Officer convicted in Breonna Taylor raid gets 33-month sentence

A former Kentucky police officer was sentenced to 33 months in prison after being sentenced as part of a raid that led to the mortal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black woman at home.

A federal jury last year said Brett Hankison guilty of having raped the civil rights of Taylor using excessive force. The maximum sentence for the accusation was life imprisonment.

The conviction comes a few days after the Trump administration asked the judge to give Hankison a day’s sentence – a position that contrasts strongly with the approach of the case under President Joe Biden.

Hankison is the only officer who was charged and sentenced directly within the framework of the sloppy raid.

Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, who pleaded guilty of having plotted with a colleague to falsify the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Taylor’s home and to cover their actions after his death, will be sentenced next year.

After his sentence, Hankison will face three years of supervised release.

Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother and family lawyers spoke after the conviction on Monday.

“I think the judge did her best with what she had to work,” said Ms. Palmer, but she criticized the federal prosecutors who had argued for a lesser sentence.

Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment with her on the night of the raid, said he was “grateful for the small piece of justice we got”.

Taylor became a face of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 following his death and the murder of the police of George Floyd, who was murdered during an arrest of the same year.

She was killed after police in single clothes made a search warrant “Knock” at her home. They broke into her apartment early in the morning while she and Walker were sleeping.

The authorities thought that Taylor’s former boyfriend used his house to hide drugs.

Walker pulled a single blow when the police spilled the door, hitting an officer, the SGT John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker said the police did not come like the police and thought they were intruders.

The three police officers were burnt down, pulling 32 bullets in the apartment.

Hankinson fired 10 times in his apartment in order, he said during the trial, to protect his colleagues officers.

None of Hankison’s balls hit anyone, but they entered a neighboring property, where a pregnant woman, a five -year -old child and a man slept.

The prosecutors said that Hankison had acted imprudently and “raped one of the most fundamental rules of the deadly force: if they cannot see the person on which they shoot, they cannot press the relaxation”.

Outside the courthouse, demonstrators awaiting the verdict blocked the streets chanting the name of Taylor. Several people, including the aunt of Taylor, Bianca Austin, were detained by the police.

At the beginning of November 2024, Hankison was sentenced to a chief of violation of civil rights.

“His use of the murderous force was illegal and put Ms. Taylor in the manner of Brot,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland, a bidden of Biden, in a statement. “This verdict is an important step towards the responsibility for the violation of civil rights of Breonna Taylor, but the justice for the loss of Ms. Taylor is a task that goes beyond human capacity.”

A few days after Hankinson’s conviction, Donald Trump was re -elected – a political change which meant that the recommendation of determination of the sentence would not come from the Biden administration, which brought the accusations, but from the Ministry of Justice led by Trump.

Last week, this recommendation – a request to Hankison to serve a day in prison – amazed, including Taylor’s family.

“Each American who believes in equal justice under the law should be indignant,” said family lawyers. “Recommend a single day in prison sends the undoubtedly message that white officers can violate the civil rights of black Americans with almost total impunity.”

In his request for determining the sentence, the Ministry of Justice argued that although Hankison was involved in “the execution of the mandate” during the murderous raid, he did not shoot Taylor “and is not otherwise responsible for his death”.

The Ministry of Justice also said that an additional prison sentence “would simply be unfair in these circumstances.”

Usually, the recommendations for determining the sentence are signed by lawyers involved in the case or employees of the Ministry of Career justice who deal with requests for determining the sentence.

In this case, Trump’s named to manage the civil rights service, Harmeet Dhillon, signed the recommendation.

Since his return to the White House, Trump has made policies to return from the Biden era a priority, in particular to the Ministry of Justice.

In May, the Ministry of Justice began the process of rejecting the proceedings brought against the police services of Louisville and Minneapolis following the controversy on police murders and high -level brutality, including that of Taylor.

Investigations into the constitutional violations of the police in other cities such as Memphis and Phoenix were also completed.

The Ministry of Justice criticized the Biden administration for promulgating “supervisory agreements” which would have imposed years of micro -management “of the local police by the federal courts.

During Biden’s mandate, the Ministry of Justice opened civil surveys in 12 state organizations and law enforcement.

In four of them – in Louisville, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi – The Department has published systemic police misconduct.

Although the responsibility agreements were concluded with some of the police, they were not officially promulgated.

These changes also came in the midst of a massive exodus of the Ministry of Justice.

In the only division of civil rights, the division of the department which made the recommendation of condemnation of Hankison, around 70% of lawyers have left since Trump was inaugurated, according to reports.