UPDATE: History did not repeat itself. The cop was convicted.
It is clear that the system is designed to give the cop the benefit of the doubt at all cost. For black men, in particular, it means they are not even safe in the sanctity of their own homes.
I am genuinely in shock. If I had a different makeup, I would be downright scared of living in the United States of America.
How many slamdunk cases have we seen, including many on video, where it was clear a black man was murdered by a cop? Too many.
As of the writing of this blog post, there is no verdict in the case where white female officer Amber Guyger murdered Botham Jean, an innocent unarmed black professional man. The officer purported that she believed it was her apartment.
It seems like the judge has just given the jury a path to what juries in this situation do best, acquit cops who murder black men.
The Texas Tribune reported the following.
On Monday, State District Court Judge Tammy Kemp allowed jurors to consider what’s called the “Castle Doctrine” in the murder trial of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who shot and killed 26-year-old unarmed Botham Jean in his apartment after mistaking it for her own. …
According to Schulte and Fort Worth law firm Barnett Howard & Williams, a person can claim self-defense if:
- They believed someone was on their property illegally.
- They reasonably believed the deadly force was immediately necessary.
- They did not provoke the person against which the deadly force was used.
- They weren’t engaged in criminal activity (other than a minor traffic offense) at the time the deadly force was used.
While the castle doctrine is there to ensure the owner of the home can use deadly force on the intruder. In other words, Botham Jean under that law could have used deadly force on an intruder — in this case Amber Guyger.
The obscenity of this ruling is that it is the intruder that is getting the option to use this law because she believed she was in her home. Are you kidding me? So now if a cop imagines they are in danger, they have a right to murder.
State District Court Judge Tammy Kemp who is a black Democrat made the ruling. As someone who would seem to be more empathetic to the relationship between color, policing, and lethal force, one can only assume that her ruling was political. She is up for reelection. That the cop who intruded can use the castle doctrine for any reason is a disgrace.