A Texas district attorney said he plans to file a petition to overturn Gov. Greg Abbott’s pardon of Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Board of Pardon and Paroles, and the governor, put their politics over justice and make a mockery of our legal system,” Travis County District Attorney Jos\u00e9 Garza said in a press conference on Tuesday that was streamed by local ABC news outlet KVUE<\/a>. “For that, they should be ashamed of themselves. Their actions were contrary to the law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perry was\u00a0sentenced to 25 years<\/a>\u00a0in prison, but was pardoned by Abbott last month.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In an open letter following the pardon<\/a>, 14 attorneys general from across the country called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Perry’s killing of protester Garrett Foster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The facts of the case were egregious,” the letter read. “Mr. Perry shot and killed Mr. Foster, after having googled the locations of protests and sent a text message that he was considering traveling to another city to ‘shoot looters.’ His internet search history includes evidence that he intended to cover up his crime (including a search for whether ‘the federal government [has] the ballistics of every firearm sold legally’). He also sent and shared racist and anti-Muslim messages and memes advocating vigilante murder.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perry, an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant based in Texas at Fort Hood, was working as a driver for a ride-sharing company when he drove onto a street crowded with protesters on July 25, 2020, in Austin, Texas, according to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garrett Foster, 28, was pushing his fianc\u00e9e in a wheelchair during the protest when police say Perry’s car was surrounded by protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foster, who was carrying an AK-47-type rifle, approached Perry’s car and was then shot several times by Perry, according to police. Open carry is legal in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n