White police officer who killed innocent black man in his home sent racist texts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/02/amber-guyger-offensive-texts-botham-jean-murder/When a white ex-Dallas police officer recounted her thinking as she fired the two shots that killed an innocent black man in his own living room last year, she told a jury it was fear, not racism, that drove her to pull the trigger.
“This is not about hate,” she testified in court Friday. “It’s about being scared.”
But after a jury convicted Amber Guyger, 31, of murder on Tuesday, prosecutors introduced text messages sent by the former officer that show her making offensive statements. In the texts, Guyger jokes about Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, mocks her black colleagues and discusses a dog that her friend warns “may be racist.”
“It’s okay.. I’m the same,” Guyger wrote back about the dog, just days before she fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean in his Dallas apartment on Sept. 6, 2018. One minute later, she texted again: “I hate everything and everyone but y’all.”
Amber Guyger, police officer who shot a man to death in his apartment, found guilty of murder
Prosecutors will use Guyger’s texts, her social media posts and her disciplinary record as a police officer to argue for a harsher sentence, though they haven’t specified what length of prison term they will request. The jury will decide her sentence, which could range from five years to life in prison, without the possibility of probation.
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The new texts introduced after the verdict showed her mocking black officers working for the Dallas Police Department with her partner, Officer Martin Rivera.
“Damn I was at this area with 5 different black officers !!!” Rivera texted Guyger on March 9, 2018. “Not racist but damn.”
Guyger echoed Rivera and added: “Not racist but just have a different way of working and it shows.”
During a 2018 parade on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Guyger texted another officer about their lengthy shift as attendees celebrated the black civil rights activist’s legacy.
“When does this end lol,” read a text sent to Guyger. She replied: “When MLK is dead … oh wait …”
Prosecutors also showed images of Pinterest posts about guns and violence that Guyger had saved and commented on. One post showed a photo of a “Minion” character from the “Despicable Me” movies with the caption: “People are so ungrateful. No one ever thanks me for having the patience not to kill them.” Guyger commented about owning a gun on another meme that read, “I wear all black to remind you not to mess with me because I’m already dressed for your funeral.”
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component necessary for 1st-degree murder. I know there was some early media reporting that she might have actually known the victim, but I haven't seen anything since. I am definitely not sympathetic to her, but I can't help but be surprised as that seemed to be the lynchpin between manslaughter and murder conviction.
On edit after perusing Texas law, it looks like she must have been convicted of what most states consider 2nd degree murder, referred to in Texas only as "murder" and even though the press is not reporting it accurately. 1st degree appears to be limited to and referred to as Capital Murder since, it can carry the death penalty. So, it seems to include non-premeditated or unintentional murder. I'd love to see the jury instruction that clarified how that differs from manslaughter, if only a curiosity.
