The Texas State Board of Pardons and Exemption voted on Monday to recommend George Floyd obtain a full posthumous pardon for his 2004 drug conviction, 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 more than nine minutes during his 2020 arrest, became the face of a movement to challenge police brutality and bias in the US criminal justice system. .
The Texas Council voted 7-0 to recommend a pardon, media reported, adding that the recommendation would be passed on to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, for a final decision.
Floyd’s sentence relates to a February 2004 case in which a police officer accused him of selling $10 worth of crack cocaine in an ambush operation in Texas while he was living there, the Associated Press reported.
Floyd later pleaded guilty to drug charges and was sentenced to 10 months in a state prison, the news agency said.
“We regret the loss of former Houston resident George Floyd and hope his family finds comfort in Monday’s decision by the Texas State Pardons and Parole Board to recommend clemency for the 2004 sentence,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement https://www. harriscountyda.com/statement-district-attorney-kim-ogg-clemency-george-floyd Monday.
Ogg urged state governors to follow the council’s recommendations 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 made the presence of a classified informant to support his case, media reported.
The Texas State Pardons and Parole Board and Abbott’s office were not immediately available for comment Monday evening.
Floyd’s death, which was captured by a passerby on video, sparked social upheaval, racial tensions, and political strife in the United States and beyond.
In June, a judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of involuntary second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree murder in Floyd’s death.
The ruling is widely seen as a key rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against black Americans.
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