Nationwide — Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in the course of the raid the place she was killed, has been sentenced to 33 months in jail. The decide rejected a one-day sentence that had been advisable by the earlier Justice Division.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black lady, was killed in March 2020 throughout a late-night police raid on her house. Officers entered utilizing a no-knock warrant. Her boyfriend, pondering they have been intruders, fired a legally owned gun. Police returned fireplace, fatally taking pictures Taylor. The incident sparked nationwide protests over police violence and racial injustice.
Although Hankison didn’t shoot Taylor, he fired a number of rounds blindly by means of a coated window and door. A federal jury convicted him in November 2024 of violating Taylor’s rights. He had beforehand been acquitted on state prices in 2022.
In response to Reuters, U.S. District Decide Rebecca Grady Jennings lately delivered the 33-month sentence. She criticized prosecutors for making an attempt to reduce Hankison’s punishment. She mentioned politics appeared to affect their suggestion of simply at some point in jail, which she known as unacceptable given the seriousness of the case.
Taylor’s mom, Tamika Palmer, her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, and different members of the family spoke in court docket, urging the decide to impose the utmost sentence. Palmer instructed the decide, “A bit of me was taken from me that day,” Palmer mentioned. “You will have the facility to make right this moment the primary day of true accountability.”
In court docket, Hankison apologized to Taylor’s household. He mentioned he would have acted otherwise had he identified concerning the issues with the search warrant that led officers to Taylor’s house. “I by no means would have fired my gun,” he instructed the decide.
The Justice Division’s sentencing memo, filed by Trump-era political appointees, claimed Hankison wasn’t chargeable for Taylor’s dying. Notably, the memo wasn’t signed by any of the profession prosecutors who had tried the case.
