George Floyd denied posthumous pardon for drug conviction in Texas



George Floyd's drug conviction in 2004 will stand. So says the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Last Wednesday, the Texas parole board informed Allison Mathis, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defender's Office in Houston who had initially filed for the pardon in April 2021, that it had ultimately decided against recommending "a Full Pardon and/or Pardon for Innocence" for Floyd.

Back in 2004, Floyd was convicted of drug possession after former Houston police officer Gerald Goines arrested Floyd for giving $10 worth of crack cocaine to another suspect, who then sold it to Goines, who was undercover at the time. Floyd pled guilty and served 10 months in jail. The other suspect was never charged with a crime because of an "attempt to further the narcotic trafficking in this area," according to Murjani Rawls of The Root.

However, Goines has since become the target of investigators who have accused him of fabricating "the existence of confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants."

According to reports, Goines fabricated one such informant to secure a warrant against Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58, for allegedly selling heroin out of their Houston home in 2019. Police then conducted a no-knock raid against the married couple, who were shot and killed by police during the incident.

At first, police reported that one of the two had fired on police, prompting a return use of force. However, later reports suggested that law enforcement had initiated gun fire as police first fired on the family dog. Several officers were shot and wounded in the incident. One of them remains permanently paralyzed as a result.

No heroin was ever discovered in the home, though police did find small amounts of marijuana and cocaine.

Prosecutors allege that Goines later admitted that he made up the informant and that he'd purchased the heroin from Tuttle and Nicholas himself. Goines has been charged with two counts of felony murder. He maintains his innocence. The status of the case against him is unclear.

At least 150 drug convictions tied to Goines have been dismissed since the 2019 raid. However, the Texas parole board declined to add Floyd to that list. Though the board unanimously voted to recommend a pardon for Floyd last October, it has since "reconsidered" that decision.

\u201c#BREAKING The Texas parole board just DENIED a posthumous pardon for George Floyd - 11 months after recommending a pardon & then rescinding it\n\nThis was for a Houston drug case involving a cop now accused of fabricating informants\n\nThey told Floyd's lawyer he can reapply in 2 yrs\u201d
— Keri Blakinger (@Keri Blakinger) 1663275007

In a letter announcing its decision, the board did not provide a reason for the change of heart. Floyd's family may reapply for a pardon in two years, the letter states.

Floyd infamously died while Minneapolis police were in the midst of arresting him in May 2020. His death sparked worldwide outrage and a series of riots, causing billions of dollars in damages. A jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd. He has been sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.

H/T: Just the News

Houston DA supports effort to posthumously pardon George Floyd for 2004 drug conviction



The Harris County District Attorney's Office in Texas is supporting an effort to posthumously pardon George Floyd for a conviction that was built on the lone word of a former Houston police officer who now faces felony murder charges and allegations of manufacturing evidence.

The news comes one week after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering Floyd last May.

What are the details?

Allison Mathis, a public defender who works in Harris County, filed the pardon request with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday.

Mathis said the request is not a reflection of the fact that Floyd turned his life around after leaving the criminal justice system for the last time in 2013, but because the arresting officer in one of Floyd's arrests "manufactured the existence of confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants," CNN reported.

Specifically, Mathis is seeking a pardon for a 2004 drug arrest in which the arresting officer, Gerald Goines, accused Floyd of dealing a small amount of crack cocaine. Floyd later plead guilty and served 10 months in jail.

More from CNN:

On February 5, 2004, Floyd was arrested and charged with delivery of a controlled substance with the arresting officer, Gerald Goines, alleging at the time of arrest that Floyd possessed crack cocaine "and that Floyd had provided the drugs to an unnamed 'second suspect' who had agreed to sell the drugs to the undercover Goines. The 'second suspect' was not arrested, Goines noted in his offense report, 'in a [sic] attempt to further the narcotic trafficing [sic] in this area.'"

"This is about honoring the memory of George Floyd, as well as about correcting the records of the State of Texas," Mathis told CNN. "We can't have confidence in the integrity of the convictions obtained by Officer Goines. George Floyd suffered at the hands of a corrupt and racist system throughout his life, not just at the end."

Goines was charged with two counts of felony murder last year after a botched drug raid resulted in the deaths of two people. Goines allegedly lied to obtain a "no-knock" search warrant. The incident triggered a review of 14,000 cases involving Goines and other officers who participated in the raid, KARE-TV reported. As many as 69 people may have been convicted falsely based on information Goines allegedly manufactured against them, according to KTRK-TV.

Prosecutors attempted to reach Floyd in 2019 about the investigation into Goines, but officials were unable to reach Floyd, who had since moved to Minnesota, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Mathis said Floyd deserves a pardon because he was a victim of corrupt police work.

"It is our contention that Goines did the same thing in George Floyd's case as he did in the cases of so many others: He made up the existence of a confidential informant who provided crucial evidence to underpin the arrest and no one bothered to question the word of a veteran cop against that of a previously-convicted Black man," Mathis said.

What did the DA say?

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said her office fully supports the petition to relieve Floyd of the 2004 conviction.

"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 said in a statement.

"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," she added.