Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Saturday that he plans to seek a pardon for an Army sergeant who was recently convicted of murder for shooting a Black Lives Matter protestor during an anti-police riot in 2020.
“I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry,” the Texas Governor tweeted Saturday.
Abbott said in his tweet that pardons in Texas must be recommended by the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
“I have made that request and instructed the board to expedite its review,” Abbott said.
Fox News reported:
Army Sgt. Daniel Perry was convicted of murder on Friday for shooting and killing a Black Lives Matter protester holding an AK-47 after the gun was raised toward him. The Austin Police Department concluded at the time that Perry acted in self-defense.
Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood at the time of the shooting, was driving for Uber to make extra money in downtown Austin on the night of July 25, 2020, when he encountered a large crowd of protesters. They were illegally blocking city streets that night, according to police, as protesters in Austin and elsewhere had done during the weeks of rioting.
Among the protesters was 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was carrying an AK-47. Perry’s defense team says the demonstrators encircled and started pounding on his vehicle and that Foster raised the firearm at Perry, prompting him to open fire with a handgun he legally carried for self-defense.
“When Garrett Foster pointed his AK-47 at Daniel Perry, Daniel had two tenths of a second to defend himself. He chose to live,” Doug O’Connell, an attorney for Perry, said in a statement last year.
“It may be legal in Texas to carry an assault rifle in downtown Austin. It doesn’t make it a good idea. If you point a firearm at someone, you’re responsible for everything that happens next.”
Abbott said Texas has one of the “strongest stand your ground” laws in the country that “cannot be “nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney.”
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, George Soros-backed prosecutor who brought the case forward, has been criticized for pursuing charges against Perry for political clout rather than for the facts of the case at hand.
“Self-defense is a God-given right, not a crime. Unfortunately, the Soros-backed DA in Travis County cares more about the radical agenda of dangerous Antifa and BLM mobs than justice,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.
“Right now we are completely focused on preparing for Daniel’s sentencing hearing,” O’Connell said after Abbott’s tweet.
“I visited Daniel in jail this morning. As you might expect he is devastated. He spoke to me about his fears that he will never get to hug his mother again. He’s also crushed that this conviction will end his Army service; he loves being a soldier.”
Garza’s office did not respond for comment to Fox News when asked for a comment.
