A former Dallas cop is going to be spending the next decade in prison for murder. Jurors debated around 90-minutes before deciding Amber Guyger's punishment for killing Botham Jean last fall.
As we told you before, Guyger was off duty but in uniform at the time of the killing. She says she went to Jean's apartment thinking it was her own and mistook him for an intruder. She was convicted of murder.
But when Judge Tammy Kemp conferred the sentence for Amber Guyger, no one could have imagined the incredible gesture that came via Brandt Jean, the brother of Guyger’s victim. Brandt told Guyger he wanted her to give her life to God – and that he forgives her. He then went over and hugged her...and tears could be heard in the courtroom at the time while they embraced. Prosecutors had asked for 28 years – as that’s the age he would have turned this past Sunday.
While Jean's family – including his mother, Allison, say they accept the sentence – they’re also demanding police reform in North Texas. Ms. Jean told reporters she believes Dallas police need to be better trained and called for an investigation into the improprieties the trial revealed during the course of the inquiry into the shooting.
While there has been forgiveness, there is also a call to justice. Protestors took to the streets last night in decrying the sentence and calling for a "movement for justice.” And while Botham’s family says they’ve forgiven Guyger, they don’t want anyone to misinterpret that as saying there should no accountability – for Guyger or the Dallas Police Department. “That 10 years in prison is for her reflection and for her to change her life,” Ms. Jean offered. “But there is much more to be done by the city of Dallas.”
Source: Dallas Morning News