The Division of Justice requested in a sentencing memo that Brett Hankison — a former Kentucky police officer who used to be convicted in reference to a raid that led to Breonna Taylor’s loss of life — serve at some point in jail.
Hankison used to be convicted in 2024 of the usage of over the top drive all over a botched 2020 drug raid that left Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency clinical technician, useless.
The then-Louisville police officer fired 10 photographs into Taylor’s glass door and home windows all over the raid, however did not hit any individual. Some photographs flew right into a next-door neighbor’s adjacent condominium. Taylor used to be shot in her hallway by way of two different officials after her boyfriend fired from throughout the condominium, putting an officer within the leg. Police didn’t in finding any narcotics on the condominium — and in a while Taylor’s loss of life become a rallying cry for racial justice around the nation.
Hankison used to be cleared of a federal rate of the usage of over the top drive on Taylor’s neighbors, and all over a 2022 state trial, he used to be acquitted of all fees after a jury deliberated for 3 hours. His first federal civil rights trial in 2023 resulted in a mistrial.
A federal pass judgement on will come to a decision Hankison’s sentence, which might quantity to a number of years, at a listening to set for Monday.
The federal government asked within the sentencing memo launched Wednesday that Hankison obtain a sentence of time served, which might be at some point in jail, adopted by way of 3 years of supervised unencumber.
President Trump’s appointee to run the Civil Rights Department of the DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, and a senior non-career legit within the department signed the memo, apparently as an alternative of legal professionals or body of workers who in most cases maintain sentencing filings.
The memo stated more than one prosecutions towards Hankison had been sought, whilst just one portion succeeded in securing a conviction. Whilst the DOJ respects the jury’s determination, the memo stated, it “will nearly surely make sure that defendant Hankison by no means serves as a regulation enforcement officer once more and also will most likely make sure that he by no means legally possesses a firearm once more.”
A long sentence would “merely be unjust” below the instances within the govt’s view, the memo stated.
Legal professionals for Taylor’s circle of relatives, together with civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, decried the DOJ’s request.
“This advice is an insult to the lifetime of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury’s determination,” their commentary stated. “Each and every American who believes in equivalent justice below the regulation must be outraged. It’s unfathomable that, after in spite of everything securing a conviction, the Division of Justice would search a sentence so significantly under the federal tips.”
The legal professionals stated it will set “a deadly precedent.”
“When a police officer is located accountable of violating anyone’s constitutional rights, there should be actual duty and justice,” they wrote. “Recommending simply at some point in jail sends the unmistakable message that white officials can violate the civil rights of Black American citizens with near-total impunity.”
contributed to this record.
