On Thursday, a Texas appeals court upheld a former Dallas police officer’s murder conviction and sentenced her to jail for murdering her neighbor in his home.
In the 2018 killing of Botham Jean, a panel of three state justices found that a Dallas County jury had enough evidence to convict Amber Guyger of murder.
Guyger will continue to serve her 10-year jail sentence due to the ruling by the 5th Texas Court of Appeals in Dallas, effectively ending her hopes of having her 2019 conviction overturned. Under her present sentence, she will be eligible for parole in 2024.
The decision comes in a case that gained national attention due to the unusual circumstances and the fact that it was one in a series of shootings of Black men by white cops.
The appeals court justices did not disagree with the case’s essential facts. Guyger mistook Jean’s flat for her own, which was on the floor just below his. She entered and shot him because the door was ajar, later testifying that she thought he was a burglar.
Her position with the Dallas Police Department was subsequently terminated.
Guyger’s appeal rested on the assertion that she mistook Jean’s flat for her own and that, as a result, the shooting was reasonable. A criminally negligent homicide conviction, which carries a lower term, was requested by her lawyer. The appeals court denied the request.
“Murder is a result-oriented offense,” said Dallas County prosecutors in response to Guyger’s admission.
The court’s chief justice, Robert D. Burns III, and Justices Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness agreed with the prosecution, saying Guyger’s view that lethal force was required was unreasonable.
The judges also disputed that the evidence supported a conviction of criminally negligent homicide rather than murder, citing Guyger’s own testimony that she intended to kill in a 23-page ruling.
“That she was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or a burglar in hers does not change her mental state from intentional or knowing to criminally negligent,” the judges wrote. “We decline to rely on Guyger’s misperception of the circumstances leading to her mistaken beliefs as a basis to reform the jury’s verdict in light of the direct evidence of her intent to kill.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s highest court for criminal matters — might still reconsider the appeals court’s decision. Guyger’s lawyer did not respond to a message sent to him right away.
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