Fort Worth activist pushes to posthumously pardon George Floyd for 2004 Texas drug conviction
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Harris County district attorney will apply to posthumously pardon George Floyd for a 2004 drug conviction in Texas.
One North Texas activist has been pushing to clear Floyd's name.
The Fort Worth native knows all too well the process of exoneration and achieving a posthumous pardon. He was asked to help in a Texas case that involved George Floyd.
Sixteen years before George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody, he served prison time in Texas for a 2004 drug possession case. The charge itself was later determined to be bogus.
Cory Session is the director of the Innocence Project. He was contacted in 2020 to assist Harris County elected officials with a posthumous pardon for Floyd’s Texas conviction.
"He served 10 months and then he was paroled out. That in itself is a miscarriage of justice," Session said. "Even in death, he is entitled to his good name back for the crime in 2004. The other crimes he may have been convicted of I know not, but I do know this one this wrong has to be righted."
The evidence that cleared Floyd was part of the fallout and investigation into the now-disgraced Houston police officer who arrested him.
Session says Harris County made one unsuccessful attempt in 2019 to notify Floyd that he served time based on a wrongful conviction.
"The Harris County DA’s office sent out a letter to his last known address in March 2019. It came back return to sender," he said. "However, that’s where they left it."
Session’s younger brother, Tim Cole of Fort Worth, was wrongfully convicted for the rape of a Texas Tech co-ed. He’s the only person to date who has received a posthumous pardon in Texas.
Session received an email on Sunday from Harris County officials regarding Floyd that said: "We are working on the pardon and anticipate filing it soon- within the next month."
George Floyd died after being arrested by Minneapolis police on Memorial Day in 2020.
Session has made it his life’s work through the Innocence Project to assist cases involving those wrongfully convicted. He says Floyd’s Texas case is no exception.
"There is absolutely no reason that George Floyd should not have been notified prior to his death that you were wrongfully convicted and charged," he said. "I don’t care about his trial is going on. I don’t care what the politics are saying. Justice delayed is justice denied."
Session says the Innocence Project will write letters supporting the posthumous pardon of Floyd in Texas which he hopes will be addressed by the state legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott.