Add Elie Mystal to the list of people defending convicted teen killer Karmelo Anthony.

Mystal — who serves as the justice correspondent for The Nation and is a frequent guest on MS NOW — argued Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison simply for defending himself during an appearance on Joy Reid’s show on Friday.

Reid said the Anthony case showed “you cannot defend yourself” if you’re a Black American, and Mystal agreed.

“That’s the Karmelo Anthony issue of like, we can do violence to you and if you dare try to stop us, if you dare try to defend yourself, if you dare Malcolm X-it and go ‘By any means necessary,’ we will put yo a** under the jail, right?” he ranted. “We will build the jail around your Black a** for daring to try to defend yourself.”

His eyebrow-raising Malcolm X-invoking defense comes a few weeks after the 19-year-old Anthony was convicted of stabbing Austin Metcalf to death at a 2025 high school track meet.

Mystal and Reid may believe Anthony was merely defending himself, but the jury didn’t buy it.

The jury found Anthony entered the tent for Metcalf’s HS track team and attacked Metcalf. Witnesses testified that Anthony told Metcalf, “Touch me, see what happens.”

Fox News reported:

The verbal dispute turned physical when Metcalf reportedly shoved or touched Anthony, prompting Anthony to stand up and stab the high school captain with a 3.5-inch folding knife.

Witnesses… described Anthony as “the aggressor,” noting Metcalf was “unwilling to fight.”

Austin Metcalf bled to death in the arms of his twin brother, Hunter.

They are not the only ones who have argued Anthony slayed Metcalf to protect himself, though. The View co-host Sunny Hostin made a similar self-defense argument earlier this week.

“We also have to look at self-defense here, because there seems to be two systems of justice at play in this country, and there have been for a very long time,” Hostin claimed on Monday. “In this case, this young man, you heard [Anthony] say, ‘He put his hands on me and I told him not to.’”

She said another issue was that Metcalf severely outweighed Anthony; Hostin claimed Metcalf weighed 200 pounds, while Anthony was only 130 pounds.

But that was wrong. As the New York Post reported, Metcalf was 6’0, 200 pounds, and Anthony was listed at 5’11 and 162 pounds. Both were 17 years old at the time of the murder.

Lame duck Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) made similar arguments as well right after Anthony was convicted. Crockett claimed the Metcalf family will never understand the “fear and agony” that Black Americans live with on a daily basis, even after their son was brutally killed.

The slain teen’s dad Jeff Metcalf told Fox News this week that pundits like Hostin and Mystal clearly have “no idea” about the facts of the case. He added he was tired of talking heads “looking to monetize the death” of his son.

Watch above.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report. 

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