HOUSTON – KPRC 2 Investigates has learned an attorney for the Harris County Public Defender’s office has filed an application requesting that clemency be granted for George Floyd for a 2004 drug conviction in Houston.
The application states it was filed on behalf of Floyd, now deceased, and on behalf of his surviving family.
On February 5, 2004, Floyd was arrested in Houston and charged with the delivery of a controlled substance. The arresting officer was Gerald Goines. Floyd was sentenced to time in jail.
This is the same officer Goines who was criminally charged in 2019 accused of lying to obtain a “no-knock” search warrant for a southeast Houston home. Two homeowners were shot and killed during the raid, and five police officers were injured.
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According to the 250-page clemency application, attorney Allison Mathis wrote, “This pardon application does not seek to redress...as much as one might feel that George Floyd was treated unfairly...”
Mathis added,” Now, in light of what we know Gerald Goines has done and in light of Floyd’s death, this application seeks some small measure of justice. ... More than 15 years later, both of these men have come into the spotlight on opposite sides of the same issue: the vast unfairness of the United States’ criminal justice system, and specifically, the grotesque abuses of power by police officers.”
The Harris County District Attorney has since agreed to review cases connected to Goines, including Floyd’s case from 2004.
Statement from District Attorney Kim Ogg’s Office:
“As part of our ongoing investigation of police corruption exposed by the Harding Street killings, we looked into posthumous relief for a 2004 drug conviction that ensnared George Floyd in the criminal justice system so long ago,” Ogg said via a statement to KPRC 2. “Prosecutors determined in 2019 that Floyd had been convicted on the lone word of Gerald Goines, a police officer we could no longer trust; we fully support a request that the Governor now pardon George Floyd from that drug conviction.”