Posthumous pardon for George Floyd rejected by Texas board

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles sent a letter on Thursday to George Floyd’s lawyer rejecting her application for a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug offense.

“The members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (Board) have reconsidered their initial decision concerning your client’s application for a Full Pardon and/or Pardon for Innocence,” the board wrote in a letter published by The Marshall Project.

The Texas pardon board voted unanimously last year to posthumously pardon Floyd, but the recommendation was withdrawn two months later along with 25 other recommendations that “contained procedural errors and lack of compliance with Board rules.”

If approved by the board, the pardon recommendation would have moved on to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for a final decision.

“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 on 09/14/22,” the Board of Pardons and Paroles wrote to Floyd lawyer Allison Mathis on Thursday.

The board told Mathis that someone could reapply on behalf of Floyd at the end of a two-year period.

The Hill has reached out to Mathis and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for comment on the case.

Floyd, who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, was arrested by a former Houston police officer in 2004 for selling $10 of crack cocaine and subsequently served 10 months in prison.

Some officials have claimed that the officer in the 2004 case, Gerald Goines, fabricated information in Floyd’s case.

The posthumous pardon case was passed on to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles after the Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously last year to approve a resolution calling for Floyd’s pardon.

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