Posted on 10/02/2019 9:33:26 AM PDT by Navy Patriot
A former police officer who argued she had a right to use lethal force when she killed an innocent man after mistakenly entering his apartment has been convicted of murder.
Amber Guyger faces a lengthy prison sentence after a jury found her guilty of the murder of Botham Jean in Dallas on 6 September last year – a verdict Jean family attorneys hailed as a significant moment in the battle to hold police accountable.
Guyger is white. Jean was black. Guyger is the first Dallas police department officer to be convicted of murder since the 1970s, the Dallas Morning News reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Some things I have heard/seen over the past couple of days:
1 During the trial there was testimony that it was not uncommon for residents to park in the wrong area and try to enter someone else’s residence.
2. Black colleagues were almost giddy with joy over the guilty verdict. Seemed to be HAPPY. A bit disturbing. Not a “justice is served!” attitude, more like a “yay! She is going to prison!” (FWIW, I think she should be accountable.)
3. Benjamin Crump, the Florida based “lawyer” who also got involved with the family of George Zimmerman’s attacker, said this verdict was something like payback for Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland,.etc. He clearly mixed apples and oranges in his pursuit of publicity. I doubt if any “journalists” covering his remarks challenged Crump.
For some reason, her key worked on his apartment, and that plus her brain fog made her think it was a stranger in her home instead of her in HIS home.
She was on the wrong floor of the building and didn’t realize ANYTHING was wrong. That makes it manslaughter and screwed up judgement at a minimum.
“Texas does not have legal degrees of murder.”
Ah, I did not know that. That explains it.
This story misses the problem of Jeans door was ajar. Had Jean locked the door Amber’s key would not work and it would have slowed the process of fight or flight. That said I think she still committed murder.
How do you know it was not premeditated? That story about thinking she was in her own apartment is VERY suspect. How do you not notice the furniture and stuff right away? I bet the prosecution took their time ripping up that story.
Interesting stuff, thanks!
Amber testified in another account the door was ajar; not locked.
I look at it this way-—if I had walked into the wrong house and shot the resident what would happen to me?
Then add int he fact that police should be held to a higher standard and it’s an easy call.
I also think if she had not taken the stand herself she may have gotten a manslaughter conviction but she did and they shredded her.
If that kind of thing was,in fact,known to happen that would lend credence to her basic claim...her basic defense.If one accepts that she,innocently,entered that apartment believing it was hers then it's not difficult to imagine her being *very* frightened and,acting on instinct and/or police training,fired.
OK then criminal trespass or burglary. Take your choice.
I have. And it's not supposed to happen. Juries are supposed to follow the law.
Or let's put it another way...do you trust the ethical and patriotic intentions of the "prosecutors" in the House to treat the President fairly in the coming months?
Entirely different matter since an impeachment is not a criminal trial and does not carry with it the guarantee of an impartial jury.
But say for the sake of argument that in spite of all evidence to the contrary Congress votes to impeach and the Senate votes to convict. Since you're such a fan of jury nullification then you would be entirely supportive of that, right?
I think you are the closest so far, she lied to the Jury about verbal commands and giving Jean a chance to surrender or reply.
That finished her.
I think you’ve summed it up nicely.
“We’re not talking about the charge of murder, because we know she was convicted of that. We are talking about in WHAT DEGREE! First degree? Second Degree? Third Degree?”
Texas does not have first, second or third degree murder.
Some article stated that it can be reduced to a 2nd degree felony in the sentencing phase if the jury decides there were mitigating circumstances.
So I guess instead of convicting someone of of “2nd degree” murder in Texas, you just convict them of murder, and then the defense has to make the argument that the facts of the case demand a lesser punishment during the sentencing.
Assuming she is telling the truth which is an assumption...
I put myself in her shoes.
Suppose I try to open my apartment door and find it pushes open. There is an unidentified man sitting on an unfamiliar couch eating ice cream.
Do I draw and shoot? No. And I am not even a trained police woman.
I am not trapped. I can flee. No one has reported a crime going on. He is not threatening me (what kind of an active threat is eating out Of a bowl? The strange furniture is a huge tip that things are not what I think they are
I am scared and confused and back out. That’s it.
I vote murder.
My suspicion is that more was going on than we know between them. Regardless, it’s murder.
In Texas, the charge is either Murder or Capital Murder.
At sentencing, the defendant can argue that it was a crime of passion which could lead to it being treated as a second degree felony.
Capital Murder has to have other aggravating items. These include killing a police officer or fireman, killing during a kidnapping, burglary, or sexual assault and so on.
>> I don’t understand why the charge was 1st degree murder. It wasn’t premeditated. <<
So you go into your apartment and find someone else there. You immediately kill the person and then realize, “Oops! Wrong apartment!” Well, now you have to convince a jury that you were reasonable in killing that person immediately, or else you get charged with manslaughter. But if the jury doesn’t believe the killing was a mistake, why should they believe it was a mistake you went up there in the first place. I’ve lived in apartment buildings and actually went to the wrong door, and the first sign something was amiss snapped me to the reality I was in the wrong place. “Oh wow! There’s someone in my apartment!” “Oh wow, they got all new but used furtiture!” “Oh, wow! They brought a TV for themselves!”
You’ve said it all. How do you open the front door and not notice it isn’t your home? And then when you see a stranger, your first reaction is to blast him to smithereens? Of course, being a lady cop, she knew she couldn’t handle him physically and took the “easy” way out. She should never have been on the force.
Actually Juries are a Constitutional Right created expressly to ensure that the Officers of the Court follow the Law as intended.
Nullification is the Nuclear Weapon granted to as few as a single Juror if they believe an Injustice has occurred.
The State (including Judges) hates Juries.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.