There is a man who was just convicted of murder who Gov. Abbott wants to pardon
The Abbott-Foster-Feedback Message: A State Attorney’s Office Charged with Killing a Person in the Near-Integer Collision
Under Texas law, Abbott can’t act on his own. He can only grant a pardon after the Board of Pardons and Paroles has made a recommendation on a case. Abbott can ask the board to look at specific cases.
Prosecutors argued Perry had instigated the incident and introduced into evidence messages that suggested the shooting was not a spur-of-the-moment act but a premeditated one. One of the most damning was Perry’s Facebook message to a friend before the shooting that he might “kill a few people on my way to work. There are people outside of my apartment complex. Defense attorneys said that Foster had threatened Perry by pointing his gun at Perry.
Dozens of witnesses testified during the eight-day trial. After 17 hours of deliberations, the jury found Perry guilty of murder. The jury found him not guilty of the charges, but they are pending in the county attorney’s office.
The investigation of the shooting of a Dallas police officer by a red light: State vs. State: an ‘extremal’ approach to self-defense
Abbott instructed the Board to expedite its review after he made that request. The governor said, “I look forward to approving the board’s recommendation as soon as it arrives at my desk.”
The prosecution argued that the encounter started with a red light running into the crowd of people gathered for the police brutality protest, and that the suspect had previously posted on social media about shooting protesters.
The governor didn’t say anything more about why he believes the man should be pardoned, but he pointed to the attorney’s explanation of why the man shot Foster.
Texas has one of the strongest’stand your ground’ laws of self-defense and cannot be nullified by jurors or a district attorney, Abbott said.
“The board will be commencing that investigation immediately,” the agency told NPR. The board will make recommendations to the governor after completion of the investigation.
The legal process around the case isn’t complete, so it is “deeply troubling” that Abbott is intervening.
“In this case, a jury of twelve listened to testimony for nearly two weeks, upending their lives to painstakingly evaluate the evidence and arguments presented by both the State and the Defense,” Garza said in a statement emailed to NPR.
The Case of Corte Carlson: A Defendant’s Case for Self-Defidence, Revisited
Dean Obeidallah is a former attorney and host of the show on the radio. Follow him @[email protected]. The opinions in this commentary are of his own. View more opinion on CNN.
There are conflicting accounts as to whether Foster pointed his weapon at Perry or Perry made the first move. What’s undisputed, however, is that Perry fired five shots from his .357 revolver through his car window, killing Foster. Perry fled the scene but later called police to report the shooting, saying he acted in self-defense.
On his Fox News show on Friday night, Carlson called on Abbott to pardon Perry, arguing that the defendant had acted in self-defense – despite the jury rejecting that argument. Carlson used the billionaire Jewish philanthropist’s name as an attack on the prosecutor, which is often used by the right as an antisemitic putdown. Carlson declared that the verdict “means that in the state of Texas, if you have the wrong politics, you’re not allowed to defend yourself.”
Did Jackson cite evidence showing that the jury had made a mistake? Nope. But like some other Republicans, he dog-whistled the name Soros, saying, “don’t let a Soros-owned Austin liberal DA destroy our justice system.”
But the jury was aware of the Stand Your Ground law. It reviewed the facts in the case and determined that Perry was guilty. Lawyers for the defendants should file an appeal if the verdict is so out of line. Clint broden told CNN his client plans to appeal the verdict.
