Ex-cop jailed for 33 months over Breonna Taylor raid

Perth Now

6 days ago

Former US police officer Brett Hankison has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for violating Breonna Taylor's rights during the raid in which she was shot and killed.
US President Donald Trump's Justice Department had asked the judge to imprison him for a single day.
Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers in March 2020 after they used a no-knock warrant at her home.
Her boyfriend, believing they were intruders, fired on the officers with a legally owned firearm, prompting them to return fire.
Taylor's death, along with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer, sparked racial justice protests across the US over the treatment of people of colour by police departments.
US District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings criticised prosecutors for making an "180-degree" turn in their approach to the case and said political factors appeared to have influenced its recommendation for a one-day prison sentence.
"This sentence will not and cannot be measured against Ms Taylor's life and the incident as a whole," Jennings said.
The sentence was at the low end of the 33 to 41 months called for under federal sentencing guidelines, but far more severe than the Justice Department under Trump had sought.
Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, several other family members and Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend at the time, all spoke in court to ask the judge to impose the maximum penalty.
"A piece of me was taken from me that day. You have the power to make today the first day of true accountability," Palmer told the judge.
During then-president Joe Biden's administration, the Justice Department brought criminal civil rights charges against the officers involved in both Taylor and Floyd's deaths.
Hankison was convicted by a federal jury in November 2024 of one count of violating Taylor's civil rights, after the first attempt to prosecute him ended with a mistrial.
He was separately acquitted on state charges in 2022.
In a brief statement to the court, Hankison apologised to Taylor's family and friends and said he would have acted differently if he had known about issues with the preparation of the search warrant that led police to Taylor's home that night.
"I never would have fired my gun," he said.
The Justice Department's sentencing memo for Hankison downplayed his role in the raid at Taylor's home, saying he "did not shoot Ms Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death".
It was submitted on July 16 by Harmeet Dhillon, a political appointee by Trump to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division, and her counsel Robert Keenan.
Lawyers for Taylor's family called the department's sentencing recommendation for Hankison an insult, and urged the judge to "deliver true justice" for her.