AUSTIN — After almost a year of racial reckoning sparked by the killing of a Black man more than 1,000 miles away, Texas lawmakers on Thursday began considering the most substantial criminal justice overhaul legislation proposed here in years.
“I’m an African American mother, and there’s not a night that I don’t go to bed hoping that my sons haven’t been killed because of their ethnicity and some bias that police have toward African Americans,” the 82-year-old legislator said Wednesday.
The act would make broad changes to interactions between the public and law enforcement officials. It would require officers to intervene when another officer is using excessive force, prohibit the use of chokeholds, and limit the use of lethal force while emphasizing de-escalation and the sanctity of human life. It also would allow people to file state lawsuits for deprivation of rights, with officers not shielded by qualified immunity.
Arrests would no longer be allowed for fine-only Class C misdemeanors. More than 41,700 such arrests were made last year, according to an evaluation of state data by Scott Henson, a criminal justice advocate who has worked on these issues for decades. This specific change, which Thompson has long pushed, was stripped from the last piece of meaningful criminal justice legislation that Texas lawmakers adopted, in 2017.
“It’s such a groundswell of support and attention that people have continued to give to this issue because of the grotesque scene that lingers in your mind when you see that man’s knee on the neck of George Floyd,” said Thompson, now in her 25th session. “It’s something that you just can’t let go of. The people want something to be different.”
Texas has had its own high-profile cases in which law enforcement officials have been accused of using excessive force after a person of color has died. In 2017, high school freshman Jordan Edwards was fatally shot while he was a passenger in a car leaving a party; the officer involved was convicted of murder. The following year, accountant Botham Jean was killed in his apartment by an officer who said she had mistaken the front door for her own and feared that Jean was an intruder. She, too, is serving time for murder.
And less than two weeks ago in a suburb north of Dallas, Marvin Scott III died after being arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession and taken to the Collin County jail. According to a custodial death report filed by the sheriff’s office, Scott “became noncompliant with detention staff’s directives.” Staff members then tried to place him on a restraint bed, the report states, “and Scott became unresponsive during the restraint.”
A lawyer working with Scott’s family has said the 26-year-old was taken to the jail after suffering a mental health episode related to his schizophrenia. There, attorney Lee Merritt said, Scott was pepper-sprayed, knelt on by officers and placed in a spit hood. County officials have not released many details about the death but have publicly confirmed several of Merritt’s claims.
Ever since, protesters have gathered nightly at the jail and called for the arrest of the seven officers involved. On Thursday morning, about 50 people rallied outside the Texas Capitol in Austin and heard from relatives of people who died in the custody of law enforcement.
“My brother was a really good guy,” said Angel Gonzales, whose 27-year-old brother, Alex Gonzales, was fatally shot by an off-duty Austin officer in January. “They keep doing this to all people of all colors. You can’t just kill someone and get away with it, which is what he did.”
Still, it’s the Floyd case — with the trial of the officer charged in his death set for opening arguments Monday — that advocates hope will resonate most. The first hearing on the act bearing his name got underway Thursday afternoon, with more than 100 people signed up to testify.
“Most of what’s in the George Floyd Act is actually crafted around specific aspects of his life and the things that happened either in the instance that killed him or in Houston,” Henson said. “That bill tells a story, in a way, and each of the components are in themselves important reforms.”
Other notable laws passed in recent years increased compensation for people who are wrongfully convicted of a crime and required prosecutors to open their files to defendants and keep records of evidence disclosed.
In 2017, the Sandra Bland Act aimed to divert people with mental health or substance abuse issues away from jails such as the Waller County facility where the 28-year-old woman the act is named for hanged herself — a death that drew international attention. She had been incarcerated three days earlier after being pulled over for a traffic violation, and the bill sought to outlaw arrests for such stops. That language was quashed by strong pushback from law enforcement unions.
Thompson expects a similar fight this year. The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas has the package on a list of measures it opposes, and the executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association said Thursday that its passage would make recruiting more difficult for local agencies.
Should officers not be protected by qualified immunity in state lawsuits, TMPA executive director Kevin Lawrence warned, “things would get exponentially worse.”
“Our law enforcement officers are not the demons that some people make them out to be,” he said. “Our law enforcement officers are good, decent human beings — but they are human beings, and they are not perfect.”
Yet most people who testified were in favor of the bill, and Thompson is hopeful it can bring Democrats, Republicans and independents together. Other initiatives may be debated — a separate measure, the Mike Ramos Act, is named for an unarmed man fatally shot by an Austin police officer in April — but the George Floyd Act has garnered the greatest support. Dozens of nonprofit organizations are backing it.
Because lawmakers meet only every other year, this will be their key opportunity to respond. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not commented publicly on the proposal.
The hours-long hearing Thursday was punctuated by tension and emotion. Several witnesses spoke from personal pain, including Travis Cains.
“I didn’t see my little brother die, I saw my little brother get murdered,” he said. “We’re asking you, let’s ease up a little bit. Let’s put the right people behind the badge.”

