Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger granted parole

The former Dallas police officer convicted of killing an unarmed Black man in a 2018 shooting in his apartment was granted parole Thursday, in a decision that civil rights attorneys called disappointing.

Amber Guyger, who was off-duty when she fatally shot Botham Jean, 26, is expected to be released to work that remains out of the public eye.

Jean’s killing attracted national attention and sparked protests. Dallas renamed part of South Lamar Street to Jean in 2021. That year, Texas lawmakers passed the Botham Jean Act, known as Bo’s Law, to require officers to keep their body cameras on while participating in an investigation.

Guyger, 38, served seven years in Gatesville’s Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit, a maximum-security prison about 40 miles west of Waco. It was not immediately clear when she would be released, a process that can take weeks or even months.

A spokesperson for the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole said Guyger’s request was granted after a review found that her record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she had maintained “satisfactory institutional adjustment” and that she had followed a treatment plan that “is expected to improve” her chances of obtaining – and maintaining – full-time employment. She had already been denied parole in 2024.

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented Jean’s family in court, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the parole board’s decision.

“Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole,” Merritt wrote in a statement. “They have stood up repeatedly to demand that the entire sentence be served. (…) Ms. Guyger’s release after seven years makes this loss even more minimal in the eyes of the system.”

The Jean family has asked for privacy.

Amber Guyger was granted parole: What you need to know about Botham Jean’s murder and the case

Guyger is “spiritually, physically and emotionally” ready to get out of prison and provide value to society, said attorney Robert Rogers, who represented Guyger at trial.

She has a job and housing in preparation for her release, Rogers said. The Dallas Morning News during a telephone interview Thursday. He did not share details out of concern for his safety.

Rogers has remained in touch with Guyger, visiting him as recently as last month. He said Guyger spent much of his time behind bars earning certifications, taking correspondence courses and strengthening his education and spiritual foundations.

“She is hopeful, optimistic and extremely remorseful,” he said. “It’s probably something she’ll always live with.”

On the night of September 6, 2018, Guyger mistook Jean’s apartment for his own.

She lived on the third floor of the South Side Flats building, not far from downtown, while Jean lived on the fourth. At her 2019 trial, Guyger testified that she fired her gun twice, believing Jean to be a burglar.

Jean, an accountant, was sitting on his couch, eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

“The Dallas Police Department understands that this decision may spark renewed attention and emotion surrounding the tragic death of Botham Jean,” police officials said in an emailed statement, adding that they had no role or authority in the decision to grant Guyger parole. “Our thoughts are with the Jean family and all those affected by his loss.”

Guyger was fired from the department weeks after the killing and jailed for manslaughter, but a grand jury later indicted her for murder. Guyger argued on appeal that her mistaken belief that she was in her own apartment negated her guilt for murder and that she had the right to use deadly force in self-defense.

Prosecutors asked the jury to sentence Guyger to no less than 28 years in prison, a symbolic decision since Jean would have been 28 at the time of the trial. She was instead sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After the sentencing phase concluded, Jean’s brother, Brandt Jean, then 18, forgave Guyger from the witness stand in a moving moment of grace. He didn’t want her to “rot and die” in prison, he said, and Botham would want her to strengthen her faith in God. Then he hugged her.

“I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing Botham would want for you,” he told him. “I love you as a person and I don’t wish you anything bad.”

Shortly afterward, Judge Tammy Kemp gave him a Bible.

According to Rogers, Guyger still wears it.

After several rejected appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court upheld Guyger’s conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case in 2022.

Guyger then became eligible for parole on September 29, 2024, halfway through her sentence and what would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday. It was denied after Jean’s family, the Dallas County district attorney’s office and more than 6,300 people who signed an online petition protested.

Later that year, a jury in a federal lawsuit filed by Jean’s family against Guyger and the city awarded Jean’s family a verdict of $98.65 million. The city was dismissed from the suit, which alleged that Guyger used excessive force and violated Jean’s constitutional rights, and that the police department’s poor policies led to her death.

“Amber Guyger is going to have to deal with this judgment that will be in front of her for the rest of her life,” Daryl Washington, the Jean family’s attorney for the trial, said in an interview Thursday. “She can’t escape this.”

Jean’s family said collecting the money from Guyger was not their main goal. They sued the city of Dallas in March, arguing in state court that the city’s employee liability plan required it to cover the judgment because Guyger was a city employee.

The trial remains ongoing.

“This city has refused to be held accountable for its actions,” Washington said. “And that’s the most daunting part.”

This article has been updated with responses from family and attorneys.

Staff writer Chase Rogers contributed to this report.