New Information About the Breonna Taylor Case Has Come Out
New information about 26-year old Breonna Taylor’s tragic death on March 13, 2020, has come to light, and here’s what we know.
Back in March, Taylor’s death (along with countless other innocent people of color) sparked a movement in the U.S. to fight racial injustice. Protestors around the world have marched the streets for months calling for an end to police brutality, citing that Black lives matter. Just yesterday, a grand juror shed some light on Taylor’s case and claimed that jurors were never asked to consider charges directly linked to her passing.
A grand juror in the #BreonnaTaylor case says Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron never presented homicide charges for the police killing — only wanton endangerment charges for 1 officer.
The juror, who sued to speak publicly, previously said Cameron may have withheld evidence. pic.twitter.com/HI5ZAjxszh
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 21, 2020
In a statement to the media, an anonymous juror from the Kentucky grand jury said that they were only asked to think about the three wanton endangerment charges in place against one of the policemen involved in her case, former Louisville detective Brett Hankinson. According to Buzzfeed, the statement read, “The grand jury was not presented any charges other than the three Wanton Endangerment charges against Detective Hankison. Questions were asked about additional charges and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick.”
This news has sparked outrage in the public, and for Breonna Taylor’s family. Attorneys representing her family have called what the Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has done “a despicable miscarriage of justice.” Her family’s attorney has also asked for a new independent prosecutor to move forward with the case.
The anonymous juror’s attorney just sent out a press release with a statement by the juror. It confirms what many have suspected:
“The grand jury was not presented any charges other than the three Wanton Endangerment charges against Detective Hankison.” pic.twitter.com/LB5hMjrzfU
— Roberto Aram Ferdman (@robferdman) October 20, 2020
Back in September, Cameron told the media that the grand jury had come to the conclusion that the officers were not to be charged for their involvement in the case. The reasoning behind this decision was because according to the grand jury, Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove (the two officers who shot at Taylor) had due cause for firing their guns as Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had done so first. Cameron’s statement made it seem as though the grand jury believed the officers acted in self-defense that fateful night.
However, this new statement from an anonymous juror released yesterday contradicts Cameron’s previous statement, as the jurors were apparently not told to consider anything about that portion of the case. According to Buzzfeed, the juror wrote, “The grand jury did not agree that certain actions were justified, nor did it decide the indictment should be the only charges in the Breonna Taylor case. The grand jury was not given the opportunity to deliberate on those charges and deliberate only on what was presented to them.”
After this announcement, one of the grand jurors asked to speak publicly about this statement. In detailing what they would state, the grand juror wrote, “I cannot speak for other jurors, but I can help the truth be told.” Following this, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Annie O’Connell ruled in favor of this. Cameron has since filed a motion to prevent this grand juror from speaking out to the public. We will all be waiting anxiously to see how this case unfolds, and hopefully, the grand jury will be able to bring justice to Taylor’s murder.
