Former Louisville, Kentucky police officer, Brett Hankinson has been sentenced to 33 months in prison after being convicted in connection with a raid that resulted in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black EMT worker, in her home.
In a statement following the sentencing, Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, “I think the judge did the best she could with what she had to work with,” she said, but was critical of federal prosecutors who had argued for a lesser sentence.
Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment with her the night of the raid, said he was “grateful for the small piece of justice that we got”.
On March 13. 2020, now-former officer Hankison fired 10 of 32 shots into Taylor’s window and glass door as officers conducted a botched raid of her apartment. Some of the shots hit a neighboring apartment, but no one was injured. Hankison’s colleague, Myles Cosgrove, fired the shots that killed Taylor, though he was never convicted of her killing.
Previously no one had been sentenced to jail for causing Breonna Taylor’s death, though Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer, was convicted of violating her civil rights. He was found guilty of using excessive force during the raid on her apartment, but in a surprise twist the Justice Department only days earlier recommended a one-day sentence, a significant reversal from their initial pursuit of a maximum life sentence.
On July 17, the U.S. Department of Justice recommended a one-day sentence for Brett Hankison, the former cop convicted of violating the civil rights of Taylor, her boyfriend, and their neighbors during a deadly no-knock raid in March 2020. In addition to the one day of time served, the DOJ recommended a three-year supervised release and a $100 fine.
In a sentencing memo, not only did the DOJ attorneys argue that a prison term was unnecessary, they also claimed Hankison poses no threat to the public and that the trauma of prosecution was punishment enough. The DOJ said in its filing, “In light of the three trials of (Hankison) and the media attention given to each trial, it is no surprise that (he) has suffered from resulting stress and psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, sleeping difficulties, and related conditions.”
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