Texas governor pardons man who killed Black Lives Matter protester in 2020 | Texas


Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon Thursday to a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder for the 2020 fatal shooting of an armed protester during nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Abbott announced the pardon just minutes after Texas The Board of Pardons and Paroles revealed that it has made a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored. Perry is being held in state prison on a 25-year sentence after his sentencing in 2023.

The Republican governor previously ordered the board to review Perry’s case and previously said he would sign a pardon if recommended. The board, which is appointed by the governor, announced its unanimous recommendation in a statement posted on the agency’s website, and Abbott’s pardon followed quickly.

An Austin jury convicted Perry of manslaughter in the death of Garrett Foster, 28, an Air Force veteran who was legally carrying an AK-47 while marching in a Black Lives Matter protest. Perry was working as a rideshare driver in July 2020 when he started his car on a street crowded with demonstrators and shot Foster before driving off.

The shooting was one of the at least 25 murders of Americans during political protests and unrest in 2020, amid thousands of largely peaceful demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Perry’s case has become a rallying point for conservatives, who have called on the governor to secure his release.

Court records released in April showed that in the weeks leading up to the murder, Perry had sent racist messages to protesters, shared white racist memes and talked about how he “might have to kill a few people” who were demonstrating outside his house. In a 76-page document containing Perry’s personal and public communications, he compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys going crazy throwing their shit.”

Abbott’s request to review Perry’s case followed pressure from far-right former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who on national television called on the Republican governor to step in after the former sergeant was convicted at trial in April 2022. While Carlson was still the network’s top-rated host, he devoted a segment to a direct challenge to Abbott to appear on the show and discuss Perry’s pardon — calling the case a “legal atrocity” that he blamed on progressive prosecutors. Abbott announced he was ordering a review of Perry’s sentence the next day.

Carlson and right-wing groups similarly defended Kyle Rittenhouse, who in 2020 drove to a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin, where he shot and killed two protesters. Jurors found Rittenhouse not guilty of murder after he claimed self-defense, and in recent years he has become a gun advocate and minor celebrity on the conservative circuit.

Abbott praised the board’s recommendation to pardon Perry and touted Texas’ “stand your ground” self-defense laws.

Prosecutors argued during the trial that Perry could have driven off without opening fire, and witnesses testified that they never saw Foster raise his gun. The sergeant’s defense attorneys argued that Foster, who was white, did raise the rifle and that Perry had no choice but to fire. Perry, who is also white, did not take the stand and jurors deliberated for two days before finding him guilty.

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