A Texas parole board appointed by the state's Republican governor has apparently changed its mind about granting a posthumous pardon to George Floyd for charges arising from a drug-related arrest orchestrated by an indicted police officer. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously last October to recommend the pardon following Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, at the hands of convicted murderer and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The white cop kneeled on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, causing his death.
The parole board didn't detail its reasoning for the reversal of the decision in a letter CNN obtained from the Harris County public defender working with Floyd's relatives. “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,” officials wrote in the letter last Wednesday. They said in the letter that Floyd’s family can reapply in two years.
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Allison Mathis, a lawyer with the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, wrote in the family’s initial application last April that Gerald Goines, the officer who arrested Floyd, “manufactured the existence of confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants.”
The officer arrested Floyd on Feb. 5, 2004, and alleged that Floyd gave crack cocaine to a "second suspect" who had agreed to sell it to Goines, who was working undercover. Goines later noted in his report that the “second suspect” was never arrested.
Goines was indicted last June on organized crime charges related to a deadly police raid, and at the time of his indictment, he was already facing murder charges related to the shooting deaths of two other people during the raid, KHOU reported.
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Even knowing the alleged corruption Goines was linked to, the public defender seeking Floyd's pardon declined to say she was optimistic when journalist Keri Blakinger asked last April.
"I'm not sure whether optimism or pessimism is the right framework for how I feel about this," she said. "As a criminal defense attorney, I see people in authority do the wrong thing a lot of the time—judges who forget the humanity of defendants, prosecutors who are coercive and cruel, and police officers who abuse their position and hurt people, rather than protect them," Blakinger said. "Those acts tend to overshadow the good things that people in authority do a lot of the time. George Floyd had a lot of people in authority do bad things to him. … I guess I'm hopeful that the people who have control over whether or not this gets granted will use this as an opportunity to do a good thing."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced last December that the parole board withdrew its recommendation concerning Floyd.
"The Board of Pardons and Paroles has withdrawn 25 clemency recommendations that contained procedural errors and lack of compliance with Board rules," Renae Eze, the governor’s press secretary, said. "Among the recommendations withdrawn was one concerning George Floyd. The Board will review and resolve procedural errors and issues related to any pending applications in compliance with their rules.”
“As a result of the Board's withdrawal of the recommendation concerning George Floyd, Governor Abbott did not have the opportunity to consider it. Governor Abbott will review all recommendations that the Board submits for consideration."
Ben Crump, George Floyd's family attorney, called the parole board's decision a "DISGRACE and an insult to his memory."
