The Jean family filed a civil rights lawsuit in October 2018 claiming the police department did not adequately train Guyger on the use of deadly and non-deadly force, and alleged that the department "trains its officers to use deadly force even when there exist no immediate threat to themselves or others."
Attorney Lee MerrittAttorney Lee Merritt is back on the national stage as a lawyer for the family of Botham Jean, who was shot by Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger on Sept. 6. Merritt is working in front of the camera and behind the scenes to guide Jean's family toward justice.
10 yearsA former Dallas police officer serving time in prison in the killing of Botham Jean wanted her murder conviction overturned, but a higher court on Wednesday denied her appeal for the second time. Amber Guyger was convicted of murder in October 2019 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Guyger is currently serving a 10-year sentence at Mountain View Unit in Coryell County. The 33-year-old will be eligible for parole in 2024.
Michael MowlaGuyger's lawyer, Michael Mowla, argued that evidence presented at trial did not support a murder charge because she mistakenly believed she was in her apartment when she fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment, one floor above hers, on Sept. 6, 2018.
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who has made a name for himself nationally by representing the families of police brutality victims, is taking heat ahead of his race to be Texas' top lawyer because he's not licensed to practice in the state.
Texas' highest criminal court upheld the murder conviction and 10-year prison sentence of Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment in 2018 after she said she mistook him for an intruder.
1988 (age 34 years)Amber Guyger / Date of birth
On September 6, 2018, off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger entered the Dallas, Texas, apartment of 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean and fatally shot him. Guyger said that she had entered the apartment believing it was her own and that she shot Jean believing he was a burglar. Guyger was not arrested for several days, and ...
Dallas Assistant Police Chief Avery Brown denied that Joshua Brown's death was related to Guyger's trial. A second suspect was arrested the next day, and on December 8, all three men were indicted on charges of capital murder, although one of them remained at large.