Texas parole board denies posthumous pardon for George Floyd

The Texas parole board has formally denied George Floyd posthumous parole for a 2004 Houston drug conviction whose arresting officer is now under scrutiny.

“The members of the Texas board of pardons and paroles have reconsidered their initial decision concerning your client’s application for a full pardon and/or pardon for innocence,” the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles wrote in a letter Thursday to Floyd’s attorney in the matter, Allison Mathis.

“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 on 9/14/22,” the board’s letter said. “You client is eligible to reapply for a full pardon two years from the above date.”

A person reacts near Cup Foods in Minneapolis after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Morry Gash/)

Floyd was killed in May 2020 by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, with three other officers, all now fired, on hand. Nearly a year after Floyd’s death, Mathis applied for a posthumous pardon over a 2004 drug charge in Houston involving officer Gerald Goines, who today stands accused of fabricating informants, according to The Marshall Project, which was the first to report the board’s move on Thursday.

Goines had been accused of lying to get a warrant for a 2019 drug raid that resulted in the deaths of two innocent people, Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58. He faces two counts of felony murder, plus a slew of other federal and state charges. Numerous convictions tied to the disgraced former cop have been overturned.

Mathis applied for the pardon in April 2021. The board approved it in October that year, but then withdrew its recommendation in December, saying “procedural errors” had been found in Floyd’s case. In its letter Thursday, the board did not specify its reasons for denying the pardon.

Goines had arrested Floyd in a police sting for allegedly selling $10 worth of crack. He later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in a state jail.

“We supported George Floyd’s pardon because we do not have confidence in the integrity of his conviction,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We support clemency because it is appropriate.”

With News Wire Services