Sentencing was handed down in the Amber Guyger trial Wednesday and after the former Dallas police officer was sentenced by a jury composed on 10 nonwhites to serve 10 years in prison, many began drawing comparisons to rapper Tay-K’s much longer prison stint.
Guyger was found guilty of murdering PwC associate Botham Jean when she entered his apartment last year after allegedly mistaking it for her own. She admitted to shooting and killing the accountant on Sept. 6, 2018.
But many online felt the punishment did not fit the crime. The defendant faced up to 99 years in prison for the murder and prosecutors argued Guyger should be imprisoned for no less than 28 years. She fatally shot Jean days before his 27th birthday and the October trial had resumed a day after what would have been Jean’s 28th birthday.
Meanwhile, Tay-K, a 19-year-old Texas MC, was also sentenced in a Dallas court earlier this year. However, he was ordered to spend 55 years in prison back in July for his involvement in a 2016 home invasion robbery. The guilty verdict for Tay, who fled to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, before being captured there in 2017, was handed down after the murder of 21-year-old Ethan Walker in Mansfield, Texas. Witness testimony reported by KTVT said Tay was part of a plan to steal drugs and money from the Dallas-Forth Worth-area home, but Walker did not have those items. His girlfriend testified that Walker was shot while raising his hands in the air.
Tay-K’s attorneys, however, argued he did not fire the gun and shouldn’t be found guilty. Yet prosecutors said Tay, who the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported was 16 at the time of the murder but was certified to stand trial as an adult, knew the plan was to rob Walker.
Taking both Dallas cases into account, many online have reacted against Guyger’s verdict in comparison to Tay’s and the circumstances surrounding his sentencing.
“So the Dallas court system sentenced at the time 17 year old @tayk (Taymor McIntyre)to 55 years earlier this year for aggravated robbery when he didn’t even pull the trigger but the same court system will only give #AmberGuyger 10yrs for killing a black man in his own apartment,” read one tweet that kicked off a host of responses backing it up.
“I’m far from racist but dam WTF is happening I am scared for my son . Raising a young black man in our society today you pray that something like this doesn’t happen to him .”
“It shows how little they value the black man’s life in both cases… Always unjust and unbalanced but the system was made for us… 🤷🏾♀️”
“White Privilege.”
Still, some argued that Tay should serve time but Guyger ought to be imprisoned for longer than a decade.
“I don’t care what any one says Tay K earned his 55 years (I HATE when people rob) and Amber should have received a sentence longer than 10 years”
“Yes 1 person woke up that morning wanting to kill someone. Then wrote a song about it. The other sleepily walked into the wrong home accidentally. Both have people dead. Both deserve to do time, but not even close to the same situation.”
