Dallas, Texas-A committee of three judges from the Texas Court of Appeals is skeptical of a conviction overturning a former Dallas police officer sentenced to imprisonment for fatally shooting a neighbor at home on Tuesday. Seemed to be the target.
Amber Geiger’s lawyer clashed with Dallas County prosecutors to see if there was sufficient evidence to prove that the 2018 Bosamjan shooting was a murder.
At the hearing, a Dallas County jury considered sentenced Geiger to 10 years in prison for murder in 2019. This follows the recent conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, and once again draws public attention to police murder and racial injustice.
The 32-year-old Geiger did not appear in court on Tuesday, and the panel seemed to doubt the argument presented by her lawyer. The judge will make a decision at an unspecified date.
More than two years before Floyd’s death protested nationwide, Geiger’s killing of Jean attracted public attention due to a strange situation and one of a series of black men’s shootings by white police officers. ..
The basic facts of the case are not disputed. Geiger went home from a long shift and mistaken Jean’s apartment for his own. It was on the floor beneath him. Finding the door half-open, she went in and shot him, later testifying through him that she was a thief.
Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, ate a bowl of ice cream before Geiger shot him. She was later fired by the Dallas Police Department.
Geiger’s complaint rests on the allegation that it was rational for her to mistake Jean’s apartment for her own, and therefore the shooting was also rational. Her lawyer has asked the Court of Appeals to convict her murder or replace her with a criminal manslaughter conviction.
Attorney Michael Maura claimed on Tuesday that Geiger was not “malicious.”
A Dallas County prosecutor argued that her mistake was unreasonable and admitted that she intended to kill Jean.
“Murder is a result-oriented crime,” the prosecutor wrote in the filings.
The judge questioned Maura’s allegations and asked him questions, suggesting that he mismixed self-defense and factual false allegations.
At one point, Judge Robert Burns told Maura that the case filed in Geiger’s defense actually upheld her conviction. Another judge praised the prosecutor’s style of written discussion as “comfortable to the eye.”
Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, told The Dallas Morning News that the appeal delayed the healing of her family.
“I know everyone has the right to appeal, and I believe she is taking advantage of that right,” Jean said. “But on the other hand, there is one person who cannot take advantage of any further rights because she took him away.
“So she got ten years, only ten years because she killed someone who was at the height of his life and didn’t do anything wrong with the comfort of his home, so she accepted it and was accountable. I believe we should bear and move on. “
Geiger may have been sentenced to life imprisonment or just two years in prison. The prosecutor demanded a 28-year sentence-Bozam Jean would have been 28 if he was still alive during the trial.
According to state prison records, under her current judgment, Geiger will be eligible for parole in 2024.
After the trial, the two jury members said various committees sought to consider what the victims wanted when they settled on a ten-year imprisonment.
Jean, who attended “Bo”, sang in the choir of the Dallas church and grew up in a devout family in the island nation of Saint Lucia. After the ruling, Brandt Jean accepted Geiger in court and told her that his brother would have wanted her to hand over his life to Christ. He said that if she asked God for forgiveness, she would get it.
Amber Guiger Update: Former Dallas Police Officer Appeals Conviction for Killing Neighbor Bossam Jean