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A Texas board declined to grant George Floyd a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug conviction, reversing its initial unanimous reccomendation, CNN reports.
News of the decision comes after the entire Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted in favor last year of sending a recommedation to the governor to pardon Floyd,who was killed by a former Minneapolis police officer over two years ago.
Before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could hand down the final decision of Floyd's pardon, the board withdrew its recommendaton in December.
A letter informing Floyd’s attorney, Allison Mathis, of the decision was made public on Thursday (September 15), but the document didn't provide a reason behind the about-face.
“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,” the letter states.
According to the letter, Floyd's family, who initially sought the posthumous pardon in April 2021, may reapply in two years.
A Houston native, Floyd, 46, was laid to rest in the city after former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes during an arrest in May 2020.
The 46-year-old was previously arrested in 2004 by former Houston police officer Gerald Goines for allegedly posessing and selling crack cocaine. Floyd later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentence 10 months in prison, per the HuffPost.
However, Goines is now facing two counts of felony murder his connection to a 2019 deadly drug raid that left Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, dead.
Prosecutors allege the former officer lied to obtain a warrant to search their home and have accused Goines of falsifying information in other drug cases.
Mathis citied in the initial application for Floyd's posthumous pardon that his arresting officer “manufactured the existence of confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants.”
Yet, an attorney for Goines told CNN at the time, “We stand by the original case. We certainly sympathize with Mr. Floyd’s cause, but that doesn’t change the fact that his former conviction was a legitimate one.”
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