Joy Behar says Botham Jean's brother didn't need to forgive Amber Guyger 'so quickly'

Todd Garrin

Joy Behar isn’t ready to forgive and forget. The panelists of “The View” weighed in on the recent sentencing of Amber Guyger, an off-duty police officer sentenced to a decade in prison for murdering her neighbor in what she says was a tragic accident.

The victim, Botham Jean, died from wounds he sustained after Guyger opened fire upon entering an apartment she thought was her own, but was Jean’s. Jean’s brother, Brandt Jean, spoke at Guyger’s sentencing and said, “I forgive you.” He ended his statement by asking the judge if he could hug Guyger.

Behar dismissed the notion of unconditional forgiveness, saying, “To me there are some crimes that are so heinous that they’re unforgivable.” She added, “I think that to hold on to the rage gives you strength also. I’m not sure you have to forgive so quickly.”

Fellow panelist Whoopi Goldberg defended Brandt Jean’s right to forgive his brother’s killer, but also sympathized with Behar’s point of view. “He thought his brother would have wanted him to forgive her, and none of us can judge that,” said Goldberg. She added, “We’ll always have to ask the question ‘could we be so big?’ I don’t know if I could be.”

Viewers on Twitter were split over Brandt Jean’s forgiveness of Amber Guyger and his embrace of her in the courtroom. Many wrote that they agreed with Behar and wouldn’t be able to forgive if they were in the same situation:

Others disagreed with Behar and said that forgiveness is the only way to truly begin to heal:

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