Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger becomes emotional on the stand as the defense begins their case in her murder trial in the 204th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas on Sept. 27, 2019. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed 26-year-old neighbor, in his own apartment. She told police she thought his apartment was her own and that he was an intruder.
Tom Fox
Dallas Morning News/TNS
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who was convicted of murder in the 2018 shooting of a 26-year-old man in his apartment, has been granted parole after serving seven years in prison.
Guyger was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for killing Botham Jean, a Black man she said she mistook for an intruder and shot him in his own apartment. Guyger lived in the same building and testified that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved Guyger’s parole, saying that her records did not include a documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions, she had maintained a satisfactory institutional adjustment, and she completed programs and activities in the individual treatment plan aimed at enhancing her chances of obtaining and maintaining full-time stable employment, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV reported.
Guyger had previously applied for parole after serving five years in October 2024, which was denied, according to online records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Guyger’s attorney, Robert Rogers, told WFAA that she plans to work and be a productive member of society after her release from prison.
“While in prison, she’s constantly been trying to improve herself as much as you can in that setting,” Rogers said. “She’s been remorseful. She’s stayed remorseful. She’s still remorseful.”
‘Justice cannot be selective’
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt expressed disappointment after Guyger’s parole announcement, according to a news release sent on Thursday.
Jean, “a son, a brother, a friend, and a man of faith” was eating ice cream in his home when his life was taken, Merritt said.
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Botham Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, speaks to the jury about her son during sentencing testimony on Oct. 1, 2019, after former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was found guilty of Jean’s murder. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed 26-year-old neighbor in his own apartment. Tom Fox The Dallas Morning News/TNS
“Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole. They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served,” Merritt said. “A 10-year sentence was already a fraction of what was lost. Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system. It is not smaller.”
No parole decision can return what was taken from the Jean family, Merritt said.
“Justice cannot be selective. When a life is taken without cause, accountability has to mean something, for everyone. Today’s decision tells grieving families that accountability can be cut short. We stand with the Jean family. We will keep saying Botham’s name, and we will keep working for a justice system that values every life it is asked to protect,” Merritt said.
This story was originally published October 1, 2026 at 11:43 AM.
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Shambhavi covers crime, law enforcement and other breaking news in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. She graduated from the University of North Texas and previously covered a variety of general assignment topics in West Texas. She grew up in Nepal.