Insulting jail sentence DoJ wants for cop involved in botched Breonna Taylor raid
Despite Hankison's conviction carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division submitted a sentencing memorandum late Wednesday requesting that the former Louisville Police officer, serve only one day.
Hankinson's lenient sentence however would amount to time already served since he was booked and made his initial court appearance.
The controversial filing attempted to minimize Hankison's role in the 2020 killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman fatally shot in her home during a no-knock raid.
'He did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death,' the DOJ's memo stated.
During the raid, Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a legally owned firearm at officers he believed were intruders.
Police responded by firing 22 shots into the apartment.
Although none of Hankison's bullets hit Taylor or anyone else, they pierced the walls into a neighboring apartment where a couple and their five-year-old child lived.
Hankison was found guilty in November 2024 of violating Taylor's civil rights by recklessly firing blindly into her window, which was obscured by blackout curtains and blinds.
A previous trial in 2023 ended in a mistrial, and Hankison was later acquitted of charges related to endangering the neighbors.
The officer who fired the shots that killed Taylor, Myles Cosgrove, never faced criminal charges for his role in the raid. However, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired him in 2021.
Now, the DOJ's sentencing memo, authored by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon and senior counsel Robert J. Keenan, argued that Hankison's lack of a prior criminal record and the psychological stress he endured from the trials merited leniency.
The memo stated that 'there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public from the defendant or to provide 'just' punishment or deterrence.'
The memorandum also noted that Hankison's conviction would likely prevent him from ever working in law enforcement or legally owning a firearm again.
Hankison (pictured) was found guilty in November 2024 of violating Taylor's civil rights by recklessly firing blindly into her window
The recommendation has prompted sharp criticism, especially from attorneys representing Taylor's family, who blasted the proposal as disgracefully inadequate.
'This sets a dangerous precedent. 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,' attorneys Ben Crump, Lonita Baker, and Sam Aguiar said in a joint statement, Reuters reported.
They urged the presiding judge to reject the DOJ's recommendation and 'do what the DOJ has refused to do' by upholding the law and ensuring real justice.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020, as public outrage over Taylor's death grew.
Her killing, along with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, helped fuel a nationwide movement demanding racial justice and police reform.
The DOJ, under President Joe Biden, had previously brought civil rights charges against officers involved in both Taylor's and Floyd's deaths. However, recent changes within the DOJ's Civil Rights Division have raised concern.
Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump-appointed official who now leads the division, recently shut down efforts to pursue court-approved settlements with the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments and rescinded earlier findings of systemic civil rights abuses.
Notably, the sentencing recommendation for Hankison was not signed by any of the career prosecutors who tried the case. It was instead submitted by Dhillon and Keenan.
Keenan, who previously argued in another case that a deputy sheriff should avoid prison time despite a felony civil rights conviction, has faced criticism in the past for downplaying excessive force.
Hankison is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday and if the judge adopts the DOJ's request, he will serve no additional jail time.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
10 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Police chiefs and SNP leave us short-changed
Edinburgh has fewer officers available now than it did in 2017 In recent months, several concerned residents have contacted me about social media posts by Police Scotland, informing them that the public counter at Gayfield Square station was closed. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... After a bit of digging, I found that the station, which should be open 24/7, had been closed over 40 times in April and early May alone. What's more, many of the closures were taking place at night. Concerned, I wrote to the local commander and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. The response I received from Chief Inspector Brian Manchester revealed that 'to ensure adequate levels of frontline coverage of operational officers' the front counter at Gayfield Square had, on occasion, to be closed. In other words: Edinburgh does not have enough police officers. Many readers will not be surprised to hear this, as it is an issue I have raised before, in the Evening News as well as in parliament. Yet despite repeated efforts from my parliamentary colleagues as well as the Tory council group leader Ian Whyte, the problem has not been addressed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A quick look at Police Scotland's website reveals that the Edinburgh City division has fewer officers available now than it did in 2017 (3591 vs. 3624 respectively) and nearly 400 fewer than in 2021 (3969). The recruitment and resource problems are national. In May the chair of the Scottish Police Federation warned that areas of Scotland have been left with 'an almost invisible policing presence, providing an utterly reactive service'. More than 100 police stations have been closed since the inception of Police Scotland in 2013. In April, I found that 21 stations in Edinburgh required repairs or were deemed unfit for purpose. Across Scotland, that figure is over 300. In Edinburgh, this situation is particularly worrying. Our city has had one of the lowest police-to-population ratios in Scotland for years now. At the same time, Edinburgh is growing at three times the Scottish average rate. NHS Lothian predicts that in the period up to 2033 the region will represent 84 per cent of the country's population growth. Sadly, the combination of an under-resourced police force and the SNP's ludicrously soft-touch approach to law and order has produced the spike in crime one would expect. Over the last six months alone, my team and I have revealed the following; drug offences such as possession, supply, importation, and bringing drugs into prisons have increased by an average of 61 per cent over the last two years; incidents of anti-social behaviour on Lothian buses have more than doubled since 2022; shoplifting has increased by more than 100 per cent since 2022; violent incidents at HMP Edinburgh have increased by 97 per cent in the last ten years; and violence in Edinburgh's secondary schools has increased by more than 92 per cent since 2019/20. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Edinburgh Leisure staff should not require police training to deal with e-bike hooligans, businesses should not have to employ private security to deter thieves, and residents of our once peaceful suburbs should not have to live in fear of a violent, drug-fuelled gang war on their doorsteps. Police Scotland must accept responsibility for the growing lawlessness in our streets. I appreciate the pressure that individual officers face every day and thank them for their work. However, the priorities of senior management are clearly misplaced if the busiest and fastest growing city in their jurisdiction is not adequately manned and patrolled. More broadly, it is plain to see that the SNP's approach to justice is also a failure. Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Angela Constance, must accept this and work with Police Scotland to ensure that Edinburgh has the officers and resources required to remain a safe and prosperous city. One in which people can walk home at night, knowing that the local police station is open and ready to help. Miles Briggs is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Dentist's daughter stuns murder trial with testimony about plot to cover up mom's 'poisoning'... with her help
The 20-year-old daughter of dentist James Craig and the wife he's accused of fatally poisoning told the court on Thursday how he'd asked the then-teenager to create a deep fake video exonerating him after his arrest for murder. Craig, 47, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the March 2023 poisoning death of the mother of his six children, Angela. He's been in custody ever since his arrest the day after the 43-year-old's death, which followed weeks of mysterious symptoms. Prosecutors allege he considered his wife 'a problem' and poisoned her with a combination of cyanide, arsenic and a chemical found in eyedrops to pave the way for his new life with a mistress and to ease financial problems. Then he continued hatching criminal plots from behind bars, allege prosecutors, who added charges of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence and solicitation to commit perjury. Craig's third-oldest child, Annabelle, testified Thursday about one of those plots. Her father called her from custody shortly after his arrest to ask her to bond out another inmate, she said. Craig told her the inmate, Jonathan, was a cousin she didn't know - something she didn't immediately query given her extended family's large size. The dentist also gave her instructions of how to find a bail bondsman, and she drove to the detention facility, she testified. While there, Annabelle admitted in a phone call to her older brother what she was doing, and he arrived at the jail with their paternal uncle. The teen had already successfully bonded out Jonathan, however, who passed along a letter from her father on 'pieces of printer paper... taped together by masking tape.' Outside the jail, she read it aloud in the car to her brother and uncle. The letter admitted to past infidelities and told Annabelle that her parents had been playing a 'game of chicken' – with Craig claiming that Angela had asked him to order fatal poisons. Craig wrote to Annabelle that 'we need a deep-fake video of Mom saying she asked [Craig] to order cyanide, arsenic and oleander, and she was going to take it herself,' the 20-year-old testified. The letter also offered numbered instructions that included buying a cheap laptop, installing a VPN, using the dark web, setting up an anonymous email account and buying a prepaid visa gift card, the court heard. Craig provided 'a guideline of what should be said in order for [the deep fake] to be inarguable ... that it needs to be believable,' she said. The dentist instructed her to burn the video onto thumb drives, tell investigators the teen had found them among her mother's things, then destroy the laptop, the court heard. Before she took the stand, her older sister, Miriam, testified through her tears that Angela Craig had adored being a mother, lived for her six children and was in no way suicidal. Her father, seated at the defense table, dabbed his eyes as his Miriam described the loving, close relationship she had with her mother. His lawyers have tried to paint a picture of Angela as 'manipulative' and struggling, with Craig claiming his wife wanted the drugs herself to end her life. Miriam, who married six months before her mother's death, told the court that her mother had been 'frustrated' with a mystery illness that began in early March. As she got progressively sicker, Miriam testified, her mother wanted nothing more than to return to her children, including her two youngest daughters Angela had recently begun homeschooling. 'She wanted to get back home,' Miriam said. 'She wanted to stop sleeping in the hospital beds; they made her butt hurt. She just wanted to get back to her girls.' After Angela was declared brain dead on March 15, 2023, Miriam told jurors about an unusual conversation she had with her father before his arrest. 'When we went to say goodbye to my mom ... we were walking out of the hospital, and I asked my dad if they could do an autopsy and find out what was wrong with her,' Miriam testified. 'He said he didn't want them to.' The 21-year-old said Craig told her he didn't want to 'satisfy their curiosities - if they couldn't figure it out while she was alive, they shouldn't be allowed to poke around at her if she was gone.' She protested that the illness could be hereditary - asking Craig: 'What if it happens to' her youngest sister? 'What if something happens to her? Wouldn't you want to know?' Miriam said Thursday. 'And he just stayed quiet.' She said that, knowing her parents' marriage had struggled in previous years, she felt in the months before Angela's death that the union had improved so much she wanted to model her own relationship with her new husband on it. Relatives in the courtroom cried and wiped their eyes as she explained how Angela loved animals, looked forward to being a grandmother and fantasized about fixing up homes with her oldest daughter. 'We were making plans,' Miriam said, sobbing. 'She'd talk to me about how fun it'd be when I had kids of my own ... how excited she was to be a grandma.' Craig has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial continues on Friday.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: Fallout from Epstein case widens as Trump threatens to sue WSJ
Growing pressure on the Trump administration has prompted the US president to direct his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking case. The announcement came as Trump seeks to tamp down controversy over a story published in the Wall Street Journal that alleges the US president contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein's 50th birthday album. The president has said the letter is a fake, and that he will sue the publication over the story. The fallout over the Epstein case has also complicated House Republicans' plans to vote on Thursday on legislation demanded by Trump to slash government spending. Here are the key stories at a glance: The president said on Truth Social he had authorized the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing 'the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein'. Bondi, who has weathered days of accusations by Trump's far-right supporters that she had mismanaged and failed to deliver on promises to release previously secret documents about the Epstein case, responded to Trump's post with a post of her own that vowed to comply with the directive. The flurry of activity followed the Wall Street Journal report alleging that Trump had contributed the letter – described as 'bawdy' and featuring a drawing of a naked woman's silhouette around a typewritten personal message to Epstein – to an album compiled by Ghislane Maxwell for Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denied to the Journal that he was the author of the tribute and, hours after the story was published, announced he intended to file a lawsuit against the publication. Read the full story The House of Representatives faces a Friday deadline to pass the rescissions package demanded by Trump and approved by the Senate. But before the House can vote on the package, it must be approved by the rules committee, where the Democratic minority has sought to capitalize on a growing furor among Republicans and their supporters over the Trump administration's handling of documents related to the Epstein case. The committee announced it would hold a hearing into the package on Thursday evening. Read the full story Donald Trump's efforts to dismiss the criticism over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as a 'hoax' showed no sign of working on Thursday as more prominent figures from across the political spectrum emerged to attack the US president and some of his supporters recorded videos burning their signature Make America Great Again hats. Read the full story Medicaid officials have reportedly made an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to allow agents to examine a database of Americans' personal information – including home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities. The data sharing agreement will allow Ice to find 'the location of aliens', according to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press. Read the full story Donald Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, the White House said on Thursday, after he noticed swelling in his legs. It is a fairly common condition among older adults, but requires a thorough checkup to rule out more serious causes of swelling in the legs. Read the full story Officials in Florida diverted crucial disaster preparedness and response resources to support the hasty construction of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention jail by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a newly published report has claimed. Read the full story A delegation of US officials toured Alcatraz on Thursday as part of Donald Trump's pledge to reopen the shuttered federal prison and tourist attraction in the San Francisco Bay, amid an outcry from California leaders who have called the plan 'lunacy'. Read the full story Tens of thousands of people joined marches and rallies at more than 1,500 sites across all 50 US states on Thursday to protest against the Trump administration and honor the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis, an advocate for voting rights and civil disobedience. Read the full story Exclusive: Donald Trump's huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals. Read the full story Five migrants deported by the US to the small southern African country of Eswatini, under the Trump administration's third-country program, will be held in solitary confinement for an undetermined time, an Eswatini government spokesperson says. Thabile Mdluli, the spokesperson, told the Associated Press that Eswatini planned to ultimately repatriate the five to their home countries with the help of a UN agency. Read the full story Republican senators advanced Emil Bove's nomination to serve as a judge on a federal appeals court even as Democrats walked out in protest. The Coca-Cola company defended its use of corn syrup after Trump's claim that he had apparently convinced the brand to switch to using sugar cane in its US drinks. An Oregon father was arrested by Ice and taken into custody while dropping off his child at a preschool in the Portland-area, the agency confirmed. California governor Gavin Newsom threatens to redraw California House maps in protest over a Republican plan to pick up congressional seats in Texas. Catching up? Here's what happened on 16 July 2025.
