Dept's 'stunning reversal' in Breonna Taylor killing case

>>The chief of the Justice Department's civil rights unit has asked a federal judge to sentence a Louisville police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to one day in prison, a stunning reversal of the unit’s long-standing efforts to address racial disparities in policing.

- GLENN THRUSH

Last year, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted Brett Hankison, the officer, of one count of violating Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force in discharging several shots through Taylor’s window during a drug raid that went awry.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a judge will consider the government's request at a sentencing scheduled for this week.

On Wednesday, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the judge in the case, Rebecca Grady Jennings, to sentence Hankison to one day in prison — essentially the brief time he served when he was charged — and three years of supervised release.

In the filing, Ms Dhillon suggested the prosecution was excessive, arguing the Biden Justice Department had secured a conviction against Hankison after his acquittal on state charges and the ending of his first federal trial in a mistrial.

"In this case, two federal trials were ultimately necessary to obtain a unanimous verdict of guilt," Ms Dhillon wrote, adding that Hankison, now a felon who was fired from his job five years ago, had already paid a substantial penalty for his actions.