Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday promised to pardon a US Army sergeant a day after he was convicted of shooting and killing a protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration on July 25, 2020.

The Republican governor said Sgt. Daniel Perry, 35, was acting in self-defence when he fired the gun at 28-year-old Garrett Foster while marching in the Austin demonstration three years ago. Perry claimed he fired at Foster only after the protester pointed an AK-47 into his car.

Texas has one of the strongest Stand Your Ground self-defence laws that cannot be overturned by a jury or a progressive district attorney.

Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defence that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney, Abbott said in a statement.

The governor blamed the ruling on the county’s George Soros-backed Democratic District Attorney José Garza. Abbot supports the theory that Garza intentionally misled the grand jury throughout the trial.

I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry. pic.twitter.com/HydwdzneMU

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 8, 2023

Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood, about 70 miles north of Austin — was in town where he also worked as a private taxi driver — became angry when protesters began hitting his car.

Perry’s attorneys argued that Foster, who was carrying an AK-47, a club and a knife, raised the submachine gun first, prompting Perry to fire his weapon in self-defence. Witnesses say Foster did not threaten a weapon and that he pushed the wheelchair of his fiancee, a black woman who is a double amputee. Both men are white.

Perry faces life in prison at the sentencing.

The courtroom video contradicts witnesses who say Foster did not threaten with a weapon. – When Garrett Foster pointed an AK-47 at Daniel Perry, Daniel had two tenths of a second to defend himself. He chose to live, Doug O’Connell, an attorney for Perry, told Fox News Digital in a statement last year.