Texas parole board withdraws pardon recommendation for George Floyd
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles withdrew its recommendation of a posthumous pardon for George Floyd, along with 24 others, after finding procedural errors within its submission, the governor's office said Thursday. Floyd, who grew up in Houston, was killed last year by Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer.
Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Governor Greg Abbott's office, said the board will review the errors related to the applications and that the governor "did not have the opportunity to consider it."
In October, the board recommended Floyd's pardon for a drug conviction. Floyd was arrested in Houston for selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting in February 2004, and later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and served 10 months in prison, the Associated Press reported. But prosecutors revisited his case after a deadly Houston drug raid in 2019 that involved the same officer who arrested Floyd.
Prosecutors say that officer, Gerald Goines, lied to obtain the search warrant for the raid that killed a husband and wife. Goines, who is no longer on the Houston force and faces murder charges, has denied wrongdoing. More than 160 drug convictions tied to him over the years have since been dismissed by prosecutors due to concerns about his casework, according to the AP.
It would have been just the second time since 2010 that a person in Texas received a posthumous pardon from the governor.
Abbott did grant pardons to eight Texas residents:
- David Boyd Pool, 74, for theft in 1965.
- Gary Lynn Dickey, 42, for burglary of a vehicle in 1997.
- Christina Marie Edgar, formerly Christina Marie Emmert, 52, for theft in 2013.
- Subrina Sophus-Collins, formerly Subrina Maeca Sophus, 54, for unlawfully carrying a weapon on alcohol premises in 1994.
- Olukayode David Koleosho, 46, for robbery in 1996.
- David Anthony Mendes, 46, for theft in 1994.
- Joe Bob Wilcoxson, 76, for theft in 2013.
- Joseph Edward Braithwaite, 59, for evasion of income taxes in 1999.
The board said it sent an "unusually high number" of pardon recommendations to the governor's desk. The 67 recommendations were more than double the average Abbott typically receives in a year.
Floyd was killed in May 2020. Chauvin was convicted of his killing in April 2021 and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison.