Amber Guyger prepares to take the witness stand during her 2021 murder trial for killing Botham Jean.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
The former Dallas police officer convicted of killing an unarmed Black man in a 2018 shooting inside his apartment was granted parole on Thursday, in a decision civil rights attorneys called disappointing.
Amber Guyger, who was off duty when she shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean, is expected to be released to a job that is out of the public eye
Jean’s killing drew national attention and sparked protests. Dallas renamed part of South Lamar Street for Jean in 2021. That year, Texas lawmakers passed the Botham Jean Act, known as Bo’s Law, to require officers to keep their body cameras on for the entirety of their participation in an investigation.
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A photo of Botham Jean leaned against Judge Tammy Kemp’s bench during Amber Guyger’s murder trial.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
Guyger, 38, has served seven years in the Patrick L. O’Daniel unit in Gatesville, a maximum-security prison about 40 miles west of Waco. It was not immediately clear Thursday when she would be released, a process that can take anywhere from weeks to months.
A spokesperson for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said Guyger’s request was granted after a review found her record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she maintained a “satisfactory institutional adjustment” and that she completed a treatment plan that “should enhance” her chances of obtaining — and keeping — a full-time job. She was previously denied parole in 2024.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented Jean’s family in court, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the parole board’s decision.
“Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole,” Merritt wrote in a statement. “They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served. …Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system.”
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The Jean family has asked for privacy.
Amber Guyger granted parole: What to know about Botham Jean’s killing and the case
Guyger is “spiritually, physically and emotionally” prepared to get out of prison and offer value to society, said attorney Robert Rogers, who represented Guyger at trial.
She has a job and housing lined up for her release, Rogers told The Dallas Morning News in a phone interview Thursday. He didn’t share details out of concern for her safety.
Rogers has stayed in touch with Guyger, visiting her as recently as last month. He said Guyger has spent much of her time behind bars earning certifications, taking correspondence courses and strengthening her education and spiritual foundations.
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“She’s hopeful, optimistic, tremendously remorseful,” he said. “That’s probably something she’ll always live with.”
Renewed attention, emotion
On the night of Sept. 6, 2018, Guyger mistook Jean’s apartment for her own.
She lived on the third floor of the South Side Flats building not far from downtown, while Jean lived on the fourth. At her 2019 trial, Guyger testified she fired her gun twice, believing Jean was a burglar.
Jean, an accountant, was sitting on his couch, eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
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“The Dallas Police Department understands this decision may bring renewed attention and emotion surrounding the tragic death of Botham Jean,” police officials said in an emailed statement, adding they had no role or authority in the decision to grant Guyger parole. “Our thoughts remain with the Jean family and all those impacted by his loss.”
Guyger was fired from the department a few weeks after the killing and jailed on a manslaughter charge, but a grand jury later indicted her for murder. Guyger argued in appeals that her mistaken belief she was in her own apartment negated her culpability for murder and that she had the right to use deadly force in self-defense.
Prosecutors asked the jury to sentence Guyger to no less than 28 years in prison, a symbolic move as Jean would have turned 28 about the time of the trial. She was instead sentenced to 10 years.
Brandt Jean, center, brother of Botham Jean, fights back tears as he attends a news conference outside the Frank Crowley Courts Building about the shooting of Botham Jean by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger.. He was joined by his mother, Allison Jean and attorney Benjamin Crump.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
When the sentencing phase was over, Jean’s brother Brandt Jean, then 18, forgave Guyger from the witness stand in an emotional moment of grace. He did not want her to “rot and die” in prison, he said, and Botham would want her to strengthen her faith in God. Then he hugged her.
“I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want for you,” he told her. “I love you as a person, and I don’t wish anything bad on you.”
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Shortly after, State District Judge Tammy Kemp gave her a Bible.
According to Rogers, Guyger still carries it.
Guyger to pay in damages
After multiple failed appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court upheld Guyger’s conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review her case in 2022.
Guyger then became eligible for parole on Sept. 29, 2024, halfway through her sentence and what would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday. She was denied after Jean’s family, the Dallas County district attorney’s office and more than 6,300 people who signed an online petition protested.
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Allison Jean takes a photo of the Botham Jean Boulevard sign in 2021. Botham Jean lived on this portion of the street formerly known as South Lamar Street. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)
Juan Figueroa/Dallas Morning News
Later that year, a jury in a federal lawsuit filed by Jean’s family against Guyger and the city awarded Jean’s family a $98.65 million verdict. The city was dismissed from the suit, which alleged Guyger used excessive force and violated Jean’s constitutional rights, and that poor police department policies led to his death.
“Amber Guyger is going to have to deal with that judgment that’s before her for the rest of her life,” Daryl Washington, the Jean family’s attorney for the suit, said Thursday in an interview. “She cannot run away from that.”
Jean’s family has said collecting the money from Guyger is not their primary focus. They sued the city of Dallas in March, arguing before a state court that the city’s employee liability plan requires it to cover the judgment because Guyger was a city employee.
The lawsuit remains pending.
“This city has refused to be held accountable for their actions,” Washington said. “And that is the part that is most disheartening.”
This article has been updated throughout with family and attorney responses.
Staff writer Chase Rogers contributed to this report.