Kentucky Council Denies Breonna Taylor’s Family Request For Special Prosecutor

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Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, had asked a special prosecutor to present the case to a grand jury, saying the state attorney general’s handling of the case “undermines the trust and integrity of the ‘whole process’.

The board voted unanimously to deny the request in a virtual meeting on Friday, saying it did not have the legal authority to do so, according to the WDRB report.

WDRB reported that board member Chris Cohron said state law governing board functions did not apply in the Taylor case, where Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron was a prosecutor.

Cameron’s office was appointed special prosecutor in the case after Jefferson Commonwealth lawyer Tom Wine recused himself in May. WDRB reported that Cameron, a board member, did not attend the meeting and that his representative left before the panel considered Palmer’s request.

A grand jury did not indict any of the Louisville metro police officers involved in the raid on charges related to Taylor’s death. Former Detective Brett Hankison, however, has been charged with three counts of gratuitous first degree endangerment for shooting indiscriminately in an apartment next to Taylor’s. He pleaded not guilty.

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Ben Crump, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said the council’s decision was “yet another serious miscarriage of justice in this case, and yet another example of a system that is biased towards members of the forces of the order and avoiding black women. “

“The level of cowardice that we have witnessed by the Louisville Police Department, the attorney general’s office and now the board, is staggering,” Crump said.

Taylor, a 26-year-old paramedic, was shot and killed by Louisville cops in her apartment during a faulty forced entry raid in the wee hours of March 13.
Palmer asked for a special prosecutor after some grand jurors said they had not had a chance to review homicide charges.

“Questions were asked about additional charges and the grand jury was told there would not be because prosecutors didn’t think they could hold them up,” one of the jurors said in a statement.

Another panel member said the jury was only allowed to consider three gratuitous endangerment charges against Hankison.

Palmer wrote in his request that his daughter deserves “a competent and competent prosecution team that is committed to properly investigating the case, assessing the law from an impartial point of view, presenting the evidence and enabling the grand jurors to perform the functions guaranteed to them under law. “

The nine-member council consists of the state attorney general, three Commonwealth attorneys, three county attorneys and two citizen members. All members, except the Attorney General, are appointed by the Governor.

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