A federal jury on Friday convicted former Kentucky police officer Brett Hankison of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a 2020 drug raid that tragically ended in her death.
After a lengthy deliberation, the 12-member jury delivered their decision late in the evening, marking the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the raid.
The jury initially cleared Hankison on a charge of excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors but continued deliberating after indicating earlier in the day they were deadlocked on the charge related to Taylor. The verdict came after three days and over 20 hours of deliberation.
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, expressed relief and a sense of justice outside the courthouse, stating, “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. Breonna deserved justice.”
During the raid, Hankison fired ten shots into Taylor’s home, including through glass doors and windows, some of which entered a neighbor’s apartment.
Although no one was struck by his shots, the 26-year-old Taylor lost her life in the incident, which, along with the police killing of George Floyd, ignited nationwide protests against racial injustice.
Civil rights leader Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., responded to the verdict as “a long-awaited moment of accountability.” Previously, a different jury had deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison, and he was acquitted of state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.
Hankison now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and is scheduled for sentencing on March 12. Throughout the trial, he maintained that he was responding in defense of fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at them as they entered the apartment.
The jury raised a question to the judge about whether they needed to consider if Taylor was alive as Hankison fired, reflecting their careful consideration of the case.
