Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering her off-duty neighbor Botham Jean inside his own apartment, walked out of a Texas prison on Thursday after serving roughly seven years of her 10-year sentence, according to state corrections records cited by CBS News.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved Guyger's release on October 1, after rejecting her first bid for early release in 2024. She became eligible once she had served half her sentence, and the board cited her lack of any documented pattern of violent arrests, a "satisfactory institutional adjustment," and completion of treatment and job-readiness programs, according to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.

Guyger, now 38, shot Jean, a 26-year-old PwC accountant, in September 2018 after she said she climbed to the wrong floor of her apartment complex, mistook his unit for her own, and opened fire believing he was a burglar. A Dallas jury rejected her self-defense claim and convicted her of murder in October 2019 — the first time a Dallas officer had been convicted of murder since 1973. Her conviction was later upheld by the Fifth Court of Appeals, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined further review, per The Dallas Express.

'No Parole Decision Can Return What Was Taken'

Jean's family and their attorneys fought the release. Lee Merritt, who represents the family, said the 10-year sentence was already "a small fraction" of what they lost.

"No parole decision can return what was taken from them," Merritt said.

Civil rights organizer Dominique Alexander, founder of the Next Generation Action Network, called the decision outrageous and pointed to it as evidence of unequal treatment for Black crime victims. The Dallas Police Department, which fired Guyger days after the shooting, said it played no role in the parole decision and acknowledged the news would renew public attention on Jean's death.

Jean's death also led to a landmark 2024 civil verdict: a federal jury found Guyger liable for excessive force and ordered her to pay Jean's estate and his parents $98.6 million in damages, a judgment she is unlikely to ever fully satisfy. The city later renamed a stretch of street near Dallas police headquarters Botham Jean Boulevard in his memory.

Under the terms of her parole, Guyger must report regularly to a parole officer, cannot live in Dallas County, is barred from contacting Jean's family or Dallas police officers, and cannot leave Texas without approval. Her attorney, Robert Rodgers, has said she has lined up housing and a job and remains remorseful. She stays under state supervision until her sentence formally expires in 2029.