A national atheist group has filed a formal complaint with the state of Texas after a judge in a Dallas court gave a Bible to former police officer Amber Guyger who was convicted of murdering her neighbor.

The gesture by Texas District Judge Tammy Kemp, who also suggested the Bible could change Guyger’s life, came at the end of an emotional sentencing hearing this week. Guyger received a 10-year prison sentence for fatally shooting Botham Jean, an unarmed man in a Dallas apartment she had mistaken for her own.

Kemp left the bench to approach and hug the tearful Guyger, handing her what she said was one of the personal Bibles she used every day.

“This is your job for the next month,” Kemp told Guyger. “It says right here. John 3:16. And this is where you start. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life ...’”

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which includes presidential son Ron Reagan Jr., on its honorary board, filed its complaint Thursday with the Texas State commission on Judicial Conduct, saying Kemp’s “proselytizing actions overstepped judicial authority.”

The Wisconsin-based group asked the commission to investigate the incident as a violation under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which includes presidential son Ron Reagan Jr., on its honorary board, filed its complaint Thursday with the Texas State commission on Judicial Conduct, saying Kemp’s “proselytizing actions overstepped judicial authority.”

The Wisconsin-based group asked the commission to investigate the incident as a violation under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.

•Text (excluding headline) courtesy of USA Today. Photo shows State District Judge Tammy Kemp giving former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger left for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Dallas. Guyger, who said she mistook neighbour Botham Jean’s apartment for her own and fatally shot him in his living room, was sentenced to a decade in prison. (Photo: Tom Fox, The Dallas Morning News, via AP)

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