Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger filed an appeal to have her murder conviction overturned.
Guyger’s attorneys argued that a “rational jury” would agree that she was justified in shooting Botham Jean, a 26-year-old black man, after mistaking his apartment for her own. Her legal team argued that the evidence used by the prosecution was “legally insufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder.”
Her attorneys said Guyger’s self-defense claims should stand because she believed that she was in her own home and that Jean was an intruder, though neither of those things were accurate.
“Her mistaken belief negated the culpability of murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused Jean’s death, she had the right to act in deadly force in self-defense since her belief that deadly force was immediately necessary was reasonable under the circumstances,” the attorneys told the judges.
Guyger was sentenced to 10 years for Jean’s murder. If the murder conviction is appealed and the conviction for criminally negligent homicide is given to Guyger, her maximum sentence would be two years in prison.
