#daniel perry

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has granted a full pardon to a former US Army sergeant and Uber driver who was jailed for 25 years for fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. Abbott, a Republican, in his pardon proclamation, cited the state’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defence law, one of the strongest such measures in the United States. The announcement came shortly after the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole unanimously recommended a pardon for Daniel Perry and restoration of his firearm rights following an investigation that the board conducted at the governor’s request.

William Melhado at The Texas Tribune:

More than a year after a Travis County jury convicted Daniel Perry of murdering a protester in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Perry, 37, on Thursday shortly after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a full pardon.

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.”

Abbott approved the board’s recommendation, which included restoration of Perry’s firearm rights. 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. “Daniel Perry texted his friends about plans to murder a protester he disagreed with. After a lengthy trial, with an abundance of evidence, 12 impartial Texans determined that he carried out that plan, and murdered my Garrett,” Mitchell said. “With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict. He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”

[...] Perry was driving for Uber at the time he encountered protesters a few blocks from the Capitol in downtown Austin. He stopped his car and honked at protesters as they walked through the street. Seconds later, he drove his car into the crowd, Austin police said. Foster was openly carrying an AK-47 rifle at the time and during the trial, each side presented conflicting accounts as to whether the protester raised the gun to Perry who was also legally armed. Perry shot Foster and then fled the area, police said. He then called police and reported what happened, claiming he shot in self-defense after Foster aimed his weapon at him.

[...] Abbott rarely issues pardons, which the board must recommend before the governor can act. Abbott granted three pardons in 2023, two pardons in 2022 and eight in 2021 — most for lower-level offenses. Shortly after Perry’s conviction, unsealed court documents revealed he had made a slew of racist, threatening comments about protesters in text messages and social media posts. Days after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer prompted nationwide protests, Perry sent a text message saying, “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Both Perry and Foster are white. Perry, a U.S. Army sergeant, also sent racist and anti-Muslim messages before and after Floyd’s death. In April 2020, he sent a meme, which included a photo of a woman holding her child’s head under water in the bath, with the text, “WHEN YOUR DAUGHTERS FIRST CRUSH IS A LITTLE NEGRO BOY,” according to the state’s filing.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) made a politically-motivated pardon of racist murderer Daniel Perry, who killed Garrett Wolfe at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest.

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Daniel Perry wrote to his friends about how he wanted to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters or run them over. He even talked to one friend about "[catching] a negro daddy". Then he drove to a BLM protest in Austin and ran a red light, slamming into the crowd. When a man in the crowd who was openly and legally carrying an AK-47 approached his car, he shot him.

Witnesses and even Perry's own initial testimony confirmed that the man had not aimed the gun at him and a jury rejected his stand-your-ground defense and convicted him of murder.

No new facts have come out since then, but conservative media have made then-Sgt. Perry (US Army) a cause using an incomplete and often deliberately misleading story of events. Gov. Abbott has now pardoned him based on only his word that he saw the gun lowered at him (again, a claim that is inconsistent even with his own initial testimony).

Abbott's position and the MAGA position writ large on guns can basically be summarized as:

"Every person needs a gun on them at all times to defend themselves and others against crime because only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun.

But also, a person merely having a gun, even legally owned, is a threat and any person is legally justified in shooting them at any time."

If you think that that's a bit of a confusing position, you're missing the subtext. What is unsaid here is the racial and political meaning that politicians like Gov. Abbott have made clear by their words and actions. Here, I'll put it in for you:

"Every [white, Christian, conservative] person needs a gun on them at all times to defend themselves against crime because only a good [white, conservative, Christian] guy with a gun can stop a bad [probably minority or liberal] guy with a gun.

But also, a [liberal and/or minority] person merely having a gun, even legally owned, is a threat and any [white, Christian, conservative] person is legally justified in shooting them at any time."