Democracy Now's Ben Crump Interview About Breona Taylor

Democracy Now talked with Ben Crump about the sentencing in the Breona Taylor trial in Louisville...
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/ben_crump_breonna_taylor

"We speak to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump about the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black police violence and impunity for law enforcement in the United States. Crump first comments on the sentencing of Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer who fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor’s home in 2020 during a botched raid, to 33 months in prison for use of excessive force. Although Hankison’s actions were “a violation of Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights,” the Trump Justice Department had recommended only one day in prison for his sentencing. In court, “there was nobody advocating for Breonna,” says Crump.....

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/ben_crump_breonna_taylor

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
In a closely watched decision, this week a federal judge in Kentucky sentenced the former Louisville police officer who blindly fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor’s home in 2020 during a botched raid. Brett Hankison was sentenced to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during the deadly no-knock police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in her own home. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings rejected the prosecutor’s recommendation to have Brett Hankison sentenced to just one day in prison, calling the effort “not appropriate.” Some of the bullets he fired penetrated the walls of a neighbor’s home, where a family was sleeping. Taylor was a Black 26-year-old emergency room technician whose killing sparked nationwide racial justice protests under the banner of “Black Lives Matter.”

Louisville Metro Police arrested four protesters who blocked traffic outside the federal court where Hankison was sentenced on Monday. Among those arrested was Bianca Austin, Breonna Taylor’s aunt. Taylor’s former boyfriend and her mother responded to the sentencing.

TAMIKA PALMER: I think the judge did the best she could with what she had to work with. There was no prosecution in there for us. There was no prosecution in there for Breonna.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: That part.
TAMIKA PALMER: So, I definitely, you know, I’m grateful for the judge for giving some time, because we could have walked away with nothing, according to what they recommended.
KENNETH WALKER: I’m grateful for the small piece of justice that we got. It’s definitely not what I was expecting. And Brett Hankison told me I was going to go to jail for the rest of my life. So I definitely feel some type of something to see him going for even if it’s a little time.
AMY GOODMAN: Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend and mother.

For more, we’re joined by Ben Crump, civil rights attorney. We want to ask you about a number of cases, from the reason you’re here in New York, the wake and funeral of an 18-year-old young woman in police custody, the beating of and the smashing of the window of a Black motorist in Jacksonville, Florida. But let’s begin with the sentencing of Brett Hankison, the former Louisville police officer who shot into Breonna Taylor’s home. Your response?

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Well, Amy Goodman, I think Breonna’s mother and boyfriend expressed it best when Tamika Palmer said there was no prosecution for Breonna in the courtroom....."

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https://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/ben_crump_breonna_taylor