Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a pardon Thursday for the Army sergeant convicted of murder last year in the fatal shooting of a Black Lives Matter protester in downtown Austin in July 2020.
Daniel Perry was found guilty by a Travis County jury last year in the murder of Garrett Foster and sentenced to 25 years in prison. At the same time, Abbott made clear that he would like to pardon Perry and asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider Perry’s case.
The board offered a unanimous recommendation on Thursday to pardon Perry, and Abbott signed the declaration. Perry was released from prison shortly after.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza condemned the pardon, saying the board and Abbott “made a mockery of our legal system.”
“Their actions are contrary to the law and demonstrate that there are two classes of people in this state where some lives matter and some lives do not,” Garza said Thursday in a statement. “They have sent a message to Garrett Foster’s family, to his partner, and to our community that his life does not matter.”
He added that it also sent a message to community members who gave up their time to be on the grand jury and trial jury that their service “does not matter.”
Perry encountered a group of protesters in downtown Austin on July 25, 2020, roughly 70 miles from where he was based in Fort Hood, police said. The group was demonstrating against racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed weeks earlier by a Minnesota police officer.
Foster was taking part in the protest and legally carrying a semiautomatic rifle when he approached the intersection where Perry was in his car. Perry shot Foster from the vehicle with a handgun.
Police said Perry told them that Foster, an Air Force veteran, had pointed the…
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