A US Army sergeant convicted of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally is set to be sentenced Tuesday morning -- even as Texas' governor has expressed plans to pardon him.
Daniel Perry shot and killed 28-year-old Garrett Foster in July 2020 at an Austin racial justice rally held following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which triggered nationwide protests against police brutality. Perry and Foster are White.
Prosecutors said Perry -- who was stationed at Fort Hood and working as a rideshare driver to make extra money -- initiated the encounter by running a red light and turning his vehicle into a crowd gathered at the protest. Foster was openly carrying an assault-style rifle and approached Perry's car and motioned for him to lower his window, at which point Perry fatally shot him, prosecutors said.
Perry's legal team argued his actions were justified as self-defense.
The jury convicted Perry of murder but found him not guilty on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and a deadly conduct charge is still pending.
Shortly after Perry's April 7 conviction, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted to pardon Perry and issued an unusual request for the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite a review of the case before a sentence was handed down.
"Texas has one of the strongest 'Stand Your Ground' laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney," the governor said in a statement on Twitter.
The governor can only pardon Perry if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends it, according to Texas law.
"The board will be commencing that investigation immediately" and will report to the governor with recommendations when it's done, board spokesperson Rachel Alderete said following Abbott's request. She didn't specify how long the review would take.
Perry made comments about killing protesters on social media, documents show
Documents related to the case that were unsealed by a Travis County judge following Perry's conviction show he had a yearslong history of making racist comments in messages and social media posts.
In a Facebook message from May 2020, just weeks before the shooting, Perry told a friend he "might have to kill a few people" who were rioting outside his apartment.
The documents also contain a May 2020 text sent by Perry that said, "I might go to Dallas to shoot looters." Some messages included "white power" memes.
Perry wrote in a 2019 message that it was "to bad we can't get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe."
In a June 1, 2020, social media comment, Perry compared the Black Lives Matter movement to "a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their sh*t," the documents show.
Clint Broden, Perry's attorney, criticized the release of the documents in a statement to CNN, calling it a political decision by prosecutors.
Broden said Foster also made social media posts advocating for violence and supporting riots, most of which can't be made public due to Texas discovery rules.
A few posts are public, however, including a post praising the burning down of a Minneapolis police station in 2020.
CNN reached out to the governor's office for comment on the social media posts. An attorney for the Foster family declined to comment on the unsealed documents.
