Following the high-profile prosecution of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the hunger for justice in other police brutality cases has never been so strong. Marking one of the first times in history a former officer was convicted in a case involving racialized brutality, the future of American policing may finally improve for the better.
With the conclusion of Chauvin’s trial pending his sentencing, many are ready for Breonna Taylor’s justice. Taylor, a 26-year-old aspiring nurse, was shot and killed by Louisville officers while asleep in her home during a botched raid in March of 2020. According to a pre-trial hearing held on Friday (April 23), while originally scheduled to begin this summer, the trial date for the lone officer charged in the case has been pushed back to February 1st, 2022.
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Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial for former Louisville PD officer Brett Hankison was postponed by Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Ann Bailey Smith, explaining the new date was “most realistic” considering the backlog of delayed trials.
Hankison’s attorney requested the high-profile case be moved to a different county citing the publicity surrounding it, which Judge Smith denied. “I do think that the prudent thing to do, is to try to get a jury seated here in Jefferson County and if we discover that we cannot, then we will move the case to another county,” said Judge Smith.
Hankison was formally indicted last year on three felony counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree for the shooting after he fired off bullets that entered an adjacent apartment where a pregnant woman, a man, and a child were home. The two other officers involved were not indicted, meaning an officer has yet to be formally charged with killing Taylor.
We’ll keep you updated as the case develops.
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