Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer, has been sentenced to 33 months in federal jail following his conviction for civil rights violations tied to the deadly raid that killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in March 2020. Although Hankison didn’t hearth the pictures that struck Taylor, a jury discovered he used extreme pressure throughout the incident by firing 10 rounds blindly into her house and a neighboring unit.
The sentencing marks the one jail time period handed down in direct connection to Taylor’s dying, regardless of nationwide outcry and widespread protests. Hankison’s bullets didn’t hit anybody, however federal prosecutors argued his actions endangered harmless lives and violated a elementary rule of policing: “If they can’t see the particular person they’re taking pictures at, they can’t pull the set off.”
“I feel the choose did the most effective she may with what she needed to work with,” stated Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mom, after the listening to. Nonetheless, she criticized federal prosecutors for searching for a lighter sentence than many had anticipated.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was along with her throughout the raid and fired a shot at officers believing them to be intruders, stated he was “grateful for the small piece of justice that we obtained.”
Hankison’s sentencing got here simply days after the present federal authorities urged the choose to impose a single day in jail, a drastic departure from the Biden-era Division of Justice that introduced the unique fees, as BET beforehand reported.
“Each American who believes in equal justice underneath the regulation needs to be outraged,” Taylor’s household attorneys stated in a public assertion. “Recommending simply at some point in jail sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black People with near-total impunity.”
Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland, underneath Biden, had known as Hankison’s use of lethal pressure “illegal” and an “essential step towards accountability.”