By Melanie Eversley

The seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is recommending unanimously that the late George Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug arrest by a now-disgraced former Houston police officer. Gov. Greg Abbott must approve it.

Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25, 2020, after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin fatally kneeled on his neck. Floyd grew up in Houston before moving to Minneapolis.

In 2004, former Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines accused Floyd of selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting, the Associated Press reported. Floyd pleaded guilty and served 10 months in jail.

Now, Goines’ cases are under heavy scrutiny after a botched 2019 drug raid that led to two deaths. Goines faces murder charges. 

Allison Mathis, an assistant public defender with Harris County, Texas, requested the pardon, saying Floyd, “ … was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice.”