Travis County District Attorney José Garza Requests for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to Vacate Governor Abbott’s Unlawful Pardon of Daniel Perry

Travis County, TX — Today, Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that our office will file a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Governor Abbott’s unlawful pardon of Daniel Perry for the murder of Garrett Foster.

The petition asks the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to order the pardon vacated for the following reasons. First, the defendant did not meet the codified requirements of the pardon process. Second, the pardon was an unauthorized and arbitrary intervention that violated the Texas Constitution’s Separation of Powers Clause because it interfered with rulings from the lower court and arbitrarily stopped the established appellate process.

“Our democracy works when each branch of government does not exceed their constitutional authority,” said Travis County District Attorney 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.”

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