When former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes last year, racists used their bad faith arguments and deflections to focus on Floyd’s previous 2004 drug conviction.
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Well, on Monday the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to recommend Floyd for a full posthumous pardon for that same conviction.
According to CNN, the application for the pardon was filled out back in April. Allison Mathis of the Harris County Public Defender’s Office said it was filed on behalf of Floyd and his family because the arresting officer, Gerald Goines, “manufactured the existence of confidential informants to bolster his cases against innocent defendants.”
From CNN:
Goines arrested Floyd on February 5, 2004, alleging at the time 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.”
The officer accused Floyd, who used to live in Texas, of selling $10 worth of crack cocaine, according to Reuters. The news site reports that Floyd pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months in a state jail.
“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 on Monday according to Reuters. The final decision to grant clemency lies with Gov. Greg Abbott.
It’s rather amazing (or depressing) that what racists used to deflect from the fact that Floyd should not have died at the hands of an officer, is just another instance of a bad apple abusing their power at Floyd’s expense.
I think we could all agree, George Floyd should not have died in 2020.
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