LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.
The 12-member jury returned the late-night verdict after clearing Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor's neighbors.
It was the first conviction of a Louisville police officer who was involved in the deadly raid.
Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read around 9:30 p.m. They had earlier indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the charge of using excessive force on Taylor, but chose to continue deliberating. The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse, saying: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”
In a statement posted to social media Saturday, the Louisville Metro Police Department said that it respects the jury's verdict and that since 2020, it has improved training, practices and policies and implemented reforms emphasizing “accountability and thorough investigations.”
“It is not lost on us that this event forever altered the fabric of our community, and we acknowledge the pain caused by the death of Breonna Taylor,” the department said. “Our officers are sworn to protect and serve the community, upholding the law with integrity and fairness. We condemn any behavior that runs afoul of the mission to help and protect our citizens.”
“Breonna Taylor’s life mattered," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We hope the jury’s verdict recognizing this violation of Ms. Taylor’s civil and constitutional rights brings some small measure of comfort to her family and loved ones who have suffered so deeply from the tragic events of March 2020.”
Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor's glass door and windows during the raid, but didn't hit anyone. Some shots flew into a next-door neighbor's adjoining apartment.
The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked racial injustice protests nationwide.
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., called the verdict "a long-awaited moment of accountability."
“While it cannot restore Breonna to her family, it represents a crucial step in the pursuit of justice and a reminder that no one should be above the law,” King said in a social media post Friday night.
A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.
The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 12 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.
Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.
This jury sent a note on Thursday to the judge asking whether they needed to know if Taylor was alive as Hankison fired his shots.
That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney Don Malarcik told the jury that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired.
After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to keep deliberating.
Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he moved away, rounded the corner of the apartment unit and fired into Taylor’s glass door and a window.
Meanwhile, officers at the door returned Walker’s fire, hitting and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.
Hankison’s lawyers argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting properly “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shots didn’t hit anyone.
Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. Hankison's verdict is the second conviction from those cases. The first was a plea deal from a former officer who was not at the raid and became a cooperating witness in another case.
Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired the shot that hit former Sgt. John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn the lights on as police were knocking and instead armed himself and hid in the dark.
“Brett Hankison was 12 inches away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.
Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 shots into doors and a window where he couldn’t see a target.
They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If they cannot see the person they’re shooting at, they cannot pull the trigger.”
Neither of the officers who shot Taylor — Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove — were charged in Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors have said those officers were justified in returning fire, since Taylor’s boyfriend shot at them first.
Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, center left, hugs a friend in Louisville, Ky., Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, after a former Kentucky police officer was convicted in federal court for using excessive force when he fired his gun during the deadly raid that left Taylor dead in 2020. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
FILE - Former Louisville Police officer Brett Hankison describes what he saw in the apartment of Brionna Taylor during testimony Wednesday, March 2, 2022, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool, File)
FILE - This photo provided by the Louisville Metro police department shows officer Brett Hankison. (Louisville Police Department via AP, File)
MUNICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 3, 2024--
SimScale GmbH, a pioneer in cloud-native engineering simulation and Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division today announced a strategic partnership to transform how engineering teams deploy advanced structural analysis. The collaboration removes traditional accessibility barriers by delivering the advanced capabilities of Hexagon’s Marc nonlinear finite element solver as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) through SimScale’s intuitive cloud native platform, unlocking unprecedented value for engineering teams.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241202212598/en/
Unlocking Advanced Simulation for Engineering Organizations of all sizes
The joint offering transforms access to advanced design and nonlinear analysis capabilities for engineering organizations that may lack the resources for traditional methods or specialized IT infrastructure. The simulations are delivered through a browser-based platform that makes it easy to integrate advanced simulation into workflows, enabling engineers to innovate without requiring extensive technical expertise.
Empowering Enterprise Design Team Collaboration
Larger, multidisciplinary design teams with existing simulation support will benefit from reduced silos between design and analyst departments, fostering a more collaborative environment. By enabling designers to leverage simulation earlier in the design process, the solution helps teams to streamline their workflows, perform rapid design iterations, reduce physical prototypes and accelerate innovation. This collaborative approach empowers teams to make more informed decisions faster, enhancing overall productivity and design accuracy.
Unrivaled Ease of Use and Scalable Deployment Assured
The joint solution is designed from the ground up for ease of use and deployment speed, requiring no installation or extensive IT support. Engineers can access Hexagon’s proven Marc solver directly through SimScale’s browser-based interface, ensuring a smooth and intuitive user experience. As an advanced nonlinear structural and multi-physics solver, Marc excels in a wide range of engineering applications, making it an invaluable tool for all industry verticals including automotive, aerospace, energy, electronics and manufacturing. Its robust capabilities enable precise simulations of complex material behaviors—including plasticity, hyper-elasticity, and fatigue—allowing engineers to predict damage and failure in structures and components. From manufacturing processes like sheet metal forming to critical sealing analyses in the oil and gas sector, Marc provides comprehensive solutions for tackling the most challenging engineering problems. This capability, combined with the platform's robust and proven technology, ensures that even the most demanding simulations are managed efficiently and effectively in the cloud. In addition, SimScale’s live in-product support provides a unique safety net for all users, as evidenced by G2's ranking of SimScale as 1st in user satisfaction in the Simulation & CAE Software category.
Accelerated Adoption through Product-Led Growth Journeys
The SimScale platform also features a unique product-led-growth approach, supporting > 600k engineers with self-service learning and adoption journeys with transparent user management and real-time support. This enables organizations to quickly onboard and scale their simulation capabilities, driving broad awareness and engagement across teams. In addition, by providing robust simulation templates, the solution simplifies complex analyses via pre-configured setups, enabling non-experts to run accurate simulations easily while ensuring that all simulations adhere to established standards, thus democratizing access and maintaining compliance for the entire team.
“Partnering with SimScale allows us to bring our world-class simulation technology to a wider market,” said Subham Sett, Vice President Multiphysics at Hexagon . “We have found Marc being used very successfully in applications we had never expected from shoe design to 3D printing, and this is a great solution to enable both small businesses and large enterprises to confidently explore challenging nonlinear materials and applications and achieve results faster than ever before.”
“Marc has been an exceptional workhorse for CAE experts for decades. We’ve successfully deployed this technology to manufacturing simulation users through our Virtual Manufacturing Suite. The partnership with SimScale enables us to take a big step forward in fulfilling our vision of democratizing access to all users.”
“This partnership is a major step forward for the engineering community,” said David Heiny, CEO of SimScale. “Our joint solution eliminates the traditional pain points of simulation – from complex installations to heavy local processing – empowering engineers everywhere to harness the full potential of structural analysis.”
Companies interested in understanding how they can access the Marc solver on the SimScale platform can contact SimScale via www.simscale.com/contact-us/
About SimScale
SimScale is the world’s first cloud-native engineering simulation platform, offering powerful and accessible computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), and thermal simulations. With SimScale, every engineer has access to the power of physics and AI simulation without the need for expensive hardware or software. SimScale is trusted by >600k engineers worldwide to make informed decisions, optimize designs, and innovate faster. For more information, visitwww.simscale.com.
About Hexagon
Hexagon is the global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency, productivity, quality and safety across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, public sector, and mobility applications.
Our technologies are shaping production and people related ecosystems to become increasingly connected and autonomous – ensuring a scalable, sustainable future. Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division provides solutions that use data from design and engineering, production and metrology to make manufacturing smarter. For more information, visithexagon.com/mi.
Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 24,500 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.4bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us @HexagonAB.
Advanced nonlinear analysis with Hexagon's Marc™ on SimScale's cloud-native platform (Graphic: Business Wire)
