When “stand-your-ground” means pardoning a convicted murderer
No Tennessee school district has expressed interest in training teachers to carry guns at school, following passage of a law permitting them to do so. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
“Does that really make you feel safe?” my date asked with skepticism as she watched me holster my everyday carry pistol before I stepped out of the car, took her arm in mine, and strode towards a new restaurant in Nashville.
A question I’d heard countless times, but on this occasion, I was slow to reply.
“I like to think so,” I said with an uncertainty that spoke volumes to my presence of mind. Because following what happened in Texas — and what could happen in other red states — now I’m not so sure.
Who gets to stand their ground?
Tennessee and Texas share many of the same laws, stand-your-ground being one of them. In simple terms, stand-your-ground is a self-defense law in which individuals have the legal right to use lethal force if they believe they or another person is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. To qualify for a stand- your-ground defense, you must not be engaged in unlawful activity, and the imminent danger must be real or honestly believed to be real at the time.
That principle and its nuances were, thankfully, taught in great detail at gun ranges across the Volunteer State when Tennessee law still required us to take classes for our handgun carry permits.
On July 25, 2020, Garrett Foster, a Black Lives Matter protester, was murdered near the Texas capitol in Austin by Daniel Perry. Perry had run a red light in order to drive his vehicle into a crowd of protestors. Foster, who had been legally carrying an AK-47 rifle, approached Perry’s vehicle. Perry, also legally armed, shot and killed Foster.
Perry fled the scene and later called the police, claiming self-defense. However, during police questioning, Perry said, “I believe he (Foster) was going to aim it at me … I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me, you know.” Perry later changed his story and insisted Foster had pointed his AK-47 at Perry, but eyewitness testimony and Perry’s initial statements contradicted this account.
Just the carrying of an AK-47 is not a significant enough threat of violence to trigger a stand0your-ground defense.
A trial, a conviction, and a politically motivated pardon
The details of the incident were put on display during Perry’s April 2023 murder trial. To provide context for its argument against Perry’s self-defense claim, the prosecution aired numerous social media posts in which Perry expressed a desire to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters. “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work” and “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters,” read just a few of Perry’s posts.
The prosecution showed Perry’s private text message exchanges, too, because when Perry wasn’t penning social media manifestos regarding his interest in murdering people with whom he didn’t politically agree, he was texting his friends about how one could go about shooting protesters and get away with it by claiming self-defense.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s pardoning of a convicted shooter who killed a Black Lives Matter protester and the specter of state-sanctioned violence poses implications for Tennesseans.
Expressing a deliberate intent to do harm and then following it up by breaking the law (running a red light), acting in a threatening manner (driving a car into a crowd of protestors), and then physically doing harm (shooting a protester) all nullify a stand-your-ground self-defense claim, facts so obvious that the Austin jury of 12 easily delivered a unanimous guilty verdict.
Yet, the day after Perry’s murder conviction, Republican Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott directed the seven members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, all appointed by Abbott, to consider and expedite a pardon for Perry.
The parole board unanimously recommended a pardon, which Abbott issued, and Perry walked free after serving just one year and one month in prison. The full pardon also restored Perry’s Civil Rights of Citizenship, including his right to own guns.
State crime: when those in power tacitly approve of violence that fits their agenda
What Abbott did by pardoning Perry was described by some political scientists as a form of state crime, when certain acts of violence committed by specific residents are tacitly permitted or even encouraged by the government. Throughout history, it has been helpful for authoritarian-leaning regimes to quietly enlist the help of supporters to push back on members of certain communities and signal that those communities don’t deserve equal protection, especially when they don’t toe the line on the agendas espoused by those in power. And it is no secret that the Black Lives Matter protests were not appreciated by Abbott and other Texas officials, evidenced by the slew of recent anti-protest laws passed in the Lone Star State.
One could recall stories of street gang violence in Neo Fascist Italy or the citizen-led pogroms in 1930s Germany to bring up textbook examples of tacitly-approved-of citizen-on-citizen violence, but crossing the Atlantic isn’t even necessary to make the connection, as the U.S. has produced a barrage of recent examples. From law enforcement officers refusing to intervene while well-equipped counter-protestors assaulted and hospitalized pro-Palestine demonstrators at UCLA earlier this year to Republicans’ full-throated defense of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters, the right-wing has made it clear violence against certain groups is OK.
Millennials and Gen Z grew up in a culture that trained for mass shootings, not nuclear strikes. As gun violence escalates, more Americans will obtain, train with, and carry firearms. But as a gun owner in a red state, I can’t help but pause when asked if my firearm makes me feel safe. In Texas, the as-of-yet-unaddressed shortcomings of Stand Your Ground grants the self-defense claim to whoever shoots first, especially if the shooter happens to be a cause célèbre on the right. Should a similar event to Perry’s shooting of Foster occur in Tennessee, what will our leaders do?
I hope we never have to find out.
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