By Joseph WilliamsWord In Black
In 2024, when a federal jury convicted a former Louisville cop for his position within the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor, he confronted life behind bars. However final week, the Division of Justice — beneath new management hand-picked by President Donald Trump — argued that the defendant is carrying a heavy “emotional burden” and shouldn’t serve greater than a day.
On July 21, a federal choose stated no.
In a pointy rebuke of the revamped DOJ, Choose Rebecca Grady Jennings dominated that Brett Hankinson — the one officer concerned within the raid to reply for Taylor’s loss of life, despite the fact that he didn’t shoot her — ought to spend virtually three years in a federal jail.
Saying she was “troubled” by the division’s argument for leniency, Jennings imposed the sentence in opposition to Hankinson, 49, throughout a day listening to in Louisville U.S. District Courtroom. Jennings stated the one-day sentence prosecutors needed “will not be applicable,” it minimizes the jury’s verdict, and that it was startling Hankison’s reckless actions didn’t hurt extra individuals.
Federal sentencing tips really useful Hankison serve between 10 and 14 years for violating Taylor’s civil rights. The previous officer, who was fired from the Louisville Police Division, apologized to Taylor’s household earlier than the sentence was imposed; he’ll stay free on bond till the Bureau of Prisons assigns him to a facility.
Outrage on the Justice Division
Talking after the listening to, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents Taylor’s household and helped them win a $12 million wrongful-death judgment in opposition to the town, stated he was outraged by the Justice Division’s suggestion that Hankison shouldn’t be punished — and praised the choose for ignoring it.
Seeing each the prosecutors and the protection attorneys argue for leniency made the five-hour listening to seem to be “a George Orwell story,” Crump stated.
“By no means in my profession as a lawyer have I heard the prosecutor argue so adamantly for a convicted felon who had been convicted by a jury who heard all of the proof,” he stated, noting that the DOJ beneath the Biden administration retried Hankison after a mistrial in 2023. “The choose talked about how she was troubled. She agreed … that it gave the impression to be a 180-degree, about-face within the courtroom.”
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mom, instructed reporters that Jennings “did the perfect she might with what she needed to work with … there was no prosecution for us. There was no prosecution in there for Breonna.”
She was not sure, nevertheless, if there was justice for her daughter: “We obtained one thing. I don’t assume it was a good sentencing, nevertheless it was a begin.”
Demise by the hands of police
The July 21 listening to probably marks the tip of a case that rocked the town, triggered outrage within the Black group, and led to weeks of protesters taking to the streets nationwide, demanding justice for a lady most had by no means met.
A 26-year-old emergency medical technician, Taylor was amongst a spate of unarmed Black individuals who died by the hands of police in 2020, drawing consideration to the problem of unjust, racist lethal power in America. Her killing got here simply months earlier than a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck on a downtown road nook.
The incident in Louisville unfolded early on March 12, when officers investigating a suspected drug ring obtained a “no-knock” search warrant to raid his dwelling. Performing on unhealthy info, nevertheless, the officers erroneously focused Taylor’s dwelling, barging in as she slept along with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III.
Alarmed on the commotion, Walker grabbed his gun and opened fireplace on the intruders, wounding one officer within the thigh. Shocked police returned fireplace, killing Taylor.
Although Hankinson didn’t hit Taylor — he was outdoors, and, with out trying, fired 10 photographs into the condominium by way of a window in the course of the chaos — not one of the different officers who truly shot her confronted felony expenses. State prosecutors concluded the officers have been justified as a result of they have been defending themselves in opposition to Taylor, however the police division sacked them.
A number of others concerned within the raid have been disciplined or misplaced their jobs for offering defective details about the raid and trying to cowl it up.
“He didn’t kill or wound Breonna Taylor”
Of their sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that, despite the fact that Hankison’s actions the night time of the raid have been “unreasonable given the good thing about hindsight,” he “didn’t kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, the defendant’s fellow officers or anybody else.”
The federal government’s request for leniency, consultants say, deliberately sends the message that the Justice Division — which, beneath former President Joe Biden, had reached an settlement to assist reform the Louisville Police Division — now will probably abandon that deal. The retrenchment is in step with Trump’s “anti-woke” agenda, and alerts that prosecutors will not problem race-based discrimination.
Throughout the listening to, attorneys for Hankison and federal prosecutors appeared virtually in sync in defending Hankison and recommending no jail time. At instances, Taylor’s family members expressed frustration with prosecutor Rob Keenan — notably when he agreed with Hankison’s protection staff that their consumer wasn’t a menace to the general public and shouldn’t obtain a prolonged sentence.
This text was initially printed by Phrase In Black.
