Posthumous Pardon Sought for George Floyd’s 2004 Arrest Denied

George Floyd was convicted of narcotic offenses in 2004 in Houston, but the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected a request for a posthumous pardon. Another request could be submitted again in two years, the board said in a letter. The letter did not specify why the request was denied, NBC News has reported.

In October 2021, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously decided to recommend that Floyd become just the second Texan since 2010 to be granted a posthumous pardon by the governor.

But before Texas Governor Greg Abbott could make a final decision in the case, the board changed its mind in December last year, citing “procedural errors” in its initial recommendation in Floyd’s case.

The board asserted that more than a third of the 67 clemency requests it had forwarded to Abbott needed to be reevaluated.

“After a full and careful review of the application and other information filed with the application, a majority of the Board decided not to recommend a Full Pardon and/or Pardon for Innocence,” the board wrote in a letter it sent Thursday to Floyd’s attorney, Allison Mathis, the AP reported.

A Marshall Project reporter on Thursday broke the news of the board’s decision. However, Floyd’s attorney Mathis as well as a spokesperson for the parole board have not made any pronouncements on the latest development.

Mathis initially filed the request for a pardon in April 2021. Floyd, a Black man, was born, raised, and buried in Houston.

Derek Chauvin, a former white Minneapolis police officer, was given a 22-and-half-year jail term in June 2021 over the death of Floyd, which sparked a nationwide conversation about race and policing in the United States.

Floyd was detained in Houston in February 2004 by retired police officer Gerald Goines for selling $10 amount of crack in a police operation, years before his murder in May 2020. Floyd later entered a guilty plea to a drug offense and received a 10-month state prison term.

In both state and federal court, Goines is currently being prosecuted for a deadly drug raid in 2019 that resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58.

Goines is also being charged with two counts of criminal murder and other offenses.

Prosecutors in his case assert that Goines afterwards claimed there was no insider and that he had purchased the pills on his own. Goines has also been charged by the prosecution with fabricating informants in other cases.

“We supported George Floyd’s pardon because we do not have confidence in the integrity of his conviction. We support clemency because it is appropriate,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Thursday, the AP report added.

Meanwhile, Goines has insisted on his innocence, and his attorney is pushing for his acquaintance.