Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has once again injected himself into the headlines by pardoning a convicted murderer.
A couple of months after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, spontaneous Black Lives Matter protests sprang up across the nation. Daniel Perry, an army sergeant stationed at Fort Hood, was working as an Uber driver when he saw a predominantly Black group of protesters gathered across the street from him. According to trial testimony, Perry gunned his car, ran a red light and drove at speed into the middle of the protest.
Alan Bean
Perry’s car was instantly surrounded by cursing protesters. His eyes settled on Garrett Foster, a white Air Force veteran sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement. Foster was carrying an AK-47. Although Foster’s weapon wasn’t pointed toward the car, Perry reached for his handgun, shot Garrett Foster dead and sped off.
Daniel Perry was indicted for murder, tried, convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison by an Austin jury. Trial testimony revealed Perry had frequently expressed on social media his desire to kill Black Lives Matter protesters in the days leading up to Garrett Foster’s tragic death.
Why and why now?
Greg Abbott had to know his decision to pardon a violent racist would reap a whirlwind of nationwide protest. So, why did he do it?
The Texas governor knew pardoning Perry would delight his political base precisely because it angered liberal America. Essentially, the governor transferred Perry’s case from the criminal justice venue in which the horrific facts were on full display, to a media venue in which it could be subject to partisan spin.
Politicians understand that only 37% of American adults watch television news on a regular basis. On an average evening, only 1.85 million adults tune into Fox news, while a similar number are watching MSNBC and CNN.
In other words, Abbott’s controversial pardon won’t register with most voters. Fox viewers, and those who listen to conservative talk radio, were treated to a carefully manicured retelling of the story.
“Abbott’s controversial pardon won’t register with most voters.”
They didn’t learn that Daniel Perry ran a red light in his haste to drive into a defenseless crowd.
The killer’s service was played up, while his victim’s veteran status was often ignored.
The edited story begins with a frightened serviceman surrounded by hostile protesters. Conservative audiences didn’t learn why the crowd was enraged.
The edited version of the story implies Foster was aiming his weapon at Perry — an assertion contradicted by trial testimony and Perry’s original incident statement.
Consumers of conservative media learned that José Garza, the district attorney of the most progressive county in Texas, was outraged by Abbott’s pardon. Abbott knows his approval ratings (currently at 55%) have been trending up in recent months, and he knows why. Every time he bashes a progressive official, talks about shooting asylum seekers, flies or buses undocumented migrants to New York or Washington, D.C., or talks tough about his border wall, Abbott harvests media attention and his numbers go up.
Abbott understands the harsh reality of MAGA politics: Republican politicians who aren’t willing to engage in scorched earth culture war politics must quietly resign. Abbott appears to relish talking trash about liberal America. But in the Trump era, he has no alternative.
Garrett Foster, left, pictured with his fiancee, Whitney Mitchell, was fatally shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in July 2020. (From Gofundme)
Open carry and stand your ground
Garrett Foster was killed by the confluence of “open carry” and “stand your ground laws.” Liberal media outlets stress that Foster was legally entitled to attend a rally with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. Legal residents of Texas may appear in public armed to the teeth even if they are unlicensed and never have been trained in the use of firearms.
If Texas were not an open carry state, both Foster and Perry would have left their guns at home.
There are a few exceptions to open carry, of course. Firearm use, for instance, is heavily restricted at military installations like Fort Hood, now called Fort Cavazos.
Police organizations have been outspoken in their opposition to open carry laws. Ray Hunt, executive director of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, was blunt in his opposition to the new law: “We were completely opposed to ‘license to carry’ because anytime there’s more guns, there’s a problem.”
Add stand your ground legislation to the mix and the problem is magnified. The murder of Garrett Foster happened just a month before Kyle Rittenhouse killed two men and seriously injured a third in Kenosha, Wis. In both situations, armed young men on opposite sides of a heated social dispute came face-to-face. A jury found Rittenhouse was standing his ground, and now Gov. Abbott has provided the man who murdered Garrett Foster with an extra-judicial license to kill.
“If one guy with a gun feels threatened by another guy with a gun, murder is permissible.”
If one guy with a gun feels threatened by another guy with a gun, murder is permissible. If both men felt threatened, the resulting tragedy would technically be ruled a no-fault double-homicide.
In the course of his pardon announcement, the Texas governor rejoiced that “Texas has one of the strongest ‘stand your ground’ laws of self-defense” and suggested Texas law had been “nullified” by a liberal Austin jury and “a progressive district attorney.”
Law and order?
Abbott’s announcement coincided with the appearance of several Republican surrogates outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump is being tried for falsifying business records. For months, Trump has been calling himself the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt. Last week, elected officials like Tommy Tuberville, J.D. Vance, Rick Scott and Mike Johnson were lining up to second the motion.
This multi-pronged assault on the criminal justice system by law-and-order Republicans is a curious game. As executive director of Friends of Justice, I have been knee-deep in the American criminal justice system for a quarter century. American justice can be cruel and desperately unfair, especially for people of color and those too poor to afford effective legal representation.
But these flaws only manifest when the “equal justice under law” standard is ignored. In the case of Donald Trump, the system is functioning according to design. In fact, if Judge Juan Merchan wasn’t extending unmerited grace, the ex-president would be cooling his heels in Rikers Prison between court appearances.
The same fairness was extended to Daniel Perry when he went to trial in 2023. In high-profile cases, nobody bends the rules. There’s too much at stake.
“A Supreme Court dominated by Trump appointees and a Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles handpicked by Greg Abbott both undermine the balance of powers.”
Today, the independence of the American judiciary is in jeopardy. A Supreme Court dominated by Trump appointees and a Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles handpicked by Greg Abbott both undermine the balance of powers.
But this assault on the American criminal justice system must be seen as one component of a larger attempt to undermine American democracy in all its varied expressions.
Interviewed on the center-right “Bulwark” podcast last week, Anne Applebaum noted authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin understand the intrinsic appeal of democratic politics. That’s why they constantly depict Western democracies as corrupt, fragile and morally decadent. That’s understandable. But when this authoritarian critique is amplified by American politicians, trouble is brewing.
In smearing the Austin jury that convicted Daniel Perry and the Travis County district attorney who prosecuted the case, Gov. Abbott was hinting that only conservative prosecutors and juries hailing from conservative regions of the state deserve our trust.
This implication is underscored by the “rogue prosecutor” lawsuit recently filed against José Garza. Republican officials accuse the Austin-based prosecutor of failing to abide by Texas abortion law, being too lenient on drug crime and going easy on immigration violations. Again, the suggestion is that progressive politicians and prosecutors should be barred from public service.
Has Travis County surrendered the right to elect its own public officials?
The same sinister threat hovers over the ex-president’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him. Republican politicians and party operatives who refuse to endorse this claim are realizing they have no future in MAGA world. Claims of election rigging aren’t really about what happened in 2020; they’re a sneak preview of 2024.
Fortunately, there are a few slight exceptions to this trend. The same day Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, he appealed to the Biden administration to provide disaster relief to seven Texas counties that have been ravaged by damaging storms. No snark. No smear tactics. A disaster declaration was instantly issued and Abbott issued a press release thanking Biden for the assistance. Maybe nothing short of an act of God can bring us together.
Alan Bean serves as executive director of Friends of Justice. He is a member of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.