In a sharply worded rebuke to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal judge on Monday sentenced former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during the botched 2020 drug raid that led to the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings rejected the DOJ’s suggestion of a one-day sentence and three years’ probation, saying such leniency would reduce the jury’s decision and fail to account for the threat Hankison’s acts caused.
“I was startled there weren’t more injuries,” Jennings said, referring to the 10 bullets Hankison fired blindly into Taylor’s apartment, three of which tore into a neighboring unit. “No prison time is not appropriate.”
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Hankison, 49, is the first and only person to receive a prison sentence in the case, which became a hotspot for nationwide protests against police violence and racial inequality in 2020. His sentence includes three further years of supervised release following his incarceration.
The Justice Department’s reversal—after spending years prosecuting Hankison—sparked public backlash last week, particularly from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented Taylor’s family in their $12 million wrongful death settlement with the city.
Crump called the DOJ’s memo “an insult” and said Monday’s sentence, though not as long as hoped, was “more than what the Department of Justice sought. That, in itself, is a statement.”
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, also criticized federal prosecutors for siding with the defense during the hearing. “There was no prosecution in there for us,” she said. “Brett had his own defense team. I didn’t know he got a second one.”
Palmer and other family members had asked the judge to inflict the maximum penalty.
Hankison was convicted in November 2024 of violating Taylor’s civil rights under color of law. He was earlier acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022 and faced a mistrial in a separate federal trial in 2023.
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At Monday’s sentence, Hankison apologized to Taylor’s family and claimed he would have behaved differently had he known about the inaccurate information in the search warrant that led detectives to Taylor’s home. No drugs or money were found during the raid.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommended 33 to 41 months in prison.
Jennings decided for the minimum but highlighted that the DOJ’s suggestion of no jail sentence was “incongruous and inappropriate.”
The DOJ’s memo—submitted not by career prosecutors but by Trump-appointed Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon—downplayed Hankison’s involvement, contending his bullets didn’t injure anybody and that he was operating under duress after another cop was shot.
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This article appears in Jul 4-31, 2025.
