Name: US judge sentences ex-officer in Breonna Taylor case | REUTERS
Uploaded: 2025-07-22T17:00:22.000Z
Duration: 1 min 45 s
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Basic passive voice

Former police officer Brett Hankison was sentenced on Monday to 33 months in prison for violating Breonna Taylor's rights during the Kentucky raid, in which she was shot and killed.

The sentence was at the low end called for under federal sentencing guidelines for the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Transition words & phrases

However, it was far more severe than the one-day sentence the Justice Department under Trump had asked for.

Attorneys for Taylor said that while they were hoping for a more severe sentence, they were grateful for the decision.

And even though it's not what we wanted, we thought that he should have gotten more time.

Taylor, a black woman, was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky police officers in 2020 after they used a no-knock warrant at her home.

Her boyfriend, believing they were intruders, fired on the officers with a legally-owned firearm, prompting them to return fire.

Taylor's death, as well as the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, were among the most prominent cases that sparked mass racial justice protests around the country.

Hankison was convicted by a federal jury last fall of one count of violating Taylor's civil rights.

Then, in a sentencing memo last week, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division asked the judge for a single-day sentence and downplayed Hankison's role in the raid, saying that he, quote, did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death.

District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, who handed down the sentence on Monday, criticized prosecutors for making a, quote, 180-degree turn in their approach to the case.

She said political factors appeared to have influenced their recommendation for the one-day sentence.