A Texas prosecutor wants the state’s highest criminal court to review the governor’s pardon of a man convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester.

Travis County District Attorney José Garza said Tuesday his office will file a request to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a writ of mandamus, a decision that would overturn the pardon.

As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, the request had not been filed, but would be shortly, Garza’s office said.

Last year, Daniel Perry, then 35, was convicted of fatally shooting Garrett Foster, 28, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin in 2020. Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The day Perry was found guilty, Gov. Greg Abbott said he would pardon him as fast as legally possible. Last month, Abbott’s office announced the pardon, suggesting that Perry should have been exonerated under the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws.

Perry was released from prison shortly afterward.

Under Texas law, people can open fire when human life or property, including homes and vehicles, are threatened with serious violence, kidnapping or robbery.

A shooter who is justified in using deadly force has no obligation to retreat, Texas law states. The law requires that a defendant in such a situation provide evidence and an affirmative defense explaining they were in the right during such a confrontation.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the pardon on May 16.

On the day of the shooting — July 25, 2020 — Perry was an Army sergeant based at Ford Hood, around 70 miles north of the Austin protest.

He was driving in downtown Austin, where a Black Lives Matter protest was taking place. It was one of many that summer organized in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police officers.

Perry stopped at an intersection and, police said he told them, opened fire from within his vehicle in self-defense after Foster had pointed a semiautomatic rifle at him. Foster was legally carrying the rifle.

More than a year later, a Travis County grand jury indicted Perry for murder. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Foster pointed his weapon. And, citing texts and social media posts, prosecutors attempted to portray Perry as a racist who could have simply driven away.

On April 7, 2023, Perry was convicted of murder. The jury acquitted him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The governor sought and received a unanimous recommendation for a pardon by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

On Tuesday, the Travis County DA, speaking at a news conference announcing his office’s challenge to the pardon, said Abbot’s move was designed to “circumvent the process.”

“The codified process to support a finding of innocence was not followed,” the prosecutor said.

Garza suggested pardons could not be granted on a whim or to curry populist favor but must be vetted by a process that he said the governor did not complete.

“Not only did he circumvent the process for pardons, he exceeded his authority and violated the separation of powers doctrine,” the prosecutor said.

Perry’s attorney, Clint Broden, said in a statement Tuesday that the governor had full authority to issue a pardon, and did so legally.

“Governor Abbot used pardon powers similar to the pardon powers given to almost every other state governor in the United States as well as similar to the pardon powers given to the President of the United States,” he said.

The lawyer accused Garza, a Democrat in a progressive community, of using the case to challenge the Republican governor’s conservative policies.

“The prosecution of Daniel Perry was political from the onset,” he said.

He called the attempt to overrule a pardon “a frivolous pursuit.”

Foster’s mother, Sheila Foster, spoke during Tuesday’s news conference, saying “we had justice for Garrett” for a short time before the governor’s pardon.

She noted her son’s service in the U.S. Air Force before saying, “My own child was killed on American soil for doing nothing but practicing his First and Second Amendment rights. And our governor just said that’s OK, that’s acceptable, as long as he doesn’t like the victim or what the victim is saying.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com