Judge Gives 33 Months Instead of 1 Day in Breonna Taylor Case

UPDATE Jul 21, 2025 6:10 PM CDT

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor, declining a Justice Department recommendation that he not be given any prison time. Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots without hitting anyone, is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked Louisville and spawned weeks of protests over police brutality, the AP reports. US District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings criticized the DOJ sentencing memo as "incongruous and inappropriate," saying it treated Hankison's actions as "an inconsequential crime." She imposed a sentence of 33 months in prison and three years' supervised probation. After the hearing, civil rights attorney Ben Crump hollered to the crowd outside the courthouse, "Say her name." The crowd roared back: "Breonna Taylor!"

Jul 17, 2025 6:53 PM CDT

The Justice Department has decided that a Louisville police officer who blindly shot 10 times into Breonna Taylor's apartment has been punished enough. The department's Civil Rights Division filed a sentencing memo in the case of Brett Hankison, who was convicted of violating Taylor's civil rights in the 2020 case, that says there "is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public from defendant," NBC News reports. Harmeet Dhillon, the newly appointed assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the court to sentence Hankison to one day in prison—basically equivalent to the amount of time the former officer was in a lockup when first charged, per the New York Times.

The Times calls the decision "a stunning reversal of the unit's longstanding efforts to address racial disparities in policing," and NBC points out that no career-line Justice Department prosecutors from the Justice Department signed off on it. The memo also was signed Robert Keenan, senior counsel for the division, instead of by career prosecutors who worked on the case—which would be the normal procedure. Hankison, whose shots did not hit anyone, was acquitted on a state charge. "Only one of three juries" convicted him, the memo says, adding that the verdict "will almost certainly ensure that defendant Hankison never serves as a law enforcement officer again and will also likely ensure that he never legally possesses a firearm again."

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A former Civil Rights Division official wrote online that one of Hankison's shots "missed a sleeping baby by about two feet" and predicted the court would recognize the sentencing memo as "transparent, last minute political interference." The federal judge will consider the memo at a sentencing hearing on Monday and still could give Hankison up to life in prison. Taylor, 26, a medical worker, was asleep when police entered her home after midnight and opened fire, killing her in a botched drug raid.