By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – A Texas prosecutor requested the state’s highest felony courtroom on Tuesday to reverse a pardon granted by Governor Gregg Abbott to a former U.S. Military sergeant convicted of homicide and sentenced to jail for fatally capturing a Black Lives Matter protester.
Travis County District Lawyer Jose Garza, a Democrat whose workplace tried the homicide case, mentioned he requested the state Court docket of Prison Appeals for a particular order, known as a writ of mandamus, to overturn Abbott’s motion.
Garza instructed a information briefing within the state capital of Austin that Abbott, a Republican, violated the separation of powers doctrine of the state’s structure and did not comply with correct authorized procedures in the way in which he pardoned Daniel Perry final month.
Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ request in search of touch upon Garza’s transfer.
Perry, convicted final yr, was sentenced to 25 years in jail for fatally capturing Garrett Foster, a U.S. Air Drive veteran, in July 2020 throughout the protest towards racial injustice following the George Floyd killing by police in Minneapolis months earlier.
Foster, 28, was white, as is Perry.
Perry, then 37, insisted he was appearing in self-defense and opened hearth as a result of Foster was brandishing an AK-47 rifle at him. The trial introduced conflicting accounts on whether or not Foster leveled his rifle at Perry.
Prosecutors mentioned Foster, who was legally armed on the time, had approached Perry’s automotive to guard his fellow protesters, believing Perry would possibly assault them together with his automobile.
The jury sided towards Perry, whose case turned a trigger celebre for political conservatives.
On Could 16, instantly appearing on the advice of the state’s pardons board, Abbott granted a full pardon to Perry, citing the state’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense legal guidelines, one of many strongest such measures within the U.S.
On Tuesday, Garza instructed reporters the board and Abbott had “put their politics over justice and made a mockery of the legal system.”
The district legal professional mentioned Abbott exceeded his authority by intervening within the homicide case earlier than permitting the appellate course of to play out, and thus “prohibited the judiciary from doing its work.”
Past the separation-of-powers situation, Garza instructed reporters the board and governor did not abide by pardon eligibility guidelines set by the regulation, including, “They didn’t even come close to meeting those standards in this case.”
Showing with Garza on Tuesday, Foster’s mom, Shiela Foster, vowed her household would “fight this until we get justice for Garrett.”
Garza filed his writ request per week after the attorneys basic of 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, all Democrats, urged the U.S. Justice Division to open a federal civil rights investigation into Foster’s killing.
