A request to give George Floyd a posthumous pardon is on its way to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) after a public defender claimed Floyd was framed during a 2004 drug bust by a former Houston detective indicted on murder charges.
In a recent letter to Floyd’s public defender, Allison Mathis, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had “completed their consideration of your client’s application requesting a Full Pardon and have voted to recommend clemency,” ABC News reported Tuesday.
#BREAKING The Texas parole board just recommended posthumous clemency for #GeorgeFloyd.
This is for the 2004 drug charge he got in Houston, when he was arrested by a cop now accused of fabricating informants.
Now, the decision moves to @GovAbbott.https://t.co/NvfljUbgXb pic.twitter.com/DvJ8DAg4Ns
— Keri Blakinger (@keribla) October 4, 2021
The board sent the recommendation to Gov. Abbott for final disposition, however, he has so far not said if he will give the pardon.
Mathis filed the request earlier this year, noting in the petition a “pardon is being sought because it is just and right to clear a conviction that is not supported by evidence.”
Gov. Abbott speaks during a news conference where he provided an update to Texas’ response to the coronavirus, September 17, 2020, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The ABC article continued:
Floyd was arrested on Feb. 5, 2004, by then-Houston undercover narcotics detective Gerald Goines, who alleged Floyd provided a second suspect .03 grams of crack cocaine to sell, according to the petition. The man Floyd allegedly gave the drugs to turned out to be a police informant who sold the drugs to Goines as part of a sting operation and was not arrested or identified, according to the petition.
Floyd later plead guilty regarding a drug charge and was sentenced to serve 10 months in jail, according to authorities.
“In August 2019, Goines was charged with two counts of murder related to a botched narcotics raid at a home in southeast Houston,” the ABC report said.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg issued a statement Monday on the clemency for Floyd.
The statement read:
We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his family finds comfort in Monday’s decision by the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for a 2004 conviction involving former Houston Police Department Officer Gerald Goines.
“We urge Governor Abbott to follow the Board’s recommendation and grant clemency,” it concluded.
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