Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to pardon the convicted killer of a Black Lives Matter protester is causing an uproar in the United States. “I’m working on pardoning Sergeant Perry as fast as Texas law allows,” the Republican politician tweeted on Saturday afternoon. He therefore made a recommendation to the responsible committee. He must vote for a pardon and the governor must approve it. That’s what Texas law says.
Criticism of the recommendation was not long in coming. The responsible district attorney, José Garza, called Abbott’s plan “deeply disturbing”. He indicated that federal courts will re-examine the case. The lawyer for the convicted Perry has already announced that his client will appeal.
Daniel Perry was found guilty by a grand jury of the murder of 28-year-old Garrett Foster just days ago. The sentence has not yet been announced. The crime happened at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Austin in 2020. Victims and perpetrators were or are white.
The problem: both the perpetrators and the victims were armed. The main question at trial was whether Daniel Perry shot his victim intentionally or to defend himself.
Perry is a US Army sergeant who worked part-time as an Uber driver. He dropped off a customer just before he did it, then drove through Austin and turned onto a street full of protesters. According to police, Perry honked his horn in the direction of the protesters and drove into the crowd to make his way through the demonstration.
There he met eventual victim, Garrett Foster, a US Air Force veteran who was legally carrying an AK-47 rifle at the demonstration. The grand jury heard conflicting testimonies to the question about what happened next. Perry said he feared for his life and opened fire. He also had the gun legally with him.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, however, Perry intentionally ran a red light, which indicated that he had not accidentally gotten into the group of protesters. He had also announced on social media that he wanted to shoot demonstrators. The jury followed this reasoning, which was conclusively supported by numerous witnesses, in their verdict.
The defense attorneys of the convict invoked the right to self-defense (stand your ground law), which applies in 27 states and is particularly generous in Texas. Abbott also invokes this right to self-defense to justify his recommendation for a pardon. “Texas has one of the strongest Stand Your Ground self-defense laws that cannot be overturned by a jury or progressive prosecutor,” he said.
It is striking that Abbott only made his recommendation to the Parolees Committee after he had come under pressure from the right-wing media and within his own party. The right-wing Fox presenter Tucker Carlson made the case a topic on his show on Friday. On the show, Carlson reported that he had invited Abbott to discuss a pardon with him. However, Abbott would have declined to appear on the show. In response, the influential Carlson said, “So this is Greg Abbott’s position, there is no right of self-defense in Texas”. According to a media report, the Texas Republican Party also asked Abbott to pardon Perry.
Sources: AFP, CNN, “Axios”.
