Officer convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights sentenced to 33 months in federal prison

As reported in this Reuters piece, “former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison was sentenced on Monday to 33 months in prison for violating Breonna Taylor’s rights during the raid in which she was shot and killed.”  The US Justice Department, as detailed here, had asked for the officer to be sentenced to just one day in prison.  Here is more about today’s sentencing:

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, who handed down the sentence on Monday, criticized prosecutors for making a “180-degree” turn in its approach to the case and said political factors appeared to have influenced its recommendation for a one-day prison sentence.  “This sentence will not and cannot be measured against Ms. Taylor’s life and the incident as a whole,” Jennings said.

The sentence was at the low end of the 33 to 41 months called for under federal sentencing guidelines, but far more severe than the Justice Department under Trump had sought.

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….

Hankison was convicted by a federal jury in November 2024 of one count of violating Taylor’s civil rights, after the first attempt to prosecute him ended with a mistrial. He was separately acquitted on state charges in 2022.

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….

Attorneys for Taylor’s family called the department’s sentencing recommendation for Hankison an insult, and urged the judge to “deliver true justice” for her.