Cop Receives Three-Year Sentence In Breonna Taylor Case. DOJ Said One Day Would Be Enough

A federal judge on Monday sentenced former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison to nearly three years in prison over a drug raid that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor in 2020.

The judge’s sentence dismissed a request from the Department of Justice that Hankison be sentenced to only one day in prison and three years of supervised release, according to The New York Times. Hankison was convicted of excessive use of force for firing rounds through Taylor’s window during a drug raid. None of the shots hit Taylor.

Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights arm, had asked the judge in the case, Rebecca Grady Jennings, for a sentence that included only one day in prison which would have essentially amounted to time served.

The Taylor family attorneys, led by Ben Crump, said in a statement: “While today’s sentence is not what we had hoped for — nor does it fully reflect the severity of the harm caused — it is more than what the Department of Justice sought. That, in itself, is a statement. The jury found Brett Hankison guilty, and that verdict deserved to be met with real accountability.”

Dhillon’s request symbolized the shift in focus of the Trump Justice Department away from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and racial justice priorities that dominated the previous administration. Taylor’s case made national waves in the wake of George Floyd’s death and was promoted as another example of allegedly endemic racial bias in law enforcement.

Police shot and killed Taylor in March 2020 while executing a drug raid on her apartment in connection with convicted drug trafficker Jamarcus Glover, who was sentenced to seven years in prison last year for violating his probation. Police targeted Taylor’s apartment in connection with Glover, who had dated Taylor previous to the raid, because Glover had stayed at the apartment and at times received his mail there.

Unknown to police at the time, Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker was with her in the apartment on the night of the raid. Police first knocked, then broke down the door, surprising Taylor and Walker. Walker, who told police he thought Glover was breaking into the apartment, fired on police officers, hitting one in the leg. Officers fired back, missing Walker, but fatally striking Taylor.

Two other officers involved in the raid, former detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, are facing charges related to violation of civil rights and obstruction of justice.