The case stemmed from his threat to veto state funding for a unit of the Travis County district attorney’s office unless its head stepped down following a drunk-driving arrest. He followed through on his veto after Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, refused to resign.
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In July, a Texas state appeals court threw out a lesser charge leveled against Perry for coercion of a public official.
August. 18: Perry’s legal team appeals the remaining charge against him to the Court of Criminal Appeals. That includes a coercion of public official charge, which had been tossed by a lower court, and a misuse of office charge, which had been upheld. Perry had requested the speedy schedule earlier this year, when he was running for president. During his speech Perry ended his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination, becoming the first major candidate of the 2016 campaign to give up on the White House. All briefs must be submitted by October 21, two weeks from the day the court took up the case. The court will hear each charge separately.
“The state of Texas has statutes on the books which really infringed upon everybody’s First Amendment rights”, he said.
To succeed, however, defense lawyers will have to convince the Court of Criminal Appeals to abandon a long-held standard that prevents defendants from attacking charges before trial by arguing that a law is being unconstitutionally applied to them.
Johnson’s attorney, Joshua Liles, said anyone who respects free speech should welcome the law being knocked down.
November 6: Perry appears at a court hearing for the first time, saying he did nothing illegal.
The former governor has maintained the case is politically motivated.
“Our stance is that the law criminalizes the non-protected speech which is what happened in this case”, Bewley said.
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Perry has been outspokenly critical of the case.
