By Phil Helsel - NBC News
A Texas Army sergeant who killed a protester nearly three years ago was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison, though the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has vowed to pardon him.
Daniel Perry, 35, was convicted in March by a Travis County jury of murder in the shooting that killed Garrett Foster in downtown Austin in July 2020.
Daniel Perry enters the Travis County courthouse in Austin, Texas.Mikala Compton / Austin American-Statesman / USA Today Network
On April 8, the day after the jury returned its verdict, Abbott announced on his Twitter account that he wanted to pardon Perry, and said he asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider the matter.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza called Abbott's involvement in the case "deeply troubling."
[The cop who killed Allen's killer acted in less than five minutes and saved "countless lives"]
"In our legal system, a jury must decide whether a defendant is guilty or not guilty — not the governor," Garza said in an April 9 statement.
Abbott said Texas has a strong self-defense law known as stand your ground and suggested Garza is a progressive district attorney.
Perry fatally shot Foster, 28, who was legally carrying a rifle, at a rally against police violence and racial injustice in Austin on the night of July 25, 2020, one of many that took place in cities across the country that summer following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Gas Station Employee Brutally Stabbed in Florida for No Apparent Reason
May 9, 202300:28
The sergeant was in a vehicle and the man approached the intersection carrying the semiautomatic rifle, police said. The soldier shot him from the car with a pistol claiming that Foster, an Air Force veteran, had pointed the gun at him and that the shot had been in self-defense.
Perry was convicted of murder but was not convicted of the second charge he faced, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and for which he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Under Texas law, the Board of Pardons and Paroles must first recommend a pardon before the governor can act on it.
Their attorney, Clint Brode, said at the time of the guilty verdict that they planned to appeal. On 3 May, a judge rejected his request for a retrial.
