The George Soros-funded district attorney of Travis County declared Tuesday that his office would appeal to Texas’s highest criminal court to set aside Governor Greg Abbott’s pardon of Daniel Foster. Foster was convicted of murder and received a 25-year sentence for killing an Antifa/BLM thug who pointed an AK-47 at him during a mostly peaceful George Floyd funeral celebration in Austin, Texas, in July 2020.
In a press release, José Garza, who received $445,000 of George Soros’s hard-earned gelt during his last election, said he’s mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore.
“Our democracy works when each branch of government does not exceed their constitutional authority,” said Travis County DA José Garza. “This is why we are urging the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to intervene in order to restore the sanctity of the rule of law in our state. We stand with Garrett Foster’s family because his life matters, and we believe in and honor the jury’s verdict; our system depends on it.”
The incident started when a leftist would-be street-fighting man named Garrett Foster went to a demonstration armed with an AK-47 to intimidate any counterprotesters, who he called “p***ies.”
The media describes mobbing his car and pointing a gun towards him as “motioned with the assault rifle for Mr. Perry to lower his window”, as if one could tell that https://t.co/Wf6dT9txMw
Shortly before being killed Garrett made it clear why he was therepic.twitter.com/0vQFahoJWj
— AntifaWatch (@AntifaWatch2) July 1, 2021
Daniel Perry, who was driving for a ride-share company, dropped a passenger off in downtown Austin and quickly found himself surrounded by potentially violent protesters, including a masked Foster, who pointed his semiautomatic at Perry.
Here is Garrett Foster pointing his loaded AK-47 at Daniel Perry in Austin, TX in 2020
Daniel Perry was just convicted of murder for defending himself in Democrat-ruled Austin TX.
Are you catching on? pic.twitter.com/G88LCD9ZQY
— REKT Specialist is unbanned! (Parody?) (@GoatRoper911) April 8, 2023
That turned out to be a very poor evolutionary strategy.
Because the left was in search of heroes and because the incident took place in Austin, Perry was quickly indicted for murder, despite the recommendation of police investigators, convicted, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
BACKGROUND:
Soldier Charged With Murder After Shooting Armed BLM Protester – RedState
Sgt. Daniel Perry Sentenced to 25 Years for Killing Black Lives Matter Rioter – RedState
When the verdict was announced, Governor Abbott took the first step in setting Perry free. He announced he had asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for an expedited investigation into Perry’s conviction and to make a recommendation on a pardon for Perry. This is necessary under the Texas constitution as the governor can only act based on a majority recommendation of that Board. The governor lost the plenary authority to award pardons after one governor was suspected of selling pardons for cash.
BACKGROUND: Greg Abbott Takes First Step in Pardoning Man Convicted of Murder for Shooting BLM Protester in Self-Defense – RedState
The Board conducted an inquiry and unanimously recommended that Governor Abbott pardon Perry.
BACKGROUND: BREAKING: Texas Gov Abbott Pardons US Army Sergeant Convicted of Murder for Shooting Armed BLM Protester – RedState
None of this set all that well with the leftists who demanded Perry spend most of the remainder of his life in prison for defending himself against a man they were trying to paint as a hero.
RELATED: The Left Is Trying to Create Their Own Horst Wessel but They Just Aren’t Good Enough – RedState
Shortly after Abbott announced the pardon, a group of fourteen Democrat attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, sent a letter to Biden’s Attorney Merrick Garland demanding a federal prosecution of Perry under federal civil rights laws.
BACKGROUND: Democrat Attorneys General Demand Federal Indictment of Daniel Perry Because the Rule of Law Is Dead – RedState
District Attorney Garza’s approach is novel, and by the novel, I mean nuts.
On Tuesday, Garza said his office filed a petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn Abbott’s pardon, arguing the governor’s intervention interfered with lower court rulings and halted the appellate process. The Travis County prosecutor also said Perry’s case did not meet the requirements to receive a pardon.
“When Governor Abbott issued the pardon, not only did he circumnavigate the process for pardons, he exceeded his authority and violated the separation of powers doctrine,” Holly Taylor, the director of the Division of Public Integrity and Complex Crimes for the district attorney’s office, said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
This is laughable (keep in mind IANAL). The Texas governor’s authority to pardon is absolute and not reviewable. There is no “separation of powers” issue, as the judicial process was completed when Perry was sentenced and incarcerated. Governor Abbott didn’t exceed his power because he acted upon a recommendation by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. In short, this is, as one of my former commanders characterized an impassioned case I was making, “nebulous bullsh**.”
Despite his connection to Soros, I think Garza is smart enough to know this.
On one level, this is your standard “we’re fighting for you” theater that is useful to raise money for leftist groups. But I think we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility that Governor Abbott is the real target and the Perry case is just a stalking horse for lawfare. In 2014, Governor Rick Perry was indicted by a Travis County grand jury for vetoing an appropriation for the Travis County District Attorney’s Public Integrity office. That office is charged with investigating criminal acts by members of the state legislature and government because the capital of Texas is in Austin. Eventually, the charges were dismissed, but the process is the punishment. Rick Perry spent two years with a cloud hanging over his administration and a lot of time keeping himself out of prison. Note that Garza’s press release was announced not by a communications person but by Holly Taylor, the director of the Division of Public Integrity and Complex Crimes. This is the same organization that harried Rick Perry.
Regardless, we can be sure of two things. First, this gambit by one of Soros’s MiniMes isn’t going anywhere. Second, we haven’t seen the end of the Daniel Perry pardon melodrama.
