I guess there it does appear reportedly allegedly. There might have been some snap chats that were deleted and so on. I think so many people out there really hoping for justice for the family. It does feel like it's getting more difficult considering who's in control in the area of Mississippi, just break down your thoughts on the Nolan Wells case. I think the blood force trauma back of the head and coupled with the bruising on his body during that during that autopsy, you can't discount that because it's never explained how that happened.

10:22There's no explanation for it. So even the medical examiner can't provide an explanation. So that is a question the family has left unanswered. And one thing that I found the most troubling was the DA came out last week and said, hey, no, there's no evidence that anything was deleted from the phone. The phone was never with the DA. The phone has been in the position of Nolan Wells mother and father. They've had the phone. And, you know, as being a former prosecutor, being a defense attorney for the last decade, to know if something's been deleted, you have to extract forensically extract from that phone. They never had the phone for her to make that comment that nothing was ever deleted. That is an impossible statement to make unless you have the physical phone in the only in that's been the possession of the parents. And I mean, also the bruising too. I think I heard somebody say I don't know where that the bruising came from maybe fish and water. Like, how is this doesn't make any sense to me?

11:26No, I think that that bruising is unexplained. I think the one issue is his body wasn't the water for two days after after 24 hours passes. As your body degrades in water a lot of times it's it's difficult to ascertain, you know, those bruising where it came from. It could be potentially could be decomposition. But that he wasn't ruled out as decomposition or not. But in regards to the blood force trauma, that is not from decomposition. That hasn't been explained. And to have blunt force trauma written in a medical report and to not have an explanation for it, that's it's disturbing. Thank you for listening to Clay Kane Extended. If you want to hear more tune into my show on Series XM Urban View, Channel 1226 from 12PM to 3PM. You know the deal y'all, I never really gone. Thanks for visiting our yoga class. Tap when you're ready.

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