In an extremely rare gesture, the Republican governor of Texas said he was ready to pardon a soldier and Uber driver convicted Friday of killing a protester during the major protests against racism and police brutality in 2020.

Daniel Perry, a military man, 33, who was driving for the transportation company in his spare time, found himself in the middle of a crowd of protesters in Austin, in the southern US, in July 2020.

At his trial, his lawyers emphasized that he was in lawful self-defense. They said he fired a handgun five times at Garrett Foster, 28, as the latter approached his car with an extended assault rifle and the barrel pointed in his direction.

Prosecutors countered that he could well have reversed and that he started the fight. According to a report in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, they presented as evidence Mr. Perry’s posts on social networking sites before the deadly encounter, in which he stated that “I might kill some people on my way to work. There’s a riot outside my apartment.”

After two hours of deliberation, a jury found him guilty of murder. He faces up to life in prison. His sentence will be announced soon.

Without even waiting for an appeal, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he had asked his state’s pardon office to look into Daniel Perry’s case. “I stand ready to approve this recommendation once it reaches my desk,” he added in a statement released Saturday night.

He explained that his purpose is to defend the “strong ‘stand your ground’ law” in effect in his state. This is a law that allows anyone to use deadly force if they believe their life is in serious danger, even if they have the ability to escape the danger.

This case brings to mind that of Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the sidelines of the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

The young man also pleaded self-defense — and was acquitted. He became a hero of the American hard right.

Governor Abbott’s announcement provoked — as was to be expected — diametrically opposed reactions, depending on the political position. It was welcomed by Republicans, but Texas Democratic Rep. Sarah Eckhart denounced the “terrifying and dangerous attack on the rule of law,” according to a report in the Texas Tribune newspaper.