Texas Governor Greg Abbott has granted a pardon to the man who killed a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020.
Daniel Perry, a former U.S. Army sergeant, was moonlighting as an Uber driver in Austin when he turned onto a street where protesters were marching.
One of the protesters, Garrett Foster, approached the vehicle with a gun. Perry shot him dead.
Perry said he acted in self-defense, but he was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
During the confrontation on 25 July 2020, Foster, 28, a former mechanic in the US Air Force, was openly carrying an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle – one that is legal under Texas law. .
Perry, now 37, was not a passenger in his taxi, and some of the protesters who had gathered after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, began ramming his car. The protesters said they were afraid the vehicle would hit them.
During the trial, Perry’s attorneys argued that Foster raised his gun, something some witnesses disputed. Perry rolled down his window and shot Foster five times with a .357 revolver before driving away. He called 911 shortly after.
The case became a rallying cry for conservatives and Governor Abbott previously said he would pardon Perry once he received an official request. Perry was murdered in April 2023.
The Republican governor, who announced the pardon Thursday, said the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted a “thorough review” of the case and Perry’s personal history.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘stand your ground’ self-defense laws that cannot be overturned by a judge or a progressive district attorney,” Governor Abbott said in a statement, citing Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, a Democrat.
“Stand your ground” laws generally allow the use of force, including deadly force, against someone if the person is believed to be about to commit murder or other serious crimes.
In a statement, Mr Garza said: “The board and governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
image source, Good pictures
According to court documents, Perry began scouting Black Lives Matter protest sites weeks before the shooting and messaged friends on social media, comparing protesters to “a bunch of monkeys. [expletive] In a zoo”.
In May 2020, after Floyd’s death, he sent a text message: “I can go to Dallas to shoot robbers.”
He also sent messages about “hunting down Muslims” and killing a daughter if she was infatuated with “a little Negro boy.”
