More than a year after a Travis County jury convicted Daniel Perry of murdering a BLM protester in Austin, Greg Abbott pardoned Perry, 37, on Thursday. Via the Texas Tribune:
A Texas state district court judge sentenced Perry in May 2023 to 25 years in prison for shooting and killing U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster during a 2020 demonstration protesting police brutality against people of color.
One day after a jury convicted Perry, Abbott directed the parole board to review the former U.S. Army sergeant’s case.
“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the proclamation that absolved Perry. “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.”
The case was championed by the usual chaos agents, like Tucker Carlson. But no, this was not a simple "stand your ground" case:
Whitney Mitchell, Foster's common-law wife, said that she had expected to grow old with Foster before Perry murdered him. In a Thursday statement, she said Abbott's pardon made Texans less safe.
