I watched what happened in a US courtroom and I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
A former police officer, who is white, was being sentenced for murdering a black man in his home.
It was a horrible case, even in such difficult times as these, in part because Amber Guyger killed neighbour Botham Jean when he was no threat to her.
She told the court she was tired after a long shift and, in confusion, thought Jean had broken into her apartment when he was, in fact, innocently sitting on a couch in his own home.
It caused mass protests by activists who called it another case of police brutality, and the court, in Dallas, Texas, didn’t accept Guyger’s explanation and handed down a 10-year sentence.
Then Botham Jean’s brother walked across the courtroom and hugged the killer. Guyger sobbed.
This man’s decision will stay with me forever. Already, Brandt Jean, brother of the victim, had read to the court a statement in which he forgave Amber Guyger.
He even said he didn’t want her to be jailed. “I want the best for you,” he said, “because I know that’s exactly what Botham would want.”
The presiding judge, Tammy Kemp, then also hugged the killer. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot called what Mr Jean did “an amazing act of healing and forgiveness that’s rare in today’s society”. He’s was right.
I have a whole pile of problems with what Amber Guyger did, and the culture behind it, and I think people from the African American community are absolutely right to be afraid and angry as a result of it.
I don’t experience what they do every day, so I have only the smallest idea of the strength it must have taken for Brandt Jean to do what he did, but that strength is incredible.
I cannot imagine what I would do if I had to face a loved one’s killer in a courtroom, day after day, especially in such a tragic, traumatic case. I don’t know if I could possibly react in the same way.
But the example shown by this man is a credit to him and to the human spirit. He should be an inspiration to us all.
