A murder, a pardon, and a new podcast: Amphibian launches The Watch with Radley Balko
For the debut episode of our new collaboration, the investigative journalist interviews Whitney Mitchell, whose fiancé was murdered at a Black Lives Matter protest in Texas. The killer was convicted. Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned him. Now Mitchell is speaking out as Abbott faces reelection.
Radley Balko
In the first episode of our new show with Radley Balko, he interviews Whitney Mitchell, whose fiancé was killed at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin, Texas. A jury convicted the killer of murder, and Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned him. Mitchell is speaking at length for the first time as Abbott faces a close reelection race.
Watch the first episode of The Watch with Radley Balko and subscribe to his newsletter.
Amphibian Media is producing "The Watch with Radley Balko," a new video podcast based on Balko’s reporting on policing, criminal justice, and civil liberties.
Balko wrote “Rise of the Warrior Cop” and “The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist.” He has spent much of his career investigating police abuses, wrongful convictions, and the stories officials tell about public safety. His newsletter, The Watch, has more than 33,000 subscribers.
The first episode goes back to July 2020. Daniel Perry drove his car into a racial justice protest in Austin and shot Garrett Foster, who was legally carrying a rifle. Foster died. Mitchell watched it happen. The two had been together since high school, and after a medical catastrophe cost Mitchell her arms and legs, Foster became her primary caretaker.
A jury convicted Perry of murder in 2023, and a judge sentenced him to 25 years. Tucker Carlson and other right-wing commentators campaigned for his release. Abbott said the day after the verdict that he wanted to pardon Perry, and he did.
By then, investigators had documented Perry’s online history: racist messages, fantasies about killing protesters and debates about when he could legally shoot one. Court records show he also messaged suggestively with underage girls. All of it was public when Abbott signed the pardon.
In the interview, Mitchell talks about who Foster was, the night he died, the harassment and death threats that followed, and what the pardon meant after losing the person who had cared for her for a decade.
Balko also follows a thread back to Abbott himself. Abbott has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him in his 20s, and he still receives payments from the lawsuit he filed afterward. As Texas attorney general, he supported a 2003 law capping medical malpractice damages. That law limited what Mitchell could recover for the medical errors that cost her her limbs.
This is the start of an ongoing collaboration. Amphibian handles video and audio production, editing, publishing, and distribution, putting Balko’s reporting and interviews on podcast apps and social media. The work lives at The Watch, Balko’s independent, reader-supported Substack publication.
Read Radley’s introduction, watch the first episode, and subscribe to The Watch.
The podcast is free. Balko’s writing is free, too, and he doesn’t paywall it. Paid subscribers fund it, and if you want more of this reporting, a paid subscription to his newsletter is how he makes it.
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