When Brandt Jean asked the judge if he could hug the former Dallas Police officer convicted of killing his brother, Botham Jean, it was a spontaneous moment between two unlikely people. Not everyone felt that hug. Some protested the sentence outside the jail.
"Even though I don't know that I could have done what he did, I was very moved by it. Certainly had no fault in it," Bob Ray Sanders, former Star Telegram columnist and Co-Chair of Forth Worth's Race and Culture Task Force, said. "That doesn't mean someone can't go protest...I mean I can forgive and I can protest."
At Heaven 97, host Robert Ashley fielded comments from callers and in-studio guest Dominique Alexander of Next Generation Action Network.
"Was justice served," Ashely asked. "10 years was a gift to Amber Guyger," one caller said. "Nobody on the streets in any regular murder trial is getting 10 years," Alexander said.
Alexander organized the protest Wednesday night that followed the jury's decision to hand Guyger a 10-year sentence for her murder conviction.
"This young man's heart was not filled with hate. He said he loved Amber Guyger," Ashley said. "But then again on the other hand, a lot of people were outraged yesterday."
"I commend the young man for being forgiving, which is what Christ teaches us to do," one caller said speaking of Brandt Jean. "But my problem is we seem to be the only ones that keep forgiving!"
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Different reactions post-trial showed there is no one way to forgive, and more than one path to change.
"The two positions are not mutually exclusive," Sanders said. "Throughout our history, we have people on both sides fighting for the same purpose, but in a different way."
