Less than 24 hours after an Austin jury found Daniel Perry guilty of murder for the 2020 slaying of a Black Lives Matter protester, Gov. Greg Abbott announced via Twitter that he’d pardon Perry the instant the pardon board issued such a request.
“I look forward to approving the Board’s pardon recommendation as soon as it hits my desk,” Abbott declared Saturday. That’s more than an empty threat, by the way, since the governor himself appoints the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
That’s right, Texas’ Republican governor decided with the speed of a tweet that he knows better than jurors who engaged in 17 hours of deliberation over two days before they handed down their unanimous verdict. His move also disregards the evidence the jurors took in during Perry’s eight-day trial.
Abbott’s quick-draw declaration of the shooter’s innocence is alarming coming from state leader who once sat on the Texas Supreme Court. Especially since there’s been no suggestion up to this point that the governor’s shown a particular interest in the case or bothered to review the evidence. But more on that later.
“[Twelve] people took an oath to be fair and impartial and agreed on guilt. Abbott says he knows better than them,” was how Austin-American Statesman political reporter Ryan Autullo succinctly summed up Abbott’s plan in a tweet of his own.
On their face, the facts certainly suggest the jurors in that Austin courtroom made a reasonable decision. Or at least one Abbott should have spent time assessing before opening his pie hole.
The shooting over which jurors deliberated happened on July 25, 2020, when Perry — who was driving for Uber — turned onto an Austin street filled with Black Lives Matter protesters, according to reports from the Statesman and others.
Protester Garrett Foster reportedly approached Perry’s car, legally open-carrying an AK-47 across his chest, and and Perry, who was legally carrying a handgun, fired on the man.
Perry turned himself in to police afterward and claimed self defense, according to press reports. However, Travis County District Attorney José Garza looked further into the matter and presented the case to a Travis County grand jury shortly after taking office in 2021. The grand jury indicted Perry for murder and assault.
While Perry’s attorneys argued he acted in self-defense, prosecutors depicted him as someone seeking violent confrontation, the Statesman reports. Even though Perry told police that Foster raised his AK-47, testimony left that in question, according to a Texas Tribune report.
Text messages shared during the trial also showed that Perry had told friends that he’d fantasized about killing Black Lives Matter protesters and that he’d claimed he knew he could claim self-defense as a means to get away with it, according to the Austin Chronicle.
Over the weekend, Travis County DA Garza blasted Abbott’s threatened pardon for Perry, suggesting in comments that the governor was tampering with the rule of law.
“In a state that believes in upholding the importance of the rule of law, the governor’s statement that he will intervene in the legal proceedings surrounding the death of Garrett Foster is deeply troubling,” Garza said. “A jury gets to decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent — not the governor.”
Of course, Garza’s rebuttal assumes Abbott cares about the implications of his divisive actions beyond anything other than his chances of being reelected or using them to seek a higher office. It should be clear by now that he doesn’t. At least not when pandering for support from the most extreme fringes of the GOP base is in question.
Predictably, Abbott’s willingness to tear wider the rifts running through American life came after extremists in his party dangled the bait.
“This case should have never been prosecuted. A pardon by [Abbott] is in order,” Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi tweeted Friday.
Further amping up the pressure to toss red meat, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson taunted Abbott during a segment on the trial, saying the governor declined to come on his program to discuss the matter.
“So, that’s Greg Abbott’s position, there is no right of self-defense in Texas,” Carlson told viewers.
At this point, it’s difficult to decide which is more despicable: Abbott’s willingness to tear at the nation’s festering wounds or his utter cowardice.
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This article appears in Apr 5-18, 2023.
