UNITED STATES: Amber Guyger Granted Parole After Serving 7 Years For Murder Of Botham Jean
In September 2018, former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger returned to her apartment complex after work and went to the wrong floor. She entered the apartment of her upstairs neighbor, 26-year-old Botham Jean, an unarmed Black man from St. Lucia who was sitting in his own home watching television and eating ice cream.
Guyger said she mistakenly believed Jean’s apartment was her own and thought he was an intruder. She drew her service weapon and shot him in the chest, killing him. A Dallas jury rejected her defence and convicted her of murder in October 2019. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, despite prosecutors asking the jury for 28 years.
Guyger first became eligible for parole in 2024, but her request was denied following strong opposition from Jean’s family. In 2024, a separate federal civil jury also found Guyger liable for Jean’s death and ordered her to pay his family nearly $100 million in damages.
Now, on October 1st, 2026, exactly seven years after her murder conviction, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles GRANTED Guyger parole after she served approximately seven years of her 10-year sentence.
The board cited her lack of a documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions, satisfactory behaviour while incarcerated and completion of prison programs intended to help her maintain employment after release. Botham Jean’s family strongly opposed the decision.