Ex-Dallas Officer Amber Guyger Granted Parole
Amber Guyger, convicted of murdering her neighbor Botham Jean, will be released after serving seven years of a ten-year sentence.
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger has been granted parole, officials announced Thursday. Guyger was convicted of murder in the 2018 shooting death of her neighbor, Botham Jean, and was serving a 10-year sentence. She will be released after serving seven years.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved Guyger's parole request, having previously rejected it in 2024. The decision faced objections from Jean's family, who had urged that Guyger serve the full sentence.
Guyger, 38, entered Jean's apartment in September 2018, mistaking it for her own. She testified that she believed Jean was an intruder when she entered his apartment and fired her service weapon. Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia, was eating ice cream at the time of the incident. Guyger was fired from the Dallas Police Department before her murder trial.
Prosecutors had initially sought a 28-year sentence for Guyger, who faced a potential penalty ranging from two years to life in prison. The unusual circumstances of the case, including a courtroom embrace between Jean's brother and Guyger, drew significant public attention.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, representing the Jean family, stated that the family "strongly opposed this parole." He added, "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."
In 2024, a federal civil trial jury ordered Guyger to pay Jean's family nearly $100 million.
The parole board cited a review of "a plethora" of information in Guyger's case, noting her prison record did not contain documented patterns of violent arrests or convictions. The board also indicated she had completed programs aimed at job readiness upon release.
The exact date of Guyger's release will be determined by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department stated the department had no role in the parole decision but acknowledged the case's emotional impact, extending thoughts to the Jean family.