Botham Jean’s Brother Opens Up About Hugging Amber Guyger

Botham Jean’s brother Brandt Jean is speaking after he hugged his brother’s murderer Amber Guyger.

Ten years is all Guyger was sentenced to for the shooting death of Botham Jean. The entire incident and trial made national headlines, evoking pain in the Black community, which hoped justice would finally be served. After Guyger was sentenced, Brandt gave her an emotional embrace and said: “if you truly are sorry — I know I can speak for myself — I forgive you.”

Brandt, 18, said during an interview with “Good Morning America” that he thinks that’s what his brother would have wanted. When asked about how some people are slower to forgive, Brandt Jean said that “each and everyone has steps to get towards actually forgiving. I probably went through those faster than other people. … If you are trying to forgive her, understand that she is a human being.” Botham’s father, Bertrum Jean, agreed with Brandt’s words.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“I wouldn’t want to see her rot in hell. I wouldn’t want to see her rot in prison,” Bertrum Jean said of Guyger, adding that he expected the sentence — far short of the maximum of life in prison — “could have been a little more.” However, Botham’s mother, #AllisonJean, said she isn’t sure she could have reacted the way her son did. “I don’t want forgiveness to be mistaken with a total relinquishing of responsibility,” she added.

Several people across the nation voiced their opinion on the hug. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said it was a “powerful example of Christian love & forgiveness.” In response to the outpouring on Twitter, Cornell William Brooks, a former president and CEO of the NAACP, wrote that “using the willingness of Black people to forgive as an excuse to further victimize Black people is SINFUL.”