Amber Guyger, the former white Dallas police officer convicted of killing a Black man after mistakenly entering his apartment, was granted parole Thursday after serving seven years of her 10-year sentence.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, whose members are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, denied Guyger’s first parole request in 2024. The board approved her release this time despite objections from the victim’s family, making her eligible for parole for the first time.
Guyger was convicted of murder in the 2018 shooting of Botham Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia. Jean was eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his apartment and shot him.
The case attracted national attention because of its unusual circumstances and its place in a broader series of shootings involving Black men and white police officers. Guyger’s sentencing hearing also featured a remarkable courtroom moment, when Jean’s brother and the Black judge presiding over the case embraced the sobbing former officer.
At her murder trial, Guyger testified that she had just finished a long shift and was still wearing her uniform when she approached Jean’s apartment. His unit was on the fourth floor, directly above her third-floor apartment, and its door was unlocked. Guyger said she believed she was entering her own home and mistook Jean for an intruder before drawing her service weapon and firing.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said Jean’s family “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 smaller,” Merritt said.
In 2024, a jury awarded Jean’s family nearly $100 million in a federal civil trial.
The parole board said it considered a “plethora” of information before approving Guyger’s release.
According to the board, Guyger’s record contains no documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions. Officials also said she had participated in and completed programs included in her prison treatment plan, including preparation to find and retain employment after release. The board said she had “maintained a satisfactory institutional adjustment.”
The Texas prison system will determine when Guyger is released. Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
