George Floyd was convicted on a drug charge in Houston in 2004 by now indicted, ex Houston cop Gerald Goines. The Texas board of Pardons and paroles voted 7-0 to grant Floyd a posthumous pardon.
Attorney Allison Mathis with the Harris County Public Defender's office applied for the pardon in May. She says Harris County looked at many cases in which Goines was involved, going back 20 years and one of the people on the list was George Floyd. "Nothing particularity jumped out at us. There are plenty of people named George Floyd and thinking that it was the George Floyd who had just died in police custody was not on our radar."
Floyd lived most of his life in Houston before moving to Minneapolis. In 2004, Goines arrested Floyd for selling a small amount of crack cocaine. But Goines' drug convictions came under intense scrutiny after he was indicted for murder and other charges for leading a deadly "no-knock" raid on a Houston couple. Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nichalos were killed in the raid. Goines is accused of lying to get a warrant for that raid. She notes Goines was usually the only witness to criminal activity on his arrests.
Mattis says their options were limited to get some justice for Floyd. "Usually the kind of petition I would have filed is a petition of Habeas Corpus. But a Habeas petition is only something you can file when a person is alive. Texas is one of the only states that has a posthumous pardon process, and that's the only avenue we could pursue to try and correct the record for someone who is deceased."
Governor Abbott must sign off in order for the pardon to be granted. Mathis does not think he will give his Okay. "I personally don't agree with most of the decisions he makes and I don't feel like he's particularly interested in pursuing justice. I think the evidence is there that this conviction did not have any integrity and that Mr. Floyd's freedom was taken unconstitutionally. I hope he makes the right decision but I don't have a lot of faith that he will."
See the request for a posthomous pardon here.
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