“The Justice Department’s civil rights chief has asked a federal judge to sentence a Louisville police officer
convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to one day in jail, a stunning reversal of Biden-era efforts to address racial disparities in local law enforcement.
Last year, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted Brett Hankison, the officer, of one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by discharging several shots through Ms. Taylor’s window during a drug raid that went awry.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
On Wednesday, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the judge in the case to sentence Mr. Hankison to time he had already served, in addition to one day in prison and three years of supervised release.
In the filing, Ms. Dhillon suggested the prosecution was excessive, arguing that the Biden Justice Department had secured a conviction against Mr. Hankison after he had been acquitted on state charges and his first federal trial ended in mistrial.…”