Texas Public Defender Seeks Posthumous Pardon For George Floyd

HOUSTON, TX — A Texas public defender is seeking a posthumous pardon on behalf of George Floyd for a 2004 drug arrest made by an ex-Houston police officer who was since been indicted for murder and records tampering.

Allison Mathis, with the Harris County Public Defender's Office, filed an application for Floyd's pardon on Monday saying the arresting officer has a history of making up "confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants," according to a report from CNN.

Floyd's death in 2020 while in the custody of Minneapolis police sparked protests around the world against racial injustice and police brutality. The Black man died with a white police officer's knee on his neck while others stood by without intervening. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who arrested Floyd, was convicted last week for Floyd's murder, and trials have yet to be held for three other officers involved in Floyd's arrest.

In February 2004, former Officer Gerald Goines arrested Floyd during a police drug sting. The former officer claimed at the time that Floyd had crack cocaine in his possession that he gave to an unnamed "second suspect," who then attempted to sell it to Goines, an undercover officer, CNN reported.

Facing a 25-year sentence, Floyd pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in a Texas jail.

Mathis told CNN she is seeking a pardon to honor Floyd's memory and correct a wrong committed by an officer who cannot be trusted.

“We can't have confidence in the integrity of the convictions obtained by Officer Goines," she said. "George Floyd suffered at the hands of a corrupt and racist system throughout his life, not just at the end.”

Goines came under scrutiny in 2019 after a deadly drug raid left two people dead and injured five police officers. A warrant for the home was allegedly obtained by Goines under false pretenses, according to The Associated Press.

He claimed he had a confidential informant who purchased heroin from the home targeted in the raid but later recanted his statement and said he bought the drugs himself.

Goines now faces two counts of murder in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, who died in the raid, according to The AP.

Since the 2019 raid, prosecutors have dismissed more than 160 drug convictions tied to Goines, and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has come out in support of Floyd's pardon.

“As part of our ongoing investigation of police corruption exposed by the Harding Street killings, we looked into posthumous relief for a 2004 drug conviction that ensnared George Floyd in the criminal justice system so long ago,” Ogg told CNN. “Prosecutors determined in 2019 that Floyd had been convicted on the lone word of Gerald Goines, a police officer we could no longer trust; we fully support a request that the Governor now pardon George Floyd from that drug conviction.”