via Flickr
Amber Guyger killed Botham Jean - there’s no question about it. Instead, what remains after the former-Dallas cop’s 10 year sentence are questions about motive, race, and punishment.
Much of the response to Guyger’s sentence has been frustration around what many feel is leniency because of her whiteness and authority as a former member of law enforcement.
Prosecutors requested that Guyger be sentenced to 28 years based on the age Jean would have been had she not killed him. One juror, however, said she got 10 instead because he didn’t think Botham “would want to take harsh vengeance.” He went on to say, “I think he would want to forgive her.”
The jury, made up of 8 women and 4 men, was diverse but their decision unanimous. A Black woman juror said she couldn’t “give her 28 years” and said this killing shouldn’t be compared to other police killings. Yet, that reasoning is not enough for the many who have protested the killing of Jean - because he WAS killed and it WAS by the hands of a police officer.
This is an event that happens regularly to Black people at a disproportionate rate, which greatly exceeds Black America’s white counterparts.
Jurors making media appearances and talking about the sympathy they felt for Amber Guyger haven’t stopped the waves of frustration. People are still asking, “Would they have this sort of compassion if Guyger wasn’t a white police officer?” But officials like Judge Kemp, who oversaw the case, have been quick in their attempts to dismiss any claims that Guyger was shown preferential treatment.
Judge Kemp even became emotional in a recent interview and responded to the ongoing uneasiness about her hugging Guyger: “Frankly, I don’t think I would be getting this criticism if Miss Guyger were a Black woman. I hate that we limit our compassion to one race.”
Botham’s father mentioned that though he didn’t want to see her “rot in hell” in prison, he expected a tougher sentence. “We expected a conviction, and I felt the sentence may not have been sufficient based on the crime. I think it could’ve been a little more. But the jury has spoken.”
Botham is gone - no one can truly know what he would have said about the outcome of his killer’s trial. What’s not gone is the racial inequality that causes these debates to happen in the first place. But disproportionate sentencing, arrests, and killings of Black people at the hands of the criminal justice system exposes the racist contradictions at the heart of it all.