On the same day that he received a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation Thursday granting a full pardon for Daniel Perry, a former United States Army Sergeant who was unanimously convicted of murder in April 2023 for the July 2020 fatal shooting of Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was participating in a Black Lives Matter protest and carrying a rifle in downtown Austin at the time of his death. According to court documents, Perry had previously made racist comments, discussed how he wanted to “hunt” Muslims, and messaged just months before killing Foster: “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” The same unsealed documents from his murder case also revealed a less widely reported aspect of his character: Weeks before shooting Foster, he’d sent online messages to an apparent minor in what seemed to be an act of “grooming.”
Abbott’s pardon proclamation did not address Perry’s racist comments, stated desire to kill protesters, or inappropriate messages to an apparent minor—despite Abbott’s expressed concern for the sexualization of children in Texas. On an instant messaging platform, documents show, Perry messaged a self-identified 16-year-old: “No nudes until you are old enough to be of age. … I am going to bed come up with a reason why I should be your boyfriend before I wake up.”
But, in his proclamation, Abbott did take a pot shot at Democratic Travis County District Attorney José Garza, whose office prosecuted Perry’s case, criticizing Garza’s views on guns and alleging the prosecutor ordered exculpatory evidence withheld. Garza, who won renomination for his office easily this year, has been the repeated target of conservative criticism and even an attempt to remove him from office.
