The Perry Trial

I explain self-defense, again.

Last week in Travis County, Daniel Perry was convicted of murder for shooting Garrett Foster in July, 2020. Perry, an Army Sergeant, was driving for Uber when he turned down a street on which Foster and others were protesting. He drove toward the protesters, and stopped. Foster approached his door, with an AK-47, and Perry shot him.

These are approximately the facts as they were publicized at the time, and it appeared to me then that this might have been a legally justified shooting. It wasn’t necessary for Perry to wait till Foster shot him before defending himself, nor even to wait till Foster brought the muzzle of his gun up. I thought that, given the zeitgeist, it might be reasonable for Perry to believe that his life was in immediate danger.

Andrew Branca, a “self-defense expert” with, as I’ve noted before, a rather narrow understanding of the la…