Less than two weeks after a Texas jury convicted 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony of murder and sentenced him to 35 years for stabbing Austin Metcalf, a coalition of high-profile civil rights and criminal defense lawyers has taken over his appeal. The group, led by attorney Russell Wilson II, includes Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP; Michael L. Ware, executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas; Brooke Cluse of Ben Crump Law; and others. They are representing Anthony pro bono and plan to pursue all available avenues of appeal, focusing on whether legal errors occurred during the trial. Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt helped assemble the team.