Daniel Perry was back in a Travis County courtroom Thursday, as prosecutors pushed ahead with a misdemeanor case tied to a July 2020 downtown Austin protest. The judge tightly limited the scope of the hearing so it would not re-try the fatal shooting that led to Perry’s 2023 murder conviction and later pardon. The session was short, procedural, and mainly about logistics, clearing the way for a separate, relatively brief trial on the misdemeanor allegations.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, County Court-at-Law Judge Carlos Barrera presided and told the parties the deadly protest shooting “won’t be part of the trial at all.” Defense attorney Doug O’Connell argued that prosecutors have “taken traffic offenses and cobbled them together to make a deadly conduct charge,” and estimated the misdemeanor trial could last up to four days. Instead of revisiting the shooting, Thursday’s hearing focused on whether prosecutors can lean on Perry’s driving-related behavior to prove a separate misdemeanor count of deadly conduct.
Perry was convicted of murder in 2023 for the death of protester Garrett Foster and later received a pardon from Gov. Greg Abbott, as reported by AP News. The pardon freed Perry from the murder sentence but left this misdemeanor case, centered on his driving that day, as the lone remaining criminal matter against him in local court. The unusual split between a wiped-out murder conviction and an active misdemeanor case has continued to draw both local and national scrutiny.
What the misdemeanor case says
Prosecutors say Perry’s driving along Congress Avenue put demonstrators “in imminent danger of serious bodily injury.” The misdemeanor indictment lists several specific behaviors, including texting while driving, failing to stop before turning right on red, turning into an intersection while pedestrians were in the crosswalk, and driving into a crowd, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Court filings show that elements of Perry’s driving were presented to a Travis County grand jury in 2021, and prosecutors argue those acts can support a deadly conduct charge without revisiting the shooting itself. Perry’s legal team counters that the misdemeanor allegation is vague and effectively duplicates the earlier murder prosecution.
Legal implications
Under Texas law, deadly conduct applies when a person “recklessly engages in conduct that places another in imminent danger of serious bodily injury,” as defined in Texas Penal Code §22.05. If Perry is found guilty of the Class A misdemeanor, he could face up to a year in county jail and a fine of up to $4,000, according to KUT. Defense lawyers and some legal analysts note that any punishment would be far lighter than the now-vacated murder sentence, and Perry’s time already served behind bars, followed by the governor’s pardon, complicates what an additional misdemeanor sentence would mean in practical terms…