They gave Amber Guyger only 10 years for murder

[Johnny2X2X]

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/10/02/us/amber-guyger-trial-sentencing/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

SMH.

[HipChick]

1. damn shame

[malaise]

22. I was hoping for at least 25

Last edited Thu Oct 3, 2019, 05:01 AM - Edit history (1)

[Demonaut]

70. she was forgiven by Jean Bothams brother, he advocated for no jail sentence

a tragedy for everyone

[octoberlib]

2. Eligible for parole after five. A travesty.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Sickening

How many years would the victim have gotten if it was he who had walked into the wrong apartment and shot Guyger dead.

[Bettie]

17. In Texas?

He'd be on death row right now, if he survived the arrest.

[bobbieinok]

4. Remember it was a surprise she was found guilty! And who thought more than 2 yrs?

[cwydro]

13. I really thought they'd go for manslaughter and a slap on the wrist.

So this is better than that.

[a kennedy]

64. She'll be out in 3 yrs.....a younger, white, blond, female.

[StarfishSaver]

5. It's not great

But given the alternatives and what I expected might happen, I'll take it.

[Indykatie]

6. This is Same State That Gave A Black Woman 5 Years For Casting Provisional Ballot as a Felon

[Beakybird]

7. I think it's ok.

At least she got convicted and was sentenced to solid time.
There's no real justice in this life. I would prefer a few more years. I just don't believe in an eye for an eye justice.
It's sad that if the situation were reversed, he would have gotten life without parole. Just because that's excessive doesn't mean that she should get an excessive sentence.
No outcome would make me happy. Just sad that a guy eating ice cream was murdered in his own apartment.

[gopiscrap]

8. it's because she was a cop

this is why some people hate cops, because they literally "get away with murder"

[cwydro]

14. Well, she didn't get away with it.

They could have come back with manslaughter. I was surprised they didn’t.

[gopiscrap]

16. to me 10 lousy years which actually means about 6

is getting away with

[cwydro]

38. Jean's brother hugged her.

That speaks volumes about that family.

[Skittles]

62. no, it isn't

[MicaelS]

11. The Jury decided the sentence, not the judge. n/t

[bluestarone]

12. TY i reread the article!

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Let her serve it in the general population and that'll be fine.

[TidalWave46]

19. Why? That sounds barbaric. NT

[customerserviceguy]

25. Solitary confinement

is not going to be a picnic, either. And what will she do when she gets out? Nobody will let her be a cop again, and with the publicity surrounding the case, I doubt she'd be able to get a job at a fast food place.

[TidalWave46]

32. I don't care what she does when she gets out.

And we have a great responsibility to do everything we can to keep every inmate as healthy and safe as possible. Period. No matter who. No matter the crime. No matter the race.

Wanna know where far too many on the right and left join forces? In making claims about how this person should be thrown in gen pop. That is a call for murder. In claiming pedophiles should be thrown in gen pop. That is paramount to the support of rape and murder.

The putative mentality has taken a strong hold on people. The fight against it is uphill.

I don’t think you said anything wrong in your reply to me. I just really don’t care what she does when she gets out. And you are right about solitary being difficult. Our job should be to keep her as safe and healthy as possible while providing tools that will help her when she is released.

The system is beyond broken yet many people talk as if we aren’t delivering enough punishment.

[customerserviceguy]

35. When it comes down to it, me either

The bottom line is, her life is fucked no matter what from now on. It might make a few cops a bit more careful in the future.

[tblue37]

37. Almost the only cops who get convicted and do time are black cops and female cops.

If the cop were a white man, he might not even have been charged.

[customerserviceguy]

41. In my observation

women usually get lighter sentences than men. It might be different when the accused is a police officer.

In any case, it should get cops of all races and genders to think a bit more closely before pulling a trigger.

[USALiberal]

40. Amazing how DEMs here love prison violence! Disgusting! nt

[Jake Stern]

48. And to think it used to be WORSE.

I can remember the prison rape jokes that used to pop up on OPs years ago. Appalling stuff.

[USALiberal]

52. I agree! nt

[stopdiggin]

77. Yep! NOT RIGHT people! Get yer' heads on! (nt)

[Skittles]

61. are you advocating vigilante justice?

[Iggo]

65. Not cool.

[FiveGoodMen]

79. Don't care

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. And how many other cops have not even been

indicted after killing a black man?

This is a huge step in the right direction.

[TidalWave46]

18. I think it's a good decision. NT

[guillaumeb]

21. She is a white cop.

Her victim was black.

[MicaelS]

43. So what?

There were five black jurors, five Hispanic / Asian jurors, two white jurors, two black and two white alternates. The alternates were not used. The judge was black.

They found her gulty of MURDER not manslaughter.

The jury, not the judge decided the sentence.

Any claim of racism is not viable.

[Jake Stern]

49. Mohamed Noor got a similar sentence (12.5 years) for killing Justine Diamond

Being a cop, of any race, has huge benefits.

[guillaumeb]

50. Well documented.

There is often a presumption of integrity and competence.

[customerserviceguy]

23. She could have gotten

only five. This is a win, it will be hell for her being a former cop.

[Voltaire2]

24. I actually think that is appropriate.

This was really manslaughter 2nd degree murder. She didn't set out to kill him.

[ZZenith]

27. You know that how?

[Voltaire2]

29. oh it's just my opinion, and the fact that there is zero evidence

she deliberately went to his apartment to kill him.

[ZZenith]

33. I would bet my last dollar that she dreamed of getting away with murdering a black man.

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.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/02/amber-guyger-offensive-texts-botham-jean-murder/

[Opel_Justwax]

28. She set out to murder him when she heard Bo in the Apt before she went in.

She could have waited outside and called for backup. Then maybe she would have noticed the red door mat.

[lunatica]

30. She didn't get convicted for Manslaughter

She was found quilts of murder by a jury.

But because some think it should have been a conviction of manslaughter then it’s OK to give her a light murder sentence even though it’s highly probable that had she been black and her victim white that her sentence would have been much worse.

You don’t see anything wrong with this?

[Voltaire2]

31. Racial disparity in sentencing isn't fixed by giving white people

the some draconian sentences routinely handed out to black people, it is fixed by not giving anyone draconian sentences.

[ZZenith]

34. Draconian? Ten fucking years for murdering a man in his own apartment is DRACONIAN?

Holy shit do you have a twisted sense of justice.

Disgusting.

[Voltaire2]

39. No 10 is not draconian.

It is appropriate.

[ZZenith]

44. No, it is not appropriate. VERY FAR FROM IT!!!

Draconian would have been slicing her in two with a rusty razor blade.

Twenty-five years with no chance of parole would have been appropriate.

You do understand she’s going to be walking amongst us again in five years, right?

After murdering a man in cold blood, a man she has professed to hate, she will be free as a bird.

Total miscarriage of justice.

[Polybius]

71. The average murder sentence is between 8 and 15 years

25 to life is rare.

[ZZenith]

75. You ok with that?

You ok with a society that puts so little value on a victim’s life?

[Sapient Donkey]

42. I think the poster is saying 10 years isn't draconian.

That they feel the sentence is appropriate for anyone regardless of their race. And the way to fix the system isn't to give out more draconian sentence to people like Amber Guyger, but rather to ensure that no one is handed a draconian sentence.

Just out of curiosity, how long would have you preferred her sentence to be? I've seen someone people say she should have got life. That seems draconian to me.

[ZZenith]

45. I get what he's trying to say but ten years for what she did is incredibly lenient

no matter the color of the perp’s skin.

[Jake Stern]

51. Do you feel the 12.5 year sentence to black officer Mohamed Noor was too lenient?

[ZZenith]

53. You really trying to equate the two circumstances?

[Jake Stern]

59. How are they different?

Two cops killed innocent people based on irrational and totally unjustifiable “fear”.

[ZZenith]

60. Was one on duty answering a call?

[Jake Stern]

66. Irrational fear is irrational fear whether or not one is on duty

Nice try at making one murder by cop sound worse than the other.

[ZZenith]

67. Your logic is flawed.

While off-duty one does not have the same responsibilities nor the same rights.

She murdered him in cold blood and I guarantee the day will come when we learn she did so with malicious intent.

Sneaking up on a cop car and startling the cops you’ve just called and sitting on your sofa eating ice cream are drastically different actions but you go on believing they are the same.

[Jake Stern]

72. I knew it wouldn't be long

until some variation of “she brought this on herself” would come up.

Still my question hasn’t been answered: do you feel that 12.5 years was also too lenient?

[ZZenith]

73. If 12.5 years was just in Noor's case

then 25 would be closer to just in Guyger’s.

[ZZenith]

74. And guess what?

SHE DID FUCKING BRING THIS ON HERSELF!!!

Even if you believe her story, which I do not, she is still 1000% responsible for her actions that night.

Fucking hell, what country am I even in anymore?

[Jake Stern]

80. I was referring to your lame attempt at blaming Justine Diamond for her own death

You want so bad to turn this into something it's not that you'll twist my words.

Shameful.

[ZZenith]

82. Did she startle the cops? Yes or no.

Did Amber Guyger murder a man sitting on his couch eating ice cream in his own apartment?

Yes or no.

Those facts have been established in court so don’t bother trying to shame me for stating established facts. I didn’t “twist your words” - you were unclear in your response.

You are trying to justify a ten-year sentence for the murder of an innocent man by a self-avowed racist, equating it with bad policing. The cop got 12.5 years for killing an innocent woman while on duty. Amber Guyger came home drunk and shot her black neighbor who was in no way, shape or form threatening her. Do I believe her sentence should be substantially stiffer than the cops? You bet your ass I do and any decent person would feel the same way.

Good day.

[lunatica]

26. She's a cop. She's white. She's racist.

She killed a black man in his home as he sat on his sofa watching tv.

It will surprise me if she has an easy time in the penitentiary. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact of life.

[USALiberal]

36. Seems fair to me, it was not intentional just a really stupid decision. nt

[FakeNoose]

83. I agree - it's not first degree (premeditated) murder

... it's more like criminal negligence. In some states it's called 3rd degree homicide. The laws are different in each state, and I'm not an expert. One thing that is evident (to me) is her deep remorse over this.

[GulfCoast66]

46. Ok by me. Because the jury decided the penalty.

The jury made up of a majority of people of color.

So if you have a problem with it you have a problem with them.

They listened to all the testimony. I didn’t.

[Captain Stern]

55. Well said.

I think it's best to defer to the folks that actually sat through the hours of testimony, and saw all the evidence that was presented.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the people that weren't on the jury can't have their own opinion on the matter. After all, they read some articles about the case.

But, their opinion isn't near as important, or informed, as the one of the actual folks on the jury.

It's kind of like Jenny McCarthy's opinion about vaccines. Sure....she has the right to an opinion that differs from medical experts, but her opinion is almost worthless because she simply doesn't know what she's talking about.

[GulfCoast66]

57. Excellent point. How many of us would be on DU if we all agreed, all the time?

Boring as hell.

I enjoy respectful disagreement more than anything here. And have on many occasions had my opinion changed. And even more often become more understanding of differing opinions.

Now things like anti-vaccer? And other anti-science opinions. Bridge to far for me. No respect there. Just like climate change deniers or young earth types.

But policy discussions? Bring on the disagreement.

[JonLP24]

85. There was a quote about Irish & police

Bishop Talbert Swan has been ripping the verdict and everything else surrounding the case and I agree with him.

Link to tweet

This is it I found it.
How does race figure into this? It’s a city with a black majority and now a black mayor and black police chief, a substantially black police force.

What did Tom Wolfe write about cops? They all become Irish? That's a line in “Bonfire of the Vanities.” When Ed and I reported “The Corner,” it became clear that the most brutal cops in our sector of the Western District were black. The guys who would really kick your ass without thinking twice were black officers. If I had to guess and put a name on it, I’d say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. I think the two agendas are inextricably linked, and where one picks up and the other ends is hard to say. But when you have African-American officers beating the dog-piss out of people they’re supposed to be policing, and there isn't a white guy in the equation on a street level, it's pretty remarkable. But in some ways they were empowered. Back then, even before the advent of cell phones and digital cameras — which have been transforming in terms of documenting police violence — back then, you were much more vulnerable if you were white and you wanted to wail on somebody. You take out your nightstick and you’re white and you start hitting somebody, it has a completely different dynamic than if you were a black officer. It was simply safer to be brutal if you were black, and I didn't know quite what to do with that fact other than report it. It was as disturbing a dynamic as I could imagine. Something had been removed from the equation that gave white officers — however brutal they wanted to be, or however brutal they thought the moment required — it gave them pause before pulling out a nightstick and going at it. Some African American officers seemed to feel no such pause.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish

[trof]

47. Hey, it was only a black guy.

OTOH...
Ex-cops don't usually fare well in prison.
Especially ex-cops who murder an innocent black guy.
I'm just sayin'...

[maxsolomon]

81. How large is the sample on which you're basing that opinion?

Not exactly a large data set.

[trof]

84. It's YUUUGE.

[empedocles]

54. It's hard to get a conviction against the thick blue line. Ask any plaintiff

counsel who tries those kind of cases.

I have witnessed such a jury from the inside. Hint, you think trumpers are thick?

[Johnny2X2X]

56. I feel for his family

I can’t imagine how they most feel that their precious loved one was brutally murdered in his own him while eating ice cream watching TV and the jury and system decided he wasn’t as valuable of a human being as virtually any other murder victim. Parole after 5 years for what she did is nothing.

[ornotna]

63. Botham Jean's brother forgave her

And the family seemed satisfied with the sentence.

[stopdiggin]

78. No. Not what happened here.

Jury convicted this person because she introduced the castle doctrine .. which was practically an admission from her own mouth that she intended to kill. If she (and her defense) had stuck with "it was a terrible accident" chances are VERY good that this is manslaughter (as many people saw it). Once convicted -- she got a very typical (medium range) sentence, Not at all the lenient (nor biased) treatment you describe ..

" .. decided he wasn’t as valuable of a human being as virtually any other murder victim."

[Sneederbunk]

58. A diverse jury decided the verdict and the sentence.

[GulfCoast66]

68. "They" gave her only 10 years...do you know who "they" are? The jury.

5 African Americans, 5 Hispanic or Asian and 2 white members.

In other words a jury perfectly reflecting that community. As it should be. As we all want.

“They” heard all the testimony and had total power to make what ever decisions they wanted. And decided this in a few hours so it seems there was general agreement.

I may disagree, but no way the fix was in on this trial.

I accept it.

[moondust]

69. Based on

HER story that it was not premeditated?

[Skittles]

76. Dale Hansen

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/special-reports/botham-jean/dale-hansen-unplugged-botham-jean-and-amber-guyger/287-4e75d17d-c503-4755-ad52-31f4854154e0