On May 16, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry who was convicted in 2023 of killing a Black Lives Matter demonstrator in Austin, Texas in 2020.
It is important to note that Abbott has granted few pardons in his three terms as Texas Governor, but he granted this one.
Perry, a former US Army Sergeant, claims he acted in self defense when he shot Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was also legally armed. Perry’s lawyers argued that Foster pointed a gun at Perry. However, witnesses testified that Foster “never raised his gun at Perry”.
In April of 2023, “The Austin Chronicle” reported that, prosecutors introduced text messages and social media posts from Perry pertaining to killing people. Perry wrote, “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex”. “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters”. Prosecutors also introduced a Facebook message chat involving Perry and a friend where Perry asserted that shooting protesters is legal if in self-defense. His friend responded, “We went through the same training … Shooting after creating an event where you have to shoot, is not a good shoot”.
Daniel Perry was convicted of murder by a jury and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Media reports indicate that Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized and pressured Abbott to intervene in the case.
Despite being convicted by a jury, Governor Abbott pardoned Perry releasing him from state prison and also restoring his right to possess firearms.
Abbott said, “Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney”.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garcia called the pardon a “mockery of our legal system”. The board and the governor have put their politics over justice.”
Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, stated, “With this pardon the governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and U.S. Air Force veteran and impugned that jury’s verdict. He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his and different from those in power can be killed in this state with impunity”.
A jury is the ultimate finder of fact and it found Daniel Perry guilty. And this pardon by Governor Abbott is just another example of partisanship politics overriding the guilty verdict of the jury and eroding American jurisprudence.
The pardon power of a Governor is the antithesis of the rule of law and it must be repealed.
