AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon Thursday for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of homicide for fatally capturing an armed demonstrator in 2020 throughout nationwide protests in opposition to police violence and racial injustice.
Abbott introduced the pardon only a few minutes after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles introduced that it unanimously really useful that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firerams rights restored. Perry has been held in state jail on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023 within the killing of Garrett Foster.
Abbott, a Republican, had beforehand beforehand ordered the board to assessment Perry’s case and stated he would signal a pardon if really useful. Below Texas legislation, the governor can not subject a pardon with out a advice from the board, which the governor appoints.
“Texas has one of many strongest ‘Stand Your Floor’ legal guidelines of self-defense that can not be nullified by a jury or a progressive district lawyer,” Abbott stated.
Travis County District Lawyer Jose Garza blasted the pardon as a “mockery of our authorized system.”
“The board and the governor have put their politics over justice,” Garza stated. “They need to be ashamed of themselves. Their actions are opposite to the legislation and display that there are two courses of individuals on this state the place some lives matter and a few lives don’t. They’ve despatched a message to Garrett Foster’s household, to his associate, and to our group that his life doesn’t matter. ”
Abbott’s demand for a assessment of Perry’s case adopted stress from former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who on nationwide tv had urged the governor to intervene after the sergeant was convicted at trial in April 2023. Perry was sentenced after prosecutors used his social media historical past and textual content messages to painting him as a racist who might commit violence once more.
Prosecutors argued Perry might have pushed away with out opening hearth and witnesses testified that they by no means noticed Foster elevate his gun. The sergeant’s protection attorneys argued Foster, who’s white, did elevate the rifle and that Perry had no alternative however to shoot. Perry, who can also be white, didn’t take the witness stand and jurors deliberated for 2 days earlier than discovering him responsible.
Perry’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The capturing set off fierce debate in 2020, amid the demonstrations sparked by a white Minneapolis police officer’s killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. Perry’s conviction three years later prompted outrage from outstanding conservatives.
Earlier than sentencing within the case, Carlson aired a broadcast calling the capturing an act of self-defense and criticizing Abbott for not approaching his present. The following day, Abbott stated he believed Perry shouldn’t be punished and advised Texas’ parole board to expedite a assessment of the conviction.
Abbott appoints the Board of Pardons and Paroles and state legislation requires that it advocate a pardon earlier than he can act.
After the decision however earlier than Perry was sentenced, the court docket unsealed dozens of pages of textual content messages and social media posts that confirmed he had hostile views towards Black Lives Matter protests. In a touch upon Fb a month earlier than the capturing, Perry wrote, “It’s official I’m a racist as a result of I don’t agree with individuals performing like animals on the zoo.”
Perry served within the Army for greater than a decade. At trial, a forensic psychologist testified that he believed Perry has post-traumatic stress dysfunction from his deployment to Afghanistan and from being bullied as a baby. On the time of the capturing, Perry was stationed at Fort Cavazos, then Fort Hood, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Austin.
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This story has been up to date to appropriate that Perry’s conviction was in 2023, not 2022.
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