[News] Prosecutors recommend one day of prison for officer in Breonna Taylor death

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Prosecutors recommend one day of prison for officer in Breonna Taylor death

*Under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department has asked a judge to
consider a significantly lighter sentencing.*
[image: A painting of Breonna Taylor in a round frame]
A portrait of Breonna Taylor is seen in Louisville, Kentucky, on August 4,
2022 [Amira Karaoud/Reuters]
By Al Jazeera Staff
<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458>
Published On 17 Jul 2025 -
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/17/prosecutors-recommend-one-day-of-prison-for-officer-in-breonna-taylor-death
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The United States Department of Justice has requested that a former police
officer involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor be given a prison
term of a single day, plus three years of supervised release.

That reduced sentencing recommendation marks a stark reversal for the
prosecution, which began under former President Joe Biden and continued
under current President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump appointee serving as assistant
attorney general for civil rights, submitted a court memorandum
<https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.kywd.126793/gov.uscourts.kywd.126793.285.0.pdf>
reflecting the government’s new stance.

She argued that former police officer Brett Hankison
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/2/ex-us-police-officer-guilty-of-civil-rights-abuse-in-breonna-taylor-death>
should not be confined to prison for his actions in the early morning hours
of March 13, 2020, when Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician,
was shot to death in her apartment.

Dhillon noted that Hankison had no criminal history before November 2024,
when a federal jury found him guilty of using excessive force in violation
of Taylor’s civil rights.

These facts, Dhillon wrote, “demonstrate that there is no need for a prison
sentence to protect the public from the defendant”.

“For the reasons explained in this memorandum, the government requests a
downward variance and a sentence of time served (one day’s imprisonment),
followed by three years of supervised release.”

But critics blasted the recommendation as disregard for the will of the
jury — not to mention for Taylor’s life.

“The fact that Donald Trump’s DOJ thinks Breonna Taylor’s life is worth
just a one-day jail sentence is morally reprehensible and deeply
insulting,” wrote <https://x.com/RepMcGarvey/status/1945901973208805839> US
Representative Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat whose district includes
Louisville, Kentucky, where Taylor was shot to death.

“This is a dark day for our entire city.”

A national outrage

Taylor’s killing at the hands of police officers in Louisville was a
galvanising moment in the US, sparking debate over the use of police force
in Black communities.

It came just weeks before another unarmed Black person, George Floyd of
Minnesota, was murdered by a police officer who knelt on his neck for more
than nine minutes.

Video of that incident — along with the news of Taylor’s killing and other
deaths — provoked nationwide uproar, leading to one of the largest protest
movements in US history.

Taylor had been at home just after midnight local time, when a group of
plain-clothed police officers arrived at the apartment where she was
staying with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.

The officers executed a so-called no-knock warrant, attempting to storm
Taylor’s apartment unannounced, based on faulty evidence that her apartment
was involved in a drug operation.

Upon hearing the commotion, Walker said he believed he and Taylor were the
targets of a home invasion, and he shot at the suspected intruders in
self-defence.

A pair of police officers returned fire in the doorway. Approximately 22
bullets
<https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/speech/attorney-general-merrick-garland-delivers-remarks-announcing-current-and-former>
were fired into the apartment, several of which hit Taylor, killing her.

According to Justice Department prosecutors, Hankison then fired 10 more
shots into the apartment through a window and sliding glass door, both of
which were covered by curtains and blinds. They note that he could not see
inside as he fired.

None of Hankison’s bullets struck Taylor, a fact Dhillon noted in this
week’s court memo. Hankison has testified that he believed his police
colleagues were engaged in a gun fight with a semiautomatic rifle, and he
fired through the side of the apartment to help in their defence.

A shift in policy

Given the outcry surrounding deaths like Taylor’s, the administration of
former President Biden had opened aggressive investigations and led
prosecutions to hold police accountable for instances of excessive violence.

In December 2024, for instance, the Department of Justice announced
<https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/video/doj-secures-agreement-reform-louisville-metros-lmpds-unconstitutional-unlawful-practices>
it had reached a court-enforceable agreement with the Louisville Metro
Police Department (LMPD) to reform the force’s practices.

That agreement stemmed from a March 2023 report
<https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-louisville-metro-police-department-and>
that
found a pattern of federal civil rights violations
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/8/us-investigation-finds-police-abuse-discrimination-in-louisville>
under the LMPD, including the use of excessive force and unlawful search
warrants.

“An LMPD leader told the department, quote, Breonna Taylor was a symptom of
the problems that we had for years,” then-Attorney General Merrick Garland
said in a prepared video statement in 2024.

“The findings of our investigation, which I came to Louisville to announce
last year, made that clear.”

But since taking office in January, the Trump administration has rolled back
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/21/us-justice-department-ends-post-george-floyd-police-reform-settlements>
the federal government’s agreements with police departments found to have
committed patterns of civil rights violations.

One of the cancelled deals pertained to Louisville. Dhillon, at the time,
called those reform agreements an example of “federal micromanagement”.

In this week’s court filing, Dhillon wrote that she did not dispute that
Hankison fired blindly into Taylor’s apartment on the night of her killing.

She also said that the government “respects the jury’s guilty verdict” in
Hankison’s case.

But she nevertheless pointed out that Hankison had been acquitted of
state-level charges, and his first federal trial ended in a mistrial in
November 2023. Federal prosecutors retried the case the following year.

Dhillon underscored that Hankison did not fire the fatal bullet.

“Counsel is unaware of another prosecution in which a police officer has
been charged with depriving the rights of another person under the Fourth
Amendment for returning fire and not injuring anyone,” she wrote.

Outrage over recommendation

But the recommendation that Hankison’s sentencing be dropped to a single
day has reignited the outrage around Taylor’s killing — and the mourning
for a young life cut short.

In a statement on Thursday, the civil rights lawyers who represented
Taylor’s family, including Ben Crump, issued a joint statement
<https://bencrump.com/press/legal-team-for-the-family-of-breonna-taylor-responds-to-one-day-sentencing-recommendation-for-brett-hankison/>
denouncing Dhillon’s sentencing recommendations as farcical.

“This recommendation is an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a
blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision. Every American who believes in
equal justice under the law should be outraged,” they wrote.

“This sets a dangerous precedent. When a police officer is found guilty of
violating someone’s constitutional rights, there must be real
accountability and justice. 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.”

Hankison faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for his role in the
fatal shooting.
-
[image: Protesters demand justice on anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s
killing]
Protesters demand justice on anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s killing
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