the u.s. justice department isn t playing around when it comes to the violent and sometimes deadly trend known as the knockout game. you ve seen the videos likely. strangers randomly sucker punching people on the street with the goal of knocking them unconscious with a single blow. well now, this man right here, conrad al ban berry of texas has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly attacking a 79-year-old man because he was black. he hit the elderly man with such force that he suffered fractures, was hospitalized for several days and had to remove teeth and insert metal plates into his jaw. our panel of legal experts joins us. paul callan is a cnn legal analyst. alan dershowicz is a professor and an author, taking the stand, my life and law.
the u.s. justice department isn t playing around when it comes to this game. i m talking about a disturbing and sometimes deadly trend known as the knockout game. you re looking at an example of one of those incidents. typically, strangers randomly just sucker punch people on the street. they film it, and then they post the whole event online. the goal here to knock your victim unconscious with a single blow. now, that brings us to this man. conrad alvin barrett of texas. the first to be arrested over this knockout game. he s also been charged with a hate crime. and his unduing may have been what he said in a video of the attack that was posted online. cnn s margaret conley joining me. before we get to the video, what exactly is barrett accused of doing to his victim, exactly. kyra, knocking him out cold. there s a hearing happening right now in houston, texas. 27-year-old conrad barrett has been charged with a knockout
really hard time with that. that he s scared and frightened. kyra. there s a lot involved here, right? the race issue, the fact that this is a federal case. all the details surrounding what happened and also this barrett guy. that s right, very complex, kyra. barrett is a 27-year-old caucasian male. the victim is a 79-year-old african-american male. race is on the table because according to the federal complaint, barrett attacked because of the man s race and color. there s also apparently video of the attack with barrett saying that the plan, quote, is to see if i were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised? we have seen a lot of those so-called knockout cases in the last year. they have been reported in illinois, washington, and right here in new york. the justice department says there have been knockout incidents as far back as 1992, but this is the first time we re seeing a federal charge, at least in the latest string of knockouts and the defense is going to