The arresting officer, Gerald Goines, said Floyd had given the drugs to an unnamed person, and Floyd ultimately pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 10 months in state jail. Mathis has requested the governor clear Floyd of a conviction stemming from a 2004 arrest after he was found to have less than half a gram of crack cocaine. “Is he planning to wait until the GOP primaries are over … when it’s safe?” asked Cory Session, vice president of the Innocence Project of Texas whose brother, Timothy Cole, is the only person in Texas to be posthumously pardoned.

Abbott did not comment on them when he signed them into law.Īs the Republican governor continues hardening on the right while facing conservative primary opponents in his reelection campaign, people advocating for Floyd’s pardon believe Abbott’s politics are behind the delay. Narrowly targeted pieces of the larger bill, like restrictions on chokeholds and requirements for officers to provide first aid, ultimately passed with widespread bipartisan support.

The state’s George Floyd Act, an omnibus proposal announced by the Texas Legislative Black Caucus without ties to the governor, failed early in the Legislature this year. Quickly, Abbott pivoted to defending law enforcement funding and “backing the blue” while quieting on potential changes to policing practices. Calls for widespread change to American policing included efforts to cut police budgets and shift law enforcement responsibilities to other government programs. Throughout the summer of 2020, however, Floyd’s murder continued to spur a new wave of protests nationwide against police brutality and racial injustice, and the Houstonian became a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement. He promised change and waved at a potential Texas George Floyd Act to prevent police brutality in the state. In the immediate aftermath, Abbott called Floyd’s killing senseless and reprehensible. Mathis said she has repeatedly called and emailed the governor’s office without response.įloyd, a Black man who grew up in Houston, was murdered in May 2020 by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck long after he lost consciousness. Abbott’s office did not respond to questions from The Texas Tribune about Floyd’s case or the delay.

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