A Texas board that unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston has withdrawn that recommendation over “procedural errors" after sending it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk, his office said on Thursday.
The unusual reversal announced by Abbott's office two days before Christmas — around the time he typically doles out pardons—drew outrage from a public defender who had submitted pardon application for Floyd, who spent much of his life in Houston before his death in 2020 in custody of a white Minneapolis police officer. Floyd's name was withdrawn along with two dozen other clemency recommendations that had been submitted by Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles. In a letter dated Dec. 16, the board told Abbott that it had identified “unexplained departures” from its process of issuing pardons and needed to reconsider some recommendations, including one for Floyd. “As a result of Board’s withdrawal of the recommendation concerning George Floyd, Governor Abbott did not have opportunity to consider it,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement.
Allison Mathis, a Houston public defender who submitted pardon application on behalf of Floyd, called last-minute reversal a “ridiculous farce.”“It really strains credibility for them to say now that it's out of compliance, after board has already voted on it,” she said. Floyd grew up and was laid to rest in Houston.
