AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County District Attorney José Garza will file a petition to reverse the pardon of a man convicted of murder.
Garza's announcement on Tuesday comes as attorneys general in other states called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Texas's pardon of Daniel Perry.
In May, Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned the ex-Army sergeant who killed Garrett Foster during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Downtown Austin.
"The Board of Pardon and Paroles, and the governor, put their politics over justice and make a mockery of our legal system," Garza said. "For that, they should be ashamed of themselves. Their actions were contrary to the law."
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Garza said they will now file a writ of mandamus against the governor and ask the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn Perry's pardon, claiming that Abbott "exceeded his authority and violated the separation of powers doctrine."
"We had justice for Garrett for 18 hours after waiting three years for a trial," Garrett Foster's mom, Sheila Foster, said. "We got justice for my son … And the very next day, the governor announced his plans to pardon, and now here we are. And he has done it, and I'm not OK with this, and no one should be OK with this."
Recently, the attorneys general in 13 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to the DOJ calling for a civil rights investigation of Perry's actions. The letter states that the AGs want the department to look into whether Perry violated federal criminal law.
Garrett Foster was armed when he was killed by Perry, which led Abbott to say Perry's conviction violated the Texas "Stand Your Ground" law. Perry claimed he shot Garrett Foster in self-defense after he encountered a group of demonstrators while he was working as a rideshare driver in Austin.
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Within hours of Perry's pardon, he was released from a prison in southeast Texas.
An attorney for Garrett Foster's fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, released a statement on her behalf after Perry's pardon:
"I loved Garrett Foster. I thought we were going to grow old together. He was the love of my life. He still is. I am heartbroken by this lawlessness. Gove. Abbott has shown that to him, only certain lives matter. He has made us all less safe.
"Daniel Perry texted his friends about plans to murder a protester he disagreed with. After a lengthy trial, with an abundance of evidence, 12 impartial Texans determined he that he carried out that plan, and murdered the love of my life. With this pardon, the governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan, impugned that jury’s just verdict, and declared that citizens can be killed with impunity as long as they hold political views that are different from those in power."