Overview

• The Civil Rights Division, led by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon and senior counsel Robert Keenan, filed a sentencing memo on July 16 asking that Brett Hankison serve only the one day already spent in custody followed by three years of supervised release.
• Hankison was convicted in November 2024 of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights for firing blindly into her apartment during the 2020 no-knock raid, though none of his shots struck Taylor and he did not fire the fatal round.
• Career prosecutors did not sign the memo, signaling a shift under President Trump’s DOJ away from the more aggressive police accountability pursued under the Biden administration.
• Civil rights advocates and lawmakers, including Rep. Morgan McGarvey and attorney Ben Crump, denounced the request as an insult to Taylor’s memory and a betrayal of the jury’s verdict.
• U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings will hold Hankison’s sentencing hearing on July 21 to decide whether to adopt the DOJ’s recommendation or impose a harsher term under federal guidelines.