According to the Courier-Journal, which has been assiduously covering the circumstances in the death of Breonna Taylor, seven veteran defense lawyers, three of whom are black, believe that the officers involved in the shooting should not be charged with murder or manslaughter.
The attorneys, who average 37 years of experience, cite the fact that Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who shot at police before they opened fire, gave the police the right to defend themselves.
Aubrey Williams, a former president of Louisville’s NAACP chapter, who, according to the Courier-Journal, spent much of his 40-year career countering police in court, stated, “It is unfortunate that this young lady was killed. But for the life of me I don’t see them indicting or convicting.”
Jan Waddell, who is black and has also battled with police in court, echoed that Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and officer Myles Cosgrove cannot be prosecuted because Kentucky law permits them to fire back; Walker had shot Mattingly in the leg. Waddell added, “The seemingly unending list of unarmed Black men who have been and continue to be gunned down by white police officers … does not and cannot justify the return of an indictment based on revenge rather than the facts of the case and the law.”
Waddell concluded, “If we, as Black people, are willing to condone the return of an indictment for murder when the facts … clearly do not justify the return of such an indictment, then we will lose our moral authority. If we want ‘equal justice’ we must we willing to accept that the police are also entitled to ‘equal justice’ when the facts and circumstances demand it.”
Frankfort attorney William E. Johnson, largely regarded as the dean of Kentucky criminal defense lawyers, asserted, “Where a shot is fired by someone in the house, it is logical and pursuant to training that the officer or officers would return fire.”
The attorneys largely agreed that ex-Officer Brett Hankison should be charged with wanton endangerment. “Hankison’s attorney, David Leightty, said in appealing his client’s termination in June that the officer fired his gun ‘in quick response to the gunfire directed at himself and other officers’ and did not fire blindly into Taylor’s apartment,” the Courier-Journal noted.
In mid-June, the Louisville Metro Police Department’s interim chief, Robert Schroeder, in delineating the charges against Hankison, wrote, “The result of your action seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department. Your conduct demands your termination.”
Three of the attorneys said the only way Mattingly and Cosgrove would be charged in Taylor’s death would be if it can be proven they knew that the warrant for the search of the apartment was fraudulently obtained; one of the attorneys stated, “That’s a big if.” Some of the other attorneys stated that the chances that the officers knew that the warrant might have been fraudulently obtained were negligible.
“Louisville Metro Police policy also says officers may use deadly force when the officer reasonably believes ‘based on the facts and circumstances that the person against whom the force is used poses an immediate threat of death or serious injury,’” the Courier-Journal noted.