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Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Why do US prosecutors want a one-day sentence for Breonna Taylor shooting?
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking a shortened prison sentence of just one day for an ex-police officer convicted of using excessive force during a raid in Louisville, Kentucky that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, an African-American medical worker, in March 2020. Brett Hankison was convicted in November last year of blindly firing several shots during a failed drug raid, which resulted in Taylor's death. Although his shots were not the ones which hit Taylor, prosecutors argued his actions were a violation of Taylor's rights and others present at the scene. After it spent several years pursuing a conviction under the previous administration, the DOJ's recommendation on Thursday represents a 180-degree turn, which has caused anger in the Black community. Hankison's sentencing will take place on Monday, when a federal judge will decide his term at a hearing. Here's what we know about the case: What happened to Breonna Taylor? Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot dead during a raid by police from the Louisville Metro Police Department in her apartment in the early hours of March 13, 2020. Seven plain-clothed officers executed a 'no-knock' search warrant. Three officers broke down the door to her two-bedroom apartment, where Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Walker, who possessed a licensed firearm, fired one shot. He later told police he thought the men were intruders. One officer, Jonathan Mattingly, was struck and wounded in the thigh. Mattingly and his colleague, Miles Cosgrove, directly returned fire into the apartment. Cosgrove delivered the fatal shot that killed Taylor. She was shot six times and died in the hallway. Hankison ran to the side of the building and fired 10 shots into the apartment through a window and sliding door covered with blinds. Some of the bullets hit an occupied apartment adjacent to Taylor's. A report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that the police fired 32 shots in total. Jamarcus Glover, Taylor's ex-boyfriend, had been the original target of the search, as authorities believed he hid narcotics at Taylor's apartment. He was arrested at a separate location in Louisville that night, before Taylor's killing. It is unclear if the same team of officers arrested Glover. Taylor's murder, and an initial absence of charges against the police officers involved, triggered mass, months-long protests across the country. No officers faced direct charges over Taylor's death. Only Hankison faced charges for firing blindly. Taylor's case and the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, fuelled a national reckoning on racism and police brutality as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Taylor's family received a $12m settlement from the city of Louisville in September 2020. The city also banned no-knock raids with the introduction of the 'Breonna Law'. Why are prosecutors recommending a one-day sentence? Prosecutors under the Trump administration are recommending that Hankison serve no further jail term for the case, and that he should instead be sentenced to time already served plus three years of supervised probation. Hankison served one day in jail after he was arrested in 2023 for his first court appearance. At the time, federal prosecutors under the Biden administration sought a conviction against him that could have amounted to a maximum life sentence. In November 2024, a federal jury found Hankison guilty of using excessive force and depriving Taylor of her civil rights. However, in a memo on Thursday, the DOJ said there 'is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public' from Hankison. The memo added that although Hankison's response in the 'fraught circumstances was unreasonable' in hindsight, 'that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbours, defendant's fellow officers, or anyone else'. What happened to the other officers? Hankison is the only one of the three officers at the scene to face charges. He was fired from the police force in June 2020, and Cosgrove was fired in 2021, after local investigations determined they had violated standard practice by shooting blindly. Mattingly retired in April 2021. Another ex-officer who was not at the scene pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating Taylor's civil rights by falsely stating on the search warrant that Taylor received packages for Glover. Two other former officers pleaded not guilty to similar charges. If the court heeds the DOJ's advice, none of the officers involved in the case would have faced jail time. It is not certain that the court will agree to the recommendation. How have Taylor's family responded? Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who helped Taylor's family secure the $12m settlement against Louisville, said in a statement on the social media site X that the DOJ's recommendation was an 'insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury's decision'. 'This sets a dangerous precedent,' Crump wrote on Thursday. 'When a police officer is found guilty of violating someone's constitutional rights, there must be real accountability and justice. Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity.' What was the verdict in Hankison's trial? The DOJ, under a different leadership, charged Hankison in 2022 on one count of violating the civil rights of Taylor and her boyfriend, Walker, as well as Taylor's neighbours, when he blindly fired into her home. The state of Kentucky arraigned Hankison on similar charges but cleared him of wrongdoing in March 2022. However, after four days of deliberation, a federal jury declared a mistrial in November 2023, as jurors were unable to reach a joint decision. Witnesses gave conflicting testimonies, including about whether the police officers had announced themselves at the scene of the shooting. Walker, for one, testified that the officers did not identify themselves before breaking in. Other police officers, including Cosgrove, also testified that Hankison had violated standard practice when he shot into Taylor's apartment blindly, and without identifying a target. Hankison, who took the stand, defended his 'helplessness' at the scene, saying he believed his team was being attacked. The officer claimed he saw Walker's figure illuminated by the muzzle flash from his weapon and said he thought the gun was an AR-15 rifle, which prompted him to go to the other side of the apartment and open fire. Do police officers receive light sentences for killing or assaulting Black people in the US? Many activists and rights groups believe the US law enforcement and justice systems allow officers, especially white officers involved in the wrongful deaths and assault of Black people, to get away with overly lenient punishment, compared with civilians. Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on George Floyd for nine minutes until he died in May 2020, was seen as an exception when he was sentenced to 22 years in jail. Some other cases which have drawn criticism for light sentences for police officers, however, include the following: Police officer Kimberly Potter shot dead Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, in April 2021. Potter, who shot Wright at close range in the chest, later said she had meant to use her service Taser rather than her gun. Wright died at the scene. Potter was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter and received a sentence of just two years, serving 16 months. The city of Brooklyn Center paid a settlement of $3.25m to Wright's family for his wrongful death. Following public outrage and protests over Wright's death, the police department changed its policies about arresting people for misdemeanour offences. Wright's death also led to changes in police Taser procedures in Minnesota and other states. Elijah Jovan McClain, 23, was arrested by police officers in Aurora, Colorado, while walking home from a convenience store on August 24, 2019. The police officers were responding to a call from a person concerned about an unarmed man wearing a ski mask and 'looking sketchy'. McClain was handcuffed while one of the officers applied a chokehold. When paramedics arrived, they injected McClain with 500mg of ketamine to sedate him. He suffered cardiac arrest and died in hospital six days later. Three police officers and two paramedics were charged with his death. Two officers were acquitted of all charges. Both paramedics and one of the officers were convicted of negligent homicide. One of the paramedics was also found guilty of second-degree assault and sentenced to five years in prison and three years' probation. Chicago ex-officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to just seven years in 2019 on charges of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery over the October 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old African American. Initial police reports claimed officers had responded to alerts of a teenager behaving erratically, and that McDonald had slashed the tyres of a truck with a knife and lunged at officers. Van Dyke fired 16 shots at McDonald as he walked away from police, according to dashcam footage released a year later. The officer was released early in 2022 for good behaviour. In 2019, the Chicago Police Board fired four officers for allegedly covering up the shooting. The nine-member board found the officers had exaggerated the threat posed by the teenager. Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years for murder after she killed her 26-year-old African-American neighbour and accountant, Botham Jean, in Dallas in September 2018. The sentence was far less than the 28 years prosecutors had sought. Guyger claimed she had entered Jean's apartment, which was directly below hers, by mistake, and thought he was an intruder. Mark Bessner was sentenced to five-to-15 years for involuntary manslaughter after he fired his Taser at African-American teenager Damon Grimes during a police car chase in Detroit in August 2017. Grimes crashed and died from his injuries. Los Angeles Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Stacey Koon were charged with excessive force but later acquitted after severely assaulting Rodney King, an African American, in March 1991. King was pulled over on suspicion of intoxicated driving but was severely assaulted, resulting in scores of fractures and brain damage. A court's decision to acquit the officers led to widespread riots in the city, during which 63 people died. Officers FH Pascal, WF Stevenson, and PL Whalen were sentenced to 20 years on manslaughter charges for the March 1938 death of Berry Lawson, a 27-year-old African American, but were pardoned within a year. Lawson was sleeping in the lobby of the Seattle hotel where he worked when he was arrested for loitering. The officers claimed Lawson was intoxicated and had fallen down a set of stairs during the arrest; however, evidence later emerged that they had beaten Lawson to death and arranged a fake witness to testify that Lawson had fallen.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
UK sanctions senior Russian intelligence officers over cyberattacks
The United Kingdom says it has sanctioned more than 20 Russian spies, hackers and agencies over what it called a 'sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity' to destabilise Europe. The Foreign Office said on Friday it was sanctioning three units of the Russian military intelligence GRU agency and 18 of its officers. Those sanctioned include officers it said were involved in preparing the attack against Ukraine's Mariupol theatre in the first month of the war in 2022, which killed hundreds of civilians of taking shelter inside the building. It also sanctioned those it accuses of involvement in targeting former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were the victims of a nerve agent Novichok poisoning attack in 2018 in the UK. 'GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,' Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement. The UK also said Russia had targeted media outlets, telecoms providers, political and democratic institutions, and energy infrastructure in the UK. British authorities have repeatedly accused Moscow of orchestrating malign activity, ranging from traditional espionage and actions to undermine democracy, to sabotage and assassinations. Russia denies claims Earlier this month, three men were convicted over an arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked business in London that police said was carried out at the behest of the Wagner mercenary group. Moscow has rejected such accusations, saying they were politically motivated and that it posed no threat to the UK. In addition to the sanctions aimed at GRU, the British foreign ministry said it was sanctioning three leaders of the 'African Initiative,' which it said was a Russian-funded social media content mill conducting information operations in West Africa. The UK has recently ramped up its military spending to help change its approach to defence, partly to address threats from Russia, nuclear risks and cyberattacks. The European Union and NATO also issued statements on Friday condemning what they described as Russia's destabilising hybrid activities. The UK move came on the same day the EU approved a new host of stiff sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The EU sanctions package includes a lower oil price cap, a ban on transactions with Nord Stream gas pipelines, and the targeting of more shadow fleet ships.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
How US dealt with the cases of nine Americans killed by Israel since 2022
Washington, DC – The family of Sayfollah Musallet, the United States citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last week, is calling for justice. Musallet's relatives want Washington to launch its own investigation into the incident to ensure accountability. The Florida-born 20-year-old is the ninth US citizen to be killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. None of the previous cases have led to criminal charges or US sanctions against the perpetrators. That lack of response is what advocates call a 'pattern of impunity', wherein Washington demands a probe without placing any significant pressure on Israel to produce results. In Musallet's case, the administration of President Donald Trump urged Israel to 'aggressively' investigate the killing. 'There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,' Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday. It is not clear if the US has taken any further actions to seek justice in the aftermath of the fatal beating. Critics say the 'pattern of impunity' stems in part from the historically close bonds between the US and Israel. Successive presidential administrations in the US have affirmed their 'unwavering' support for Israel, and the US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually. Here, Al Jazeera looks at who the eight other victims were, how the US has responded to their killing and where their cases stand. Omar Assad Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, was driving home in the occupied West Bank after visiting friends on January 12, 2022, when Israeli soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint. According to the autopsy report and his family's account, the troops dragged Assad out of his car and then handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded him, leaving him to die at a cold construction site. The administration of then-President Joe Biden called on Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the incident. But Assad's relatives and lawmakers from his home state of Milwaukee wanted Washington to conduct its own probe – a demand that never materialised. As is often the case, Israel's investigation into its own soldiers' conduct did not lead to any criminal charges. In 2023, the Israeli army said that it found no 'causal link' between the way its soldiers treated Assad and his death. The Biden administration also declined to apply sanctions under US law to the Israeli unit that killed Assad: the Netzah Yehuda, a battalion notorious for its abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank. Last year, the US Department of State announced that the battalion will still be eligible for US aid under the Leahy Law, which prohibits military assistance for security units involved in human rights violations. Shireen Abu Akleh Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022. Owing to her status as one of the most celebrated journalists in the Middle East, her killing sparked international outrage from rights groups and press freedom advocates. Despite the global attention, Israeli forces attacked her funeral in Jerusalem, beating the pallbearers carrying her coffin with batons. Israel initially denied killing Abu Akleh, 51, falsely claiming that the reporter was shot by armed Palestinians. Months later, after multiple visual investigations showed that Israeli soldiers targeted Abu Akleh, Israel acknowledged that its forces likely killed the reporter, dismissing the incident as an accident. The Biden administration faced waves of pleas by legislators and rights groups to launch its own investigation into the killing, but it resisted the calls, arguing that Israel is capable of investigating itself. In November 2022, Israeli media reports claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating the shooting of Abu Akleh, but the US Department of Justice never confirmed the probe. More than three years after Abu Akleh's killing, her family and supporters say justice in her case has not been served. Tawfiq Ajaq Born in Louisiana, Ajaq was 17 when he visited the occupied West Bank to see his relatives last year. On January 19, 2024, he was driving a pick-up truck with his friends when Israelis sprayed the vehicle with bullets and killed him. Mohammed Salameh, who witnessed and survived the attack, said the shooting was unprovoked. While it is not clear which individual shot Ajaq, Israel said the incident involved 'an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian' and was sparked by 'rock-throwing activities' – a claim that Salameh has denied. The US State Department called for an 'urgent investigation to determine the circumstance' of the incident. But more than 19 months after the shooting, Israel has not publicly released any findings or charged any suspect in the shooting. 'We feel abandoned by our government,' Ajaq's uncle, Mohammad Abdeljabbar, told Al Jazeera last year. Mohammad Khdour Khdour was also 17 when he was killed under almost identical circumstances to Ajaq just weeks later. According to his cousin Malek Mansour, who witnessed the attack, an unidentified assailant opened fire at their car in the occupied West Bank from a vehicle with an Israeli number plate. Mansour said the attack was unprovoked. Khdour died on February 10, 2024. The two had been eating cookies and taking selfies moments before the shooting. Once again, Washington called for a probe. 'There needs to be an investigation. We need to get the facts. And if appropriate, there needs to be accountability,' then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at that time. But advocates say that, while normally Israel launches sham investigations into such incidents, Israeli authorities have not acknowledged Khdour's killing at all. The Israeli military and police told the publication Haaretz last year that they are not familiar with the case. Jacob Flickinger An Israeli air strike targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle in Gaza on April 1, 2024, killing seven aid workers, sparking anger and condemnation across the world. Among the victims was Flickinger, a 33-year-old US-Canadian dual citizen. Biden called for a 'swift' Israeli investigation into the attack, which he said 'must bring accountability'. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blast a 'tragic accident'. The Israeli military said the commander who ordered the strike had 'mistakenly assumed' that gunmen in the area were in the aid vehicle. It added that the commander did not identify the car as associated with World Central Kitchen, a well-known hunger relief initiative founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres. A World Central Kitchen logo was displayed prominently on the top of the vehicle before the attack. Israel said it dismissed two commanders over the incident, but there were no criminal charges. Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of aid workers in Gaza, including Palestinian staff members from World Central Kitchen. Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza as well as other alleged war crimes. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi Eygi, born in Washington state, was participating in a protest against an illegal settler outpost in the West Bank on September 6, 2024, when an Israeli soldier shot her in the head. She was 26. While there were reports of a scuffle during a crackdown on the demonstration by Israeli forces, several witnesses have said that Eygi was shot during a calm period after the chaos had ended. The State Department called on Israel to 'quickly and robustly' investigate Eygi's killing, but it ruled out conducting its own probe. Biden dismissed her death as an 'accident', but Blinken condemned it as 'unprovoked and unjustified'. On the same day that Eygi was fatally shot by Israel, the US Justice Department filed charges against Hamas leaders after the killing of US-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza. The Israeli military said its soldiers likely killed Eygi 'indirectly and unintentionally' – a conclusion that her family called offensive, stressing that she was targeted by a sniper. 'The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling,' the family said in a statement. Trump ally Randy Fine, now a Congress member, celebrated the killing of Eygi. 'One less #MuslimTerrorist,' he wrote in a social media post, referring to the shooting. Kamel Jawad When Jawad, a celebrated leader in the Lebanese American community in Michigan, was killed by an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon on October 1 of last year, the Biden administration initially denied he was a US citizen. Washington later acknowledged that Jawad was American, expressing 'alarm' over his killing. 'As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy,' the US State Department said at that time. Israel has not commented publicly on the strike that killed Jawad. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) slammed the Biden administration's handling of the case, including the US government's initial 'smug' response. 'It's as if they're intentionally trying to see our people killed, intentionally downplaying us and dehumanising us,' ADC executive director Abed Ayoub told Al Jazeera last year. Amer Rabee On April 6, Israeli forces in the West Bank fatally shot 14-year-old Rabee, a New Jersey native, and called him a 'terrorist'. Two of his friends were also injured in the attack. While the Israeli military accused Rabee and his friends of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, the slain teenager's family insisted that he was picking almonds on the side of the road. The Trump administration failed to pursue accountability in the case or even publicly press for further details about the incident. Instead, the State Department cited the Israeli account about the 14-year-old's killing. 'We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,' the State Department said at that time. 'We acknowledge the [Israeli military's] initial statement that expressed that this incident occurred during a counter-terrorism operation.'
