TEXAS GOVERNOR’S DECISION: PARDON GEORGE FLOYD?

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Doling out pardons is a holiday tradition for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who around every Christmas grants them to a handful of ordinary citizens, typically for minor offenses committed years or decades ago. But one name stands out on his desk: George Floyd.

Abbott has not said whether he will posthumously pardon Floyd this year for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston by a former officer whose police work is no longer trusted by prosecutors.

Texas’ parole board – stacked with Abbott appointees – unanimously recommended a pardon for Floyd in October. Since then, the two-term Republican governor, who is up for reelection in 2022, has given no indication of whether he will grant what would be only the second posthumous pardon in Texas history.

Floyd, who was Black, spent much of his life in Houston before moving to Minnesota, where his death under the knee of a white police officer last year led to a U.S. reckoning on race and policing. “It doesn’t matter who you think George Floyd was, or what you think he stood for or didn’t stand for,” said Allison Mathis, a public defender in Houston who submitted Floyd’s pardon application. “What matters is he didn’t do this. It’s important for the governor to correct the record to show he didn’t do this.”

In February 2004, Floyd was arrested in Houston for selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting. He pleaded guilty to a drug charge and served 10 months in prison.

Abbott attended Floyd’s memorial service last year in Houston, where he met with the family and floated the idea of a “George Floyd Act” that would take aim at police brutality. But Abbott never publicly supported such a measure months later when lawmakers returned to the Capitol, where Republicans instead made police funding a priority.

POTTER JURY IN WRIGHT DEATH RETURNS TUESDAY

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A jury will resume deliberations Tuesday in the trial of a suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright.

The jury met for about five hours Monday following closing arguments in which prosecutors accused Kim Potter of a “blunder of epic proportions” in Wright’s death in an April 11 traffic stop – but said a mistake was no defense.

Potter’s attorneys countered that Wright, who was attempting to get away from officers as they sought to handcuff him for an outstanding warrant on a weapons charge, “caused the whole incident.”

Potter, who is white, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. If convicted of the most serious charge, Potter, 49, would face a sentence of about seven years under state guidelines, though prosecutors have said they will seek more.

The mostly white jury got the case after about a week and a half of testimony about an arrest that went awry, setting off angry protests in Brooklyn Center just as nearby Minneapolis was on edge over Derek Chauvin’s trial in George Floyd’s death. Potter resigned two days after Wright’s death.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge called Wright’s death “entirely preventable. Totally avoidable.” She urged the jury not to excuse it as a mistake: “Accidents can still be crimes if they occur as a result of reckless or culpable negligence.”

“She drew a deadly weapon,” Eldridge said. “She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wright’s chest, and she fired.” Potter testified Friday that she “didn’t want to hurt anybody” and that she was “sorry it happened.”

Eldridge said the case wasn’t about whether Potter was sorry.

“Of course she feels bad about what she did. . But that has no place in your deliberations,” she said.

CHRISTIAN OFFICIALS ACCUSE ISRAEL OF HOLIDAY DISCRIMINATION

JERUSALEM (AP) – A spokesman for Christian churches in the Holy Land on Wednesday accused Israel of discriminating against Christian tourists during the normally busy Christmas holiday season.

Israel last month closed its borders to foreign tourists in response to the outbreak of the omicron coronavirus variant.

But this week, Israeli officials decided to make an exception for “Birthright,” a popular program that provides free trips to Israel to young Jews from around the world. Groups from the United States are expected to arrive next week, with participants all fully vaccinated and remaining in small “capsules.”

For now, restrictions remain in effect for other foreign tourists, including Christian pilgrims who traditionally have flocked to sites like Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, the biblical town in the occupied West Bank revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus.

An official with the Catholic Church said church officials were shocked and angry by the Israeli decision. He said the church, along with other denominations, have appealed to Israel’s Tourism Ministry to allow Christian pilgrims to come for the holiday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Israel’s Interior Ministry, which oversees entrance policies at the country’s borders, said the policy remains not to allow foreigners into Israel.

But it said a number of exceptions have been made, including a “specific” decision for the Birthright program. It said officials would be discussing the possibility of other exceptions in the near future, but gave no further details.

The travel ban has crushed the tourism industry in Israel, and officials in Bethlehem, whose economy relies heavily on Christmas visitors, say the restrictions have ruined the holiday season for a second straight year. The West Bank does not have its own airport and most foreign visitors enter from Israel.

REPORT: “MAJOR FAILURE” IN FIRST SMOLLETT CASE 

CHICAGO (AP) The initial handling of allegations that former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett had staged a fake attack in Chicago represented a “major failure of operations” by the local prosecutor’s office, according to a lawyer who was appointed to review the case.

The 68-page report released Monday detailed multiple instances of false statements by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and others in her office in 2019, when they first prosecuted Smollett before abruptly dropping the charges weeks later.

Some of her office’s actions may be violations of legal ethics, special prosecutor Dan Webb concluded, though he found nothing criminal.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, was recently convicted of lying to police in January 2019 about what he said was a racist, homophobic attack. Webb, who took over the case, said Smollett staged the attack to get publicity. Smollett is expected to be sentenced in 2022. Smollett has maintained his innocence, and his attorney said they will appeal the conviction.

Judge Michael Toobin, who appointed Webb as special prosecutor, said the full report should be made public now that Smollett’s trial is complete.

ABRAMS SEEKS VOTING RIGHTS ACTION BEFORE ’22 RACE 

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) – Stacey Abrams, who built her national reputation by advocating for voting rights, is calling on Congress to take action on federal voting rules as the Democrat launches a second bid to become Georgia’s governor.

Senators including Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, Abrams’ close ally, have been arguing in recent days that the Senate must try again on federal voting standards, despite earlier setbacks.

In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Abrams said senators need to override Republican opposition to new federal voting guarantees by weakening the legislation-blocking filibuster to allow the Democrats’ bare majority to pass new rules. Otherwise, Abrams said, more Republican-dominated state legislatures nationwide will adopt voting restrictions like Georgia did this year.

“Starting in January, when legislators come back into session in 2022, we’re going to see a maelstrom of voter suppression laws. I understand the resistance to completely dismantling the filibuster. But I do believe there’s a way to restore the Senate to a working body so that things like defending democracy can actually take place.” Abrams lost narrowly to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 after becoming the first Black woman to ever become a major party’s nominee for governor. She maintains that Kemp used his position as secretary of state to unfairly tip the scales in his favor by doing things like purging voters from the rolls.

Abrams insists she can still win election in Georgia next year even if there are no changes to its new law.

“I will do everything in my power to make certain that these new onerous voter suppression laws do not effectively block voters from their right to vote,” she said.

“And so yes, there’s absolutely a pathway to win.”