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The law team for the former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger who shot and killed Botham Jean last year, is fighting to get her murder trial moved and asked a judge on Monday to consider a new venue given the “media hysteria” the case has caused.
—Judge issues gag order in fired cop Amber Guyger’s murder trial—
Last September, Amber Guyger shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment claiming she thought he was an intruder in her residence. Guyger claimed that she was tired after working a 14-hour shift and thought she was on the third floor where her apartment was located, when she had parked her car on the fourth.
In their court filing, Guyger’s attorneys Robert Rogers, Toby Shook and Michael Mowla, claimed that the “publicity surrounding this case has been prejudicial and inflammatory,” The Dallas Morning News reports.
Guyger’s legal team doesn’t believe she can get a fair trial in Dallas with the potential jury pool who have likely already formed an opinion about the case.
The also stated that national figures such as former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, U.S. presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke and state Sen. Royce West also caused harm when they “injected themselves into the case.”
They attorneys also argued that the media has been biased because Jean is Black and Guger is white saying that they promoted a false racial narrative.
— Witness who filmed Botham Jean police shooting aftermath harassed and fired—
The trial is scheduled to start Sept. 23.