The Department of Justice has suggested a one-day sentence for former Louisville police officer Brett Hankinson. In November, he was found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights after she was fatally shot during a March 2020 police raid.
The recommended time isn’t for him to serve an additional day in jail, instead the recommendation is for him to receive credit for the day he was booked and made his initial appearance before the court.
Hankinson fired several shots in the raid that killed Taylor, all from outside the apartment shooting in. He is the only officer who fired their weapons to be convicted via trial of any charges arising from the scene. Federal charges were filed against three other officers including former LMPD Detective Kelly Goodlett, who pleaded guilty in August 2022 to helping falsify an affidavit for the search of Taylor’s apartment.
In a sentencing memorandum filed July 16, the DOJ requested a “downward variance,” or lower sentence, than the range recommended by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, suggesting that former President Joe Biden’s administration should not have prosecuted Hankison on civil rights charges.
“Indeed, reasonable minds might disagree as to whether Hanksion’s conduct constituted a seizure under the Fourth Amendment in the first place,” the memorandum states. “… And reasonable minds certainly might disagree whether, even if Hankison’s conduct did constitute a seizure, a prosecution under this statute should have been brought under these circumstances at all.”
The sentence request was for one day’s imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release and a $100 fine. That sentence, if taken up by the judge, would be considered time served as credit for the day he was booked and made his initial appearance before the court.
This is “a blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision” that could set a dangerous precedent.
Atty. ben crump
The sentencing memorandum was signed by Robert J. Keenum, senior counsel for the DOJ’s civil rights division, and Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general for the department. Keenan was not part of the original prosecution team. Dhillon was appointed by the current President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The government respects the jury’s verdict, which will almost certainly ensure that Hankison never serves as a law enforcement officer again and will also likely ensure that he never legally possesses a firearm again,” the memorandum continues. “But adding on top of those consequences a sentence within the lengthy guidelines range — even when properly calculated — would, in the government’s view, simply be unjust under these circumstances.”
The Charges Against Hankison
Hankison was initially charged at the state level in September 2020 with three counts of wanton endangerment over bullets he fired during the raid that had entered a neighboring unit at the apartment complex where Taylor lived. Hankison was outside the apartment at the time of the shooting and fired 10 shots after gunfire erupted inside.
Taylor was unarmed at the time of her death. Her boyfriend at the time, Kenneth Walker, shot at police after they entered but has said he did not know officers were on the other side of the door when they used a battering ram to enter the residence. Assault and attempted murder charges against Walker were later dismissed.
When he was fired in June 2020, then-interim Chief Robert Schroeder accused him of “blindly” shooting into Taylor’s apartment and called his conduct “a shock to the conscience.”
Hankison was found not guilty of wanton endangerment in March 2022. Two federal charges of deprivation of civil rights were filed against him the following August. A mistrial was declared in Hankison’s first trial in November 2023. About a year later, a second trial returned a guilty verdict on one of the two counts, with a maximum sentence of life in prison
Activists, Lawmakers Speak Out Against Proposed Sentence
District Judge Rebecca G. Jennings has not ruled on the recommendation, but it immediately drew condemnation from activists and other supporters in Louisville.
The team of attorneys who represented Taylor’s family after the shooting, which included Ben Crump, issued a statement about the memo, calling it “a blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision” that could set a dangerous precedent.
“When a police officer is found guilty of violating someone’s constitutional rights, there must be real accountability and justice,” they said. “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.”
The Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression called on Jennings to sentence Hankison “with the seriousness and accountability this case demands—just as any individual would be sentenced for such a gross and senseless violation of civil rights.”
The Louisville NAACP issued a statement calling the memo “taken right out of the Jim Crow era,” while the Louisville Urban League called it “an act of hostility against Breonna Taylor’s memory and against the Constitution itself.”
“The Trump administration is making no pretenses about its position on race,” Louisville NAACP President Raymond Burse said. “This is racism in its purest form, and it’s happening in plain sight for everyone to see.”