An atheist group has filed a complaint following an emotional display of mercy and forgiveness in a Texas courtroom earlier this week.

Brandt Jean hugged his brother's killer, former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, following Jean's victim impact statement at Guyger's sentencing hearing. Jean had also shared the gospel with Guyger, telling her that the best thing she could do is to give her life to Jesus.

The powerful scene played out in a Dallas, Texas courtroom on Wednesday.

Following the embrace, the judge, Tammy Kemp, went into her chambers and came back out with her personal Bible. Kemp read John 3:16 to Guyger and then presented her with the Bible. The judge also hugged Guyger before she was taken away after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean.

Guyger admitted to shooting Jean after she walked into what she thought was her apartment and finding him in there. Jean was sitting on a couch eating a bowl of ice cream. However, Guyger had mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment.

'Not embraced by all'

On Thursday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a complaint against Kemp with the Texas government agency who looks into allegations of judicial misconduct, according to the New York Times.

“Delivering Bibles and personally witnessing as a judge is an egregious abuse of power,” the foundation wrote in a letter to Texas officials. Kemp “transmitted her personal religious beliefs as a state official in an official proceeding of the gravest nature.”

The Times reports that Kemp ran a campaign partly based on her faith in 2014. Judges for some courts in the U.S.A. are elected. The Times says that ads in a local magazine said "As a woman of faith with strong Christian values, my husband and I fasted and prayed about my decision to run."

The courtroom interaction took place after the trial was over and the jury had been dismissed. Some experts say that the concerns raised are reasonable, but that because the trial was over and the jury dismissed this decision won't be an easy one.

"We want our judges to be human and to show their humanity," Renee Knake, a law professor at the University of Houston and expert in judicial ethics, tells the Times. "That’s why our cases are decided by human beings and not machines."

Judge Kemp also hugged the Jean family following the trial.