The man who was found guilty last week of the murder of a Black Lives Matter supporter at a 2020 demonstration had previously gone on social media to discuss his desire to kill protesters amid a series of remarks that were also racist, according to a court filing ordered unsealed as Texas state officials weigh a request from the state’s governor to pardon him.
Daniel Perry’s social media screeds resurfaced on Thursday at a delicate time in his case, which saw jurors reject his claim that he shot the Black Lives Matter demonstrator Garrett Foster to death in self-defense.
It had been mere days since Texas’s conservative governor, Greg Abbott, publicly asked the state board which handles criminal pardons to grant one to Perry, following an expedited review of his case. But the judge overseeing Perry’s case had also just received a motion for a new trial from Perry’s legal team, which partially involves allegations of misconduct by at least one juror.
Perry’s lead attorney, Doug O’Connell, said he had no comment on the newly unsealed social media posts, adding that his client’s sentencing date and new trial motion were pending as of Friday.
The 76-page filing that Judge Cliff Brown ordered unsealed on Thursday at the request of state prosecutors contains a trove of public and private social media messages from Perry – a ride-share service driver and US army sergeant – that highlight white supremacy memes while talking about hunting people down and killing them.
In one message posted publicly less than eight weeks before Foster’s killing, Perry declared: “It is official, I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo. I was on the side of the [protesters] until they started with the looting and the violence.”
Perry that same day also compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their shit”, according to the filings, which were first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
Both remarks came at the height of protests held nationwide in the days after the murder of George Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer. So did another remark from around that time in which Perry said “he might have to kill a few people” staging a demonstration outside his apartment, according to the court filing as well as prior reports.
He also authored another post around that time in which he argued that the logos of organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Entertainment Television and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund were as racist as the Confederate battle flag, which violent white supremacist groups have co-opted as a hate symbol.
When Foster was shot dead while participating in a Black Lives Matter demonstration on 25 July 2020, Perry was driving for Uber in downtown Austin. Perry honked at protesters as they walked through the streets before driving his car into the crowd, authorities alleged.
Perry’s attorneys say Foster approached their client with an AK-47 rifle, forcing Perry to shoot Foster five times in self-defense, mortally wounding him. Perry is white, and so was Foster.
Prosecutors countered that Perry, 33, could have avoided the encounter and therefore was not justified in killing Foster, 28. After a trial of more than a week and two days of verdict deliberations, a Travis county, Texas, jury convicted Perry of murder on 7 April while acquitting him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The murder conviction leaves Perry facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It also prompted Abbott to announce that he would approve Perry’s pardon if a gubernatorial-appointed board sent it to his office. In his announcement, Abbott said he would not allow jurors to nullify Texas’s self-defense law, which he called one of the nation’s most robust.
Meanwhile, the Perry legal team has filed a new trial motion which asserts that a juror – against judicial instructions – brought information from the outside world into the verdict deliberation room. The motion asserts that the juror printed out information at home during an overnight recess and discussed it with others who were deliberating the case’s outcome.
An Austin-based criminal defense attorney, Rick Cofer, told the local television news outlet KTBC that the juror misconduct claim was the most compelling of the arguments in the new trial motion.
“Those claims mean there is sizzle, there’s smoke, but the judge will determine whether there’s really meat on the table,” Cofer said.
The office of Travis county district attorney, José Garza, said it “has full confidence in the guilty verdict reached by the jury in this case” and characterized the new trial motion’s contents as “standard”.
Perry’s sentencing was initially scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed indefinitely.
Felecia Phillips Ollie DD (h.c.) is the inspiring leader and founder of The Equality Network LLC (TEN). With a background in coaching, travel, and a career in news, Felecia brings a unique perspective to promoting diversity and inclusion. Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Communications, she is passionate about creating a more inclusive future. From graduating from Mississippi Valley State University to leading initiatives like the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Equal Employment Opportunity Program, Felecia is dedicated to making a positive impact. Join her journey on our blog as she shares insights and leads the charge for equity through The Equality Network.
