That court stated, “As to this ruling we respectfully disagree with the district court – the statute on which the “coercion of a public servant” is based, as written, and as we are bound to construe it, violates the First Amendment and, accordingly, can not be enforced”.
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Perry is pleased that the charges have been finally thrown out, said his attorney Tony Buzbee, who called it a “shame that it took that long to get something as weak and misguided as this to be dismissed”.
“The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out decades of precedent to grant a special privilege to Rick Perry, allowing him to escape a trial before any evidence against him was heard”, he said.
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry was exonerated by the state’s highest criminal court of charges he abused his power by vetoing state funding for an ethics unit when its disgraced leader refused to step down.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out the abuse-of-power felony charge, the Associated Press reported.
Perry had already signaled that resolution in the case would be, in some ways, too little, too late. Perry’s indictment happened in August 2015, and was ordered as dismissed by the court on Wednesday. Lehmberg had been arrested and sentenced to 45 days in jails for drunk driving, but refused to resign her post.
Perry dropped out of his second bid for the presidential nomination a year ago after his campaign failed to attract enough donors or supporters in a crowded Republican field.
McCrum disagreed, arguing that Perry couldn’t use his legal veto power to accomplish an illegal end by seeking to harm Lehmberg or attempting to keep her from doing her job. McDonald heads the group Texans for Public Justice, which filed a formal complaint after Perry vetoed funding for Austin prosecutors in 2013. Combined, the original charges carried a potential maximum penalty of 109 years in prison.
Rick Perry grinned for his mugshot after being processed for two felony counts.
A grand jury in liberal Austin had indicted Perry in 2014 for vetoing funding for a public corruption unit that Republicans have long accused of wielding a partisan ax.
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Despite his legal problems, Perry formally announced he was running for president in early June, hoping to convince GOP primary voters he deserved a second chance after his 2012 bid was undone by a series of public gaffes.
