US Justice Department wants no prison time for ex-officer convicted in Breonna Taylor raid
Brett Hankison is the only officer who fired his weapon the night of the March 2020 botched drug raid who has faced criminal charges. His shots didn't hit or injure anyone, though they flew through Taylor's walls into a neighboring apartment. A federal judge will decide Hankison's sentence, which could amount to several years, on Tuesday, July 22, at a hearing. If the judge heeds the Justice Department's request, it would mean that none of the Louisville police officers involved in the botched raid would face any prison time.
The Justice Department, which has changed leadership under President Donald Trump since Hankison's conviction, said in a sentencing memo this week that "there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public" from Hankison. Federal prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him to time served − which amounts to one day − and three years of supervised probation.
Prosecutors at his previous federal trials aggressively pursued a conviction against Hankison, arguing that he blindly fired 10 shots into Taylor's windows without identifying a target. Taylor was shot in her hallway by two other officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment, striking an officer in the leg. But in the sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison's "response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant's fellow officers, or anyone else."
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor's family secure a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville, said the Justice Department's recommendation "is an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury's decision. 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," Crump said in a statement on social media.
Three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant , but they have not yet gone to trial. None of them were at the scene when Taylor was shot. The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice protests nationwide that year.
A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in 2023, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Trump to release AI action plan that leans into Silicon Valley's ideas
US President Donald Trump is expected to release an artificial intelligence (AI) action plan Wednesday that has been six months in the making. Trump launched a review process shortly after his inauguration in January that gave his tech advisors six months to come up with new AI policies after axing former president Joe Biden's AI guardrails. A senior official told the Associated Press that the Act will include some familiar tech lobby pitches, like accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to build the data centres that fuel AI growth. It might also include some ways to combat the "liberal bias" the Trump administration sees in OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. David Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticising 'woke AI' for more than a year, after Google rolled out an image generator that, when prompted to show one of the country's founding fathers, showed Black, Asian, and Native American men. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
US ex-policeman sentenced to 33 months over fatal Breonna Taylor raid
A US federal judge on Monday, July 21, rejected an appeal for leniency by the Justice Department and sentenced an ex-police officer to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose 2020 killing fueled widespread protests. Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police department detective, was convicted by a jury in Kentucky in November, for having abused Taylor's civil rights by firing shots during a botched police raid on her home. In an unusual intervention last week, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department's (DOJ) civil rights division, asked Judge Rebecca Jennings to sentence Hankison to time served: the single day he spent in jail at the time of his arrest. However, Jennings, who was appointed to the bench by US President Donald Trump during his first term as president, rejected the recommendation and said she was troubled by the prosecutor's sentencing memorandum and arguments for leniency, the Louisville Courier Journal said. She sentenced him to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Hankison faced a maximum penalty of life in prison. 'Continue to call out the DOJ's failure' Dhillon, in her sentencing memorandum to the judge, had argued that a lengthy prison term for Hankison would be "unjust." "Hankison did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death," she said. "Hankison did not wound her or anyone else at the scene that day, although he did discharge his duty weapon 10 times blindly into Ms. Taylor's home." Responding to Monday's verdict, the Taylor family's lawyers noted that while the sentence did not "fully reflect the severity of the harm caused," it was "more than what the Department of Justice sought." "We respect the court's decision, but we will continue to call out the DOJ's failure to stand firmly behind Breonna's rights and the rights of every Black woman whose life is treated as expendable," they said in a statement. Biden-era discrimination lawsuits dropped Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her Louisville apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door. Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding a police officer. Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock search warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor. Hankison fired 10 shots during the raid, some into a neighboring apartment, but did not hit anyone. He is the only police officer convicted in connection with the raid. Help us improve Le Monde in English Dear reader, We'd love to hear your thoughts on Le Monde in English! Take this quick survey to help us improve it for you. The deaths of Taylor, 26, and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality. In May, the Justice Department announced that it was dropping lawsuits filed by the administration of former president Joe Biden against police forces in Louisville and Minneapolis that accused them of using excessive force and racial discrimination.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Euronews
Trump administration moves to release grand jury files in Epstein case
The US Justice Department has requested a federal court to unseal secret documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's case. Trump has been under growing pressure from his loyal base after the US Justice Department announced last week that it would not release any more evidence about the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019. Trump promised in his campaign trail to unseal all records pertaining to the case in an effort to be fully transparent about government goings on. The administration has even stoked conspiracy theories and pledged to uncover government secrets of the 'deep state'. But the surprise decision, announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi did not sit well with supporters of the Republican president, who have accused Trump, who formerly had ties with Epstein, of being personally implicated in the evidence. The latest development came on Thursday after US media outlet, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), reported that Trump had written a birthday letter to Epstein, part of a 2003 album for the financier's 50th birthday, which was sexually suggestive in nature. 'Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret' said the letter reportedly bearing Trump's name, outlined by what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman, collected by British socialite and Epstein's former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump denied the accusation, insisting he did not write the letter, calling the story 'false, malicious and defamatory'. 'These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures,' he added, and promised to take legal action against the WSJ. In the early hours of Saturday, Trump announced that he had filed a 'powerhouse' $10 billion (€8.6 billion) lawsuit against the outlet, accusing its reporters of having 'knowingly and recklessly' published false and defamatory articles causing 'overwhelming financial and reputational harm'. The article was also one of the major causes behind Trump's decision to unseal the court documents of grand jury testimonies in the Epstein case, in a desperate bid to clear his name of any implications or wrongdoing, and mend ties with his base. Grand juries decide whether there is enough evidence to bring an indictment, or a formal criminal charge, and their proceedings are secret to protect the reputations of people who end up not being charged and to encourage reluctant witnesses to testify. Grand jury transcripts — which could show the testimony of witnesses and other evidence presented by prosecutors — are rarely released by courts, unless they need to be disclosed in connection with a judicial proceeding. Even with the Justice Department endorsement, it could take weeks or months of legal wrangling to decide what can be released and how to protect witnesses and other sensitive victim information. It's also unlikely for the transcripts to offer any jaw-dropping revelations to conspiracy theorists obsessed with the Epstein case. The uproar over the Epstein files was never about the grand jury transcripts, but about the thousands of other documents in the government's possession, which the Trump administration now says it won't release. Following the first failed release of Epstein files in February, Bondi said officials were sifting through a 'truckload' of previously withheld evidence handed over by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After a monthslong review of evidence, Bondi later announced that her Justice Department determined that 'no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted'. She's since not fully explained the reasoning behind the decision and largely refused to answer questions on the matter. The Justice Department's decision to seek grand jury transcripts gives the administration a reason to point to the courts to explain why more material hasn't yet been released, but not releasing other files in their possession is likely to only fuel further conspiracy and increase pressure on the Trump administration.
