A man shoots a protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Texas and is sentenced to 25 years in prison. Now the state’s governor has intervened and pardoned him.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pardoned a former US soldier who was sentenced to a long prison sentence for the murder of a participant at a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Texas law comprehensively protects everyone’s right to self-defense, which cannot be overridden by a jury or a progressive prosecutor, Republican Abbott said on Thursday. A responsible committee had previously recommended a pardon.
The brutal death of the black man George Floyd triggered the Black Lives Matter movement in spring 2020. At that time there were nationwide protests against police violence and racism. During one of the demonstrations in Austin, the former soldier shot and killed a 28-year-old participant.
He testified in court at the time that he had gotten into a demonstration with his vehicle. He opened fire after the victim pointed a gun at him. Both the shooter and the victim are white.
Witness statements painted a different picture. According to them, the armed victim tried to stop the man from driving his car into the crowd. The former soldier was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.
According to the Washington Post, subsequently released court documents showed that the shooter regularly spread racist images and threatening content on social media. The case attracted attention in the USA because, among others, the right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson spoke out on his Fox News show at the time and called for the acquittal of the former soldier.
The case is reminiscent of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. During protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020, the then 17-year-old shot two white men with an assault rifle and injured another person.
He invoked his right to self-defense in the trial against him and was acquitted. Rittenhouse is now celebrated as a kind of hero in the right-wing scene and regularly puts himself in the spotlight.
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