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Were any prior convictions of George Floyd expunged, dismissed, or overturned before 2020?
Executive summary
Available reporting and public records summaries show George Floyd had multiple adult convictions in Texas between the late 1990s and 2009, but the sources in this packet do not identify any prior convictions that were expunged, dismissed, or overturned before 2020 (see overviews of his criminal history) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the record summaries say: multiple convictions, no mention of expungements
Contemporary profiles and compilations of George Floyd’s record report convictions for offenses including cocaine possession, theft and a 2009 aggravated robbery-related conviction for which he served prison time; these summaries recount a series of arrests and convictions in Harris County, Texas, spanning roughly 1997–2009 but do not report that any of those convictions were later vacated, expunged, or overturned before 2020 [1] [2] [4].
2. Independent fact‑checking and news organizations’ approach
Fact‑checking outlets and major news outlets examined and cautioned about exaggerations or distortions of Floyd’s past; PolitiFact noted social posts that overstated his criminal history, and Snopes provided context about arrests and convictions while warning against conflating past crimes with the circumstances of his death — none of these pieces, in the provided set, state that convictions were expunged prior to 2020 [5] [3].
3. What the documents in this bundle do not show — a substantive limitation
The assembled sources include secondary overviews and reporting summaries rather than direct court or clerk records; they repeatedly recount convictions but do not cite any court orders or record seals indicating dismissal, reversal, pardon, or expungement before 2020. Therefore, available sources do not mention any official clearing of those convictions prior to 2020 [1] [2] [3].
4. Why people have asked about expungements — the politics of backgrounding victims
Reporting shows debate about whether and how media should present a deceased person’s criminal past; some commentators argued background is irrelevant to police conduct, others argued it’s part of a fuller portrait. This debate fueled scrutiny and misinformation about the details of Floyd’s record, making questions about expungements part of a larger contest over narrative control after his death [3] [6].
5. Disputed or exaggerated claims in public posts
Social media and partisan actors circulated posts that amplified or invented violent offenses beyond what court summaries documented; PolitiFact and other outlets in this packet flagged exaggeration and distortion of Floyd’s record — again, those pieces do not say convictions were expunged, rather they counter inflated claims about what he was charged with or convicted of [5] [4].
6. What would be needed to settle the question definitively
To establish whether any conviction was legally expunged, overturned, or dismissed before 2020 requires primary court documents (dockets, expungement orders, pardons) from the relevant Texas courts or Harris County clerk records. The sources provided here summarize convictions but do not furnish those primary court documents or cite a record of expungement or reversal [1] [2].
7. Bottom line and guidance for further verification
Based on the sourced summaries in this packet, there is no reported evidence that George Floyd had prior convictions expunged, dismissed, or overturned before 2020; the materials repeatedly list convictions and note the absence of claims of legal vacatur in the cited overviews [1] [2] [3]. For a definitive legal answer, request Harris County and other Texas court dockets and expungement/pardon records directly from official court clerks or certified court databases; those primary documents are not included in the current reporting [1] [2].