On Thursday, a convicted murderer serving a 25-year sentence was released in Texas. He was not released because DNA analysis determined he was innocent. Nor was there any legal technicality successfully raised in an appeal. Daniel Perry, who was an Army sergeant at the time of his crime, has never disputed that he shot and killed 28-year-old Air Force veteran Garrett Foster in front of several witnesses during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Austin. Instead of, Perry was pardoned by Texas Governor Greg Abbott as Abbott promised to do the day after the jury delivered its verdict.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Thursday was “the first time in at least decades that a Texas governor has pardoned someone for a serious violent crime, let alone murder.”
Abbott promised to free Perry, even though a Texas grand jury indicted Perry, and a jury of Perry’s Texas colleagues convicted him. Abbott promised pardon before the forgiveness sign, whose members he names, released his findings. The governor was under pressure to grant the pardon from several prominent conservatives, including Tucker Carlson. According to Houston Chronicle, Thursday was “the first time in at least decades that a Texas governor pardoned someone for a serious violent crime, let alone murder.” Adding to the highly charged political nature of this pardon, Abbott was scheduled to address the 2024 National Rifle Association Conference this weekend along with former president and current candidate Donald Trump.
According to Foster’s mother, he attended BLM demonstrations day after day, encouraged by the injustice of a Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd. Ironically, Foster’s mother described Foster as a supporter of the Second Amendment, and witnesses say Foster carried a rifle on a strap around his neck the day he died. Perry drove his car into a crowd of protesters that surrounded your vehicle. From inside the car, Perry pulled out a gun and shot Foster. Most witnesses describe Foster as having his rifle slung high across his chest, pointed at the ground, with his finger off the trigger. Witnesses say they never saw Foster raise his firearm in Perry. However, these details mattered neither to Abbott nor his pardon board. They said Foster’s gun was in the “low ready weapon” position, which they say is enough to call Perry’s actions self-defense.
This is interesting – because Perry never claimed that Foster was pointing his rifle at him. Perry told police: “I believe he was going to aim [his rifle] in me. I didn’t want to give him a chance.”
Saying you shot someone you thought might point a gun at you It’s not self-defense; it is an admission that you were not being threatened. If Perry didn’t shoot Foster in self-defense, then what was his motivation? During the trial, prosecutors messages displayed Perry sent it before the shooting. Some of the messages He talked about wanting to kill Muslims, black people and protesters. Other messages included:
“I may have to kill some people on the way to work because they are rioting outside my apartment complex.”
“It’s official that I’m racist because I don’t agree with people acting like animals in the zoo.”
“I could go to Dallas and shoot looters.”
“No protesters come near me or my car.”
Saying you shot someone you thought might point a gun at you is not self-defense; it is an admission that you were not being threatened.
Perry, who is white and served in the military, shot Foster, who was also white and a military veteran. Both were legally carrying their weapons that day. So it wasn’t about the color of Foster’s skin, just as it wasn’t a legally accepted claim of self-defense. For both Perry and Abbott, this murder and subsequent pardon were about Foster’s cause, Black Lives Matter, and who Foster chose to associate with. It’s hard to imagine a Black Lives Matter protester killing someone who politically opposes that cause and would justify Abbott’s pardon. The governor who freed Perry suggests that in Texas it is open season on protesters whose cause is not approved by the governor.
Texans are known to value at least two things: their freedoms It is your weapons. However, with this pardon, Texans should ask themselves if their constitutional right protesting peacefully and carrying a gun legally depends on what they are protesting and who is carrying the gun.
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