Overview
- Amber Guyger left the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville on Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year murder sentence for the 2018 killing of Botham Jean.
- The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved her release on Oct. 1 after reviewing her record and citing satisfactory institutional adjustment, completion of prison programs aimed at reentry, and no documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions.
- Guyger will remain on supervised parole until her sentence ends in 2029 and must meet requirements that include regular check-ins, home visits, steady employment, travel approval to leave Texas, and bans on living in Dallas County or contacting Jean’s family or Dallas police officers.
- Botham Jean’s family, civil-rights attorneys and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office opposed the parole decision, and more than 6,000 people signed a petition asking that she serve her full sentence.
- A separate 2024 federal civil jury found Guyger liable and ordered about $98.6 million in damages to Jean’s family, and her early release has renewed public scrutiny of police accountability, sentencing choices and how criminal parole interacts with civil remedies.