Justice Department: "Indicted Officer Not Directly Responsible for Death"
Victim's Family Objects... "Justice Department Undermining Justice"
Controversy has arisen in the United States after a former police officer convicted of civil rights violations in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, was recommended to serve only one day in prison.
According to Yonhap News on July 17 (local time), citing major foreign media outlets such as The New York Times (NYT), the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division requested in a memorandum submitted to the court on July 16 that former police officer Brett Hankison be sentenced to one day in prison and three years of probation. The reason given was that "he did not shoot Taylor directly and is not directly responsible for her death."
The Taylor case occurred in March 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Three white police officers forcibly entered her home with a warrant issued for a drug search. During the raid, Taylor’s boyfriend, mistaking the officers for intruders, opened fire, and the police returned fire. In the exchange, Taylor was fatally shot.
Hankison was one of the officers who fired 10 rounds at the scene and was the only officer to be indicted. He was acquitted in a Kentucky state court, but was later re-indicted at the federal level for civil rights violations and found guilty by a jury in 2023.
Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by police who raided her home at midnight in 2020 during a drug search Photo by Yonhap News
However, in its sentencing memorandum, the Department of Justice requested leniency for Hankison, citing the fact that he did not directly cause Taylor’s death and that he has been out of law enforcement for five years. The Department also explained that the one day he was previously detained at the time of his arrest could be counted as the one-day prison sentence.
Although the charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, the Department’s unprecedented sentencing recommendation has drawn attention to what decision the federal court will make at the sentencing hearing scheduled for next week.
Taylor’s family has strongly objected to the recommendation. The family’s attorney issued a statement saying, "Recommending a sentence of just one day sends a dangerous message that white police officers can violate the civil rights of Black people without facing real consequences," adding, "This decision undermines justice, and the court must uphold the justice that the Department of Justice has ignored."
Some analysts say this sentencing recommendation is consistent with a shift in policy direction by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Since the start of the second Trump administration, the Civil Rights Division has focused more on so-called "culture war" agendas rather than addressing racial discrimination, and has recently prioritized combating antisemitism and anti-Christian bias.
The division is currently led by Associate Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by Trump. Dhillon personally signed the sentencing memorandum. In addition, the Department of Justice has reportedly instructed its staff to halt investigations into new cases related to civil rights violations.
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