Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced Tuesday that his office would ask the state’s highest criminal court to overturn Gov. Greg Abbott’s pardon of a man who was convicted of killing a Black Lives Matter demonstrator in 2020. One day after a Travis County jury convicted Daniel Perry of murder in April 2023 for shooting Garrett Foster, Abbott asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider Perry’s case, the Texas Tribune reports. Last month, the board unanimously recommended Abbott pardon Perry’s 25-year prison sentence, which he did the same day. In July 2020, Perry had turned into a crowd of marching protesters while driving for a ride-share company in downtown Austin. Foster, who was participating in a protest against police brutality, was legally carrying an AK-47 at the time. Perry claims Foster had raised his rifle toward him, though witnesses said he didn’t. Perry fired a handgun repeatedly at Foster before he sped away and called police.
On Tuesday, Garza said his office filed a petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn Abbott’s pardon, arguing the governor’s intervention interfered with lower court rulings and halted the appellate process. The Travis County prosecutor also said Perry’s case did not meet the requirements to receive a pardon. “When Governor Abbott issued the pardon, not only did he circumnavigate the process for pardons, he exceeded his authority and violated the separation of powers doctrine,” Holly Taylor, the director of the Division of Public Integrity and Complex Crimes for the district attorney's office, said during a press briefing on Tuesday. Garza said he also requested an opportunity to argue the case in front of the court to “make our case on behalf of our democracy, our legal system and the family.” In his declaration announcing the pardon last month, Abbott claimed Garza, who ran for district attorney on a progressive platform, had prioritized “reducing access to guns” instead of protecting Perry’s right to self defense.