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Amber Guyger prepares to take the witness stand during her 2021 murder trial for killing\u00a0Botham Jean.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The former Dallas police officer convicted of killing an unarmed Black man in a 2018 shooting<\/a> inside his apartment was granted parole on Thursday, in a decision civil rights attorneys called disappointing.<\/p>\n Amber\u00a0Guyger, 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<\/p>\n Jean\u2019s killing drew national attention and sparked protests. Dallas renamed part of South Lamar Street<\/a> for Jean in 2021. That year, Texas lawmakers passed the Botham Jean Act, known as Bo\u2019s Law<\/a>, to require officers to keep their body cameras on for the entirety of their participation in an investigation.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A photo of Botham Jean leaned against Judge Tammy Kemp’s bench during Amber Guyger’s murder trial.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said\u00a0Guyger\u2019s request was granted after a review found her record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she maintained a \u201csatisfactory institutional adjustment\u201d and that she completed a treatment plan that \u201cshould enhance\u201d her chances of obtaining \u2014 and keeping \u2014 a full-time job. She was previously denied parole in 2024.<\/p>\n Civil rights attorney Lee\u00a0Merritt, who represented Jean\u2019s family in court<\/a>, said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the parole board\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBotham\u2019s family and the community strongly opposed this parole,\u201d Merritt wrote in a statement. \u201cThey 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Jean family has asked for privacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amber Guyger granted parole: What to know about Botham Jean’s killing and the case<\/a><\/p>\n Guyger is \u201cspiritually, physically and emotionally\u201d prepared to get out of prison and offer value to society, said attorney Robert Rogers, who represented Guyger at trial.<\/p>\n She\u00a0has 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s hopeful, optimistic, tremendously remorseful,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably something she\u2019ll always live with.\u201d<\/p>\n Renewed attention, emotion<\/p>\n On the night of Sept. 6, 2018,\u00a0Guyger mistook Jean\u2019s apartment for her own.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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,\u00a0Guyger testified she fired her gun twice, believing Jean was a burglar.<\/p>\n Jean, an accountant, was sitting on his couch, eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dallas Police Department understands this decision may bring renewed attention and emotion surrounding the tragic death of\u00a0Botham Jean,\u201d police officials said in an emailed statement, adding they had no role or authority in the decision to grant Guyger parole. \u201cOur thoughts remain with the Jean family and all those impacted by his loss.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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