Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during the raid where she was killed, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison. The judge rejected a one-day sentence that had been recommended by the previous Justice Department.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was killed in March 2020 during a late-night police raid on her apartment. Officers entered using a no-knock warrant. Her boyfriend, thinking they were intruders, fired a legally owned gun. Police returned fire, fatally shooting Taylor. The incident sparked nationwide protests over police violence and racial injustice.
Though Hankison did not shoot Taylor, he fired several rounds blindly through a covered window and door. A federal jury convicted him in November 2024 of violating Taylor’s rights. He had previously been acquitted on state charges in 2022.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings recently delivered the 33-month sentence. She criticized prosecutors for trying to lessen Hankison’s punishment. She said politics seemed to influence their recommendation of just one day in prison, which she called unacceptable given the seriousness of the case.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, and other family members spoke in court, urging the judge to impose the maximum sentence. Palmer told the judge, “A piece of me was taken from me that day,” Palmer said. “You have the power to make today the first day of true accountability.”
In court, Hankison apologized to Taylor’s family. He said he would have acted differently had he known about the problems with the search warrant that led officers to Taylor’s home. “I never would have fired my gun,” he told the judge.
The Justice Department’s sentencing memo, filed by Trump-era political appointees, claimed Hankison wasn’t responsible for Taylor’s death. Notably, the memo wasn’t signed by any of the career prosecutors who had tried the case.
SOURCE: blacknews.com