What is the price for killing an innocent Black man eating ice cream in his own home?
Apparently, in Texas, it’s seven years.
Former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger –– the woman who was found guilty of killing Botham Jean in 2018 –– has been paroled from prison after serving just 7 years of her sentence. NBC DFW reports there is no timeline for when Guyger will be released.
For those who don’t remember, Botham Jean was in his own apartment when Guyger, who had just gotten off work and was still in her police uniform, returned to her apartment complex in the South Side Flats. The apartment complex is just two blocks from the Dallas Police headquarters where she worked. The street where the headquarters sits is now named after Jean.
Guyer lived on the floor below Jean, yet for some reason she got off on his floor. She would testify during her trial that she believed she was on her floor and thought that Jean had broken into her apartment. Despite Jean’s apartment having a completely different aesthetic than hers, and his level of comfortability inside what she believed was her place, Guyer didn’t check the door number or ask Jean why he was in his own place eating ice cream. Guyer took out her service revolver and fired.
“Jean’s family attorneys asked jurors to find the former officer liable for using excessive force and agree that she was acting under state law as a police officer,” NBC DFW reports.
Guyer was given 10 years in prison. Guyer served her time in Gatesville prison and was up for parole in 2024, but was ultimately denied after Jean’s family, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, and more than 6,300 people who signed an online petition protested her parole.
Civil Rights attorney Lee Merritt noted that Botham Jean should “…still be here” in a statement issued to NewsOne.
We are deeply disappointed by the decision to grant parole to Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering Botham Jean.
Botham Jean was in his own home, eating ice cream, when his life was taken. He did nothing wrong. He was a son, a brother, a friend, and a man of faith who served his church and his community. He should still be here.
Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole. They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served. 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.
The family still lives with this loss every day. Botham does not get to come home. His family does not get the years they should have had with him. No parole decision can return what was taken from them.
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 it 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.
A civil trial jury found Guyer liable for Jean’s death and ordered her to pay $98.6M in damages to Jean’s family.
And that may be the most damning part of all: Botham Jean was sentenced to a lifetime he never got to live, while the woman who killed him gets to walk out after seven years.
