By james art 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — So much for double jeopardy. Or triple jeopardy. A federal jury on Friday convicted former Louisville police officer Brett Hankinson of using excessive force in connection with the botched 2020 drug bust that killed Breona Taylor, CBS News reports.
The 12-member jury initially told the judge they were deadlocked on the excessive force charge in Taylor’s death, after earlier acquitting him of the same charge against Taylor’s neighbors. The jury agreed to continue deliberations on the other count. At around 9.30pm on Friday, they told the judge they had reached a verdict and found Hankinson guilty – the jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days. Some members were in tears as the verdict was read.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, praised the sentence as fair, saying: “It took a long time. It took a lot of patience. It was difficult. Jurors took their time to truly understand that Breona deserved justice.
The no-knock attack saw Hankinson fire ten shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but did not hit anyone; some shots went into a neighboring apartment. Hankinson’s conviction was another feather in the cap for anti-police Attorney General Merrick Garland, who celebrated the verdict in a statement.
“Today, Brett Hankinson was found guilty by a jury of his peers of willfully depriving Breona Taylor of her constitutional rights,” Garland wrote. “His use of deadly force was unlawful and put Ms Taylor in danger. This sentence is an important step toward accountability for the violation of Breona Taylor’s civil rights, but justice for Ms. Taylor’s loss is a task that exceeds human capacity.”
Hankinson faces a maximum of life in prison; his sentencing is scheduled for March 12, 2025.
This was the second prosecution of Hankinson by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice, with the first ending in a mistrial last year when a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Unlike the first trial, prosecutors removed Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, from the indictment and he was not called as a witness. Walker instigated the shooting when he fired at Louisville police officers when they entered the apartment, claiming he didn’t know they were police.
In the two charges Hankinson faces, the feds allege he unconstitutionally used excessive force while acting in his official capacity, with the first charge involving Taylor claiming he fired through a bedroom window that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain and thereby violated her civil rights.
The second charge, which was the same as the first case, alleged that Hankinson violated the constitutional rights of three of Taylor’s neighbors by shooting through a sliding glass door covered by blinds and a curtain. Both charges allege Hankinson used a dangerous weapon and his conduct indicated an intent to kill on the night of the incident.
The incident occurred on March 13, 2020, when seven police officers entered Taylor’s apartment after midnight using a no-knock warrant as part of a drug investigation. Taylor was sleeping with Walker, who heard the commotion and fired a gun at the officers, believing them to be intruders. The police returned fire and Taylor was shot and killed. No narcotics were found in the apartment.
Hankinson testified that he believed he was doing the right thing by trying to protect his fellow officers.
He testified last week that he believed there had been a shootout between his co-workers and suspects at the home and believed his co-workers were in danger, according to the Associated Press. Hankinson said it “sounded like a semi-automatic rifle going down the hall and executing everyone in my (group).”
Hankinson and his lawyers used the same defense in the first federal trial and in the 2022 state trial, where he was acquitted on all charges after a jury deliberated for three hours.
“This case is about Brett Hankinson’s ten shots that never hit anyone,” his attorney, Don Malarchyk, said during his closing arguments, the AP reported. “Brett Hankinson is accused of violating the constitutional rights of people he never met and never knew existed.”
In short order, the Justice Department filed civil rights charges against Hankinson and three other Louisville police officers. The charges against the other three officers are based on allegations that they falsified the affidavit used to obtain a restraining order that authorized the March 13, 2020, raid on Taylor’s apartment.
After a federal judge dropped significant felony charges against two of the former officers, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against two former officers, Louisville Det. Joshua Janes and former Sergeant Kyle Meaney.