Photo: KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images
The former Dallas police officer charged with the 2018 murder of Botham Jean lost her initial appeal to get the conviction overturned for a lesser charge.
On Thursday (August 5), an appeals court judge ruled that Amber Guyger’s murder conviction would be upheld. She’s currently serving a ten-year prison sentence.
The former cop maintains she mistook Jean for a burglar, fatally shooting the 26-year-old as he sat on the couch in his apartment, located one floor directly above Guyger’s.
An attorney representing Jean’s family told NBC DFW they were “relieved” by the court’s ruling and not shocked, though Guyger and her attorneys are allowed to file another appeal.
Guyger’s legal team first filed the initial appeal in August 2020, continuing the ex-cop’s defense arguments.
The family’s attorney, S. Lee Merritt issued a statement at the time of Guyger’s initial appeal, stating that her actions in appeals “reflect someone who is not repentant but instead was hoping to play on the family’s sympathies at the time they were most vulnerable.”
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