U.S. Justice Department wants no prison time for ex-officer convicted in Breonna Taylor raid

Former Louisville Police officer Brett Hankison talks about seeing a subject in a firing stance in the apartment as he is cross-examined in Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The U.S. Justice Department is recommending an ex-Kentucky police officer convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid should serve no prison time, an abrupt about-face after spending years prosecuting the former detective.

Brett Hankison is the only officer who fired his weapon the night of the March 2020 botched drug raid who has faced criminal charges. His shots didn’t hit or injure anyone, though they flew through Taylor’s walls into a neighbouring apartment.

A U.S. federal judge will decide Hankison’s sentence, which could amount to several years, on Tuesday at a hearing. If the judge heeds the Justice Department’s request, it would mean that none of the Louisville police officers involved in the botched raid would face any prison time.

The Justice Department, which has changed leadership under President Donald Trump since Hankison’s conviction, said in a sentencing memo this week that “there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public” from Hankison. Federal prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him to time served, which amounts to one day, and three years of supervised probation.

Prosecutors at his previous federal trials aggressively pursued a conviction against Hankison, arguing that he blindly fired 10 shots into Taylor’s windows without identifying a target. Taylor was shot in her hallway by two other officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment, striking an officer in the leg.

But in the sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison’s “response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant’s fellow officers, or anyone else.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor’s family secure a US$12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville, said the Justice Department’s recommendation “is an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision.”

“Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity,” Crump said in a statement on social media.

Three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant, but they have not yet gone to trial. None of them were at the scene when Taylor was shot.

The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice protests nationwide that year.

A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in 2023, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.

Dylan Lovan, The Associated Press