George Floyd recommended for posthumous pardon on drug conviction
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[October 05, 2021]
(Reuters) - The Texas State Board of
Pardons and Paroles voted on Monday to recommend George Floyd get a full
posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug conviction, the Harris County District
Attorney said.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in handcuffs with a white
Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes
during a 2020 arrest, became the face of a movement challenging police
brutality and bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.
The Texas board voted 7-0 to recommend the pardon, media reported,
adding that the recommendation would be passed on to the Texas governor,
Greg Abbott, for a final decision.
Floyd's conviction was related to a February 2004 case when a police
officer accused him of selling $10 worth of crack cocaine in a sting
operation in Texas when he lived there, the Associated Press report.
Floyd later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10
months in a state jail, the news agency said.
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"We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his
family finds comfort in Monday’s decision by the Texas State Board of
Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for a 2004 conviction," Harris
County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement Monday.
Ogg urged the state governor to follow the board’s recommendation and
grant clemency.
In April, an application for a posthumous pardon was
filed on behalf of Floyd and his surviving family on the grounds that
the arresting officer had manufactured the existence of confidential
informants to bolster his cases, media reported.
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![](../images/100521PIX/news_e9.jpg)
A view of the George Floyd mural at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue a
day before opening statements in the trial of former police officer
Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder charges in the death of George
Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., March 28, 2021. REUTERS/Octavio
Jones/File Photo
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The Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles and Abbott's office
were not immediately available for comment late on Monday night.
Floyd's death, which a passerby caught on video, stoked social
upheaval, racial tensions and political strife in the United States
and beyond.
In June, a judge sentenced a former Minneapolis police officer Derek
Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of
unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and
second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd.
The verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the
disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman, Robert Birsel)
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