Prosecutors have asked for what they call a "significant downward departure" in the DOJ's sentencing request for Brett Hankison, finding that despite his "blindly" firing his gun into Taylor's home the night she was killed, prosecutors said his shots did not wound anyone, and he should not be as harshly sentenced.
"To be sure, the government acknowledges that its recommended sentence is significantly lower than the advisory guideline range," DOJ attorney Robert J. Keenan said in the memorandum. "Although [Hankison's] response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant's fellow officers or anyone else."
The sentencing memorandum does not name who the prosecutors believe is responsible for killing Taylor, though a ballistics report performed following the shooting said the bullet came from a gun belonging to Louisville police Detective Myles Cosgrove.
Hankison was originally indicted in August 2022 on two counts of violating federal civil rights for his conduct the night Taylor died. He was tried three separate times, with the first two trials being declared mistrials. Prosecutors finally scored a conviction in November 2024 when a jury convicted Hankison of two counts of civil rights violations against Taylor, the memorandum said.
A pre-sentencing report issued by the federal probation office concluded that based on relevant sentencing guidelines for the charges, Hankison should be sentenced to between 11 and 14 years in federal prison, the memorandum said.
Federal prosecutors recommended a one-day sentence with three years of probation, with a time-served credit for Hankison's initial processing for booking, meaning effectively the former officer would escape any time in jail but would be on probation for three years, the memorandum said.
The memorandum also noted that despite the request to depart from the sentencing guidelines, the sentence for Hankison is fair, because it will "almost certainly ensure" that he will never be allowed to serve in law enforcement again and will "likely ensure" that he cannot possess a firearm again.
The government memorandum also conceded that had a jury verdict not been handed down in the case, the DOJ "might proceed differently," but the memorandum does not elaborate on what it might have done differently.
Trump's DOJ has signaled its recalcitrance for any police reforms in recent months, announcing in a pair of memos in January that it will be abandoning the use of consent decrees with police departments — court-enforced agreements between the DOJ and local police departments designed to correct problems related to policing.
The DOJ formally announced in May it would be dismissing police investigations and proposed decrees in Louisville and Minneapolis as well as in six other departments, including an investigation into the entire Louisiana State Police, according to a department press release.
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division accused the investigations, launched under the Biden administration by then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, of cherrypicking data on discrimination within the departments, the press release said.
"The Biden administration after President Donald Trump's reelection accused Louisville and Minneapolis of widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices by wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relying on flawed methodologies and incomplete data," the DOJ said.
Police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis came under heavy scrutiny during Trump's first term, following the high-profile deaths of Taylor in Louisville in March 2020 and George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis, two months later in May, sparking worldwide protests for police reform.
Attorneys representing the family of Taylor, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, said they were upset by the prosecutors' sentence recommendation, calling the decision a "blatant betrayal of the jury's decision."
"This sets a dangerous precedent. When a police officer is found guilty of violating someone's constitutional rights, there must be real accountability and justice," the attorneys said in a statement Thursday. "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."
Representatives for Hankison and the DOJ did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Hankison is represented by Jack Byrd of the Law Offices of Jack Byrd, Ibrahim A. Farag of Farag Legal Services PLLC and Donald J. Malarcik of Malarcik Pierce Munyer & Will.
The government is represented by Robert Keenan and Michael Stronger of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case is U.S. v. Hankison, case number 3:22-cr-00084, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
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