The sentence was a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, which had requested he serve only one day behind bars.
The lawyer for Breonna Taylor’s family announced Monday that former Kentucky police officer Brett Hankison, who blindly fired 10 bullets into her home (three of which traveled into an adjacent unit) during a botched raid in 2020, has been sentenced to almost three years in prison.
On March 13, 2020, the 26-year-old emergency medical technician was shot and died during a failed narcotics raid that the Louisville Metro Police Department had approved. Last November, Hankison, 46, a Louisville detective at the time, was convicted of deprivation of rights under color of law during the execution of a search warrant on her home that led to the tragedy.
Hankison will not report directly to prison, with U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings saying during Monday’s sentencing hearing that the Bureau of Prisons will decide when his sentence begins, according to The Associated Press. His prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised probation.
The Justice Department had requested in a sentencing memo following Hankison’s conviction that he be sentenced with time served, which would be just one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, who handed down the sentence, criticized prosecutors for making a “180-degree” turn in their approach to the case and said political factors appeared to have influenced them. Jennings said during the hearing that a sentence of no prison time for Hankison “is not appropriate,” according to The Associated Press.
His first trial on those charges ended in a mistrial in 2023. In November, a second federal jury convicted Hankison of violating Taylor’s civil rights but acquitted him of violating the rights of her neighbors.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, several other family members, and Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend at the time, all spoke in court to ask the judge to impose the maximum penalty.
“A piece of me was taken from me that day. You have the power to make today the first day of true accountability,” Palmer told the judge.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Monday, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings “did the best she could with what she had to work with.”
“There was no prosecution in there for us,” she told reporters.” There was no prosecution in there for Brianna.”
Asked whether the sentence represented justice, Palmer said: “We got something. I don’t think it was a fair sentencing, but it was a start.”
In a brief statement to the court, Hankison apologized to Taylor’s family and friends and said he would have acted differently if he had known about issues with the preparation of the search warrant that led police to Taylor’s home that night.
“I never would have fired my gun,” he said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor’s family secure a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville, had called the department’s recommendation “an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision.”
Crump was at Monday’s hearing and said he had hoped for a longer sentence but was “grateful that (Hankison) is at least going to prison and has to think for those 3 years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered.”
Afterward, before a crowd outside the courthouse, Crump sounded a familiar chant: “Say Her name.” The crowd yelled back: “Breonna Taylor!” And he and other members of Taylor family’s legal team issued a subsequent statement criticizing the Justice Department.
“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 statement said.
It’s about time some justice was served in the Breonna Taylor murder. I just wish that his sentence would be much longer. This should’ve never happened to begin with. Wrong suspect and apartment. Once again Trump has to show his true racist colors when it comes to Black people being murdered by white police officers, by suggesting that one day behind bars is sufficient enough. When will Black people realize that he hates us? Keep Breonna Taylor’s name alive in our memories.