Breonna Taylor Grand Jurors Tell Gayle King They Weren’t Allowed To Consider Murder Charges Against Cops
Update: Oct. 28, 2020
Two grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case say they were not given the chance to consider murder or manslaughter charges against Louisville police officers. One of the jurors also called the police officers’ behavior in the fatal March 13 encounter “criminal.”
In an interview broadcast Wednesday (Oct. 28), the two jurors, who were only identified as "Juror No. 1" and "Juror No. 2" and are hidden by silhouette, spoke to Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” They were critical of Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron, who announced last month that the shooting at her apartment during a failed warrant execution, was justified because of a shot fired by Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker.
None of the officers faced charges linked to Taylor’s death and only one, Brett Hankison, was charged with “wanton endangerment” because of a bullet that went into a neighboring apartment.
"They never gave us the opportunity to deliberate on anything but the charges for Hankison. That was it," Juror No. 2 said. "There were several more charges that could have gone forward on all of those officers or at least the 3 shooters."
Juror No. 1 said the jury wanted to consider charges but were told there would be none because the prosecutors didn't feel they could make them stick,” he said, noting that the Louisville police department could not provide a risk assessment. "It sounded like they hadn't done one."
That juror also released a statement last week through an attorney blasting the process.
“The grand jury was not presented any charges other than the three Wanton Endangerment charges against Detective Hankison,” the statement read. “The grand jury did not have homicide charges explained to them. The grand jury never heard anything about those laws. Self defense or justification was never explained either.”
Juror No. 2 said that the police procedure that led to the shooting was full of "deception."
"They were criminal leading up to this in everything that they — the way they moved forward on it, including the warrant," the second juror told King.
The jurors' lawyer Kevin Glogower who was also present during the interview, backed up his clients, saying, "from a legal perspective, it looked like they weren't following the grand jurors and they only wanted the grand jurors to follow them, which is contrary to the actual rule."
"Normally the grand jurors are presented with the law and the charges so that they can listen to the facts with an open mind and apply those facts to the law, almost as a road map," he said.
Both jurors said what motivated them to speak out was Cameron's statement after the announcement of no charges connected with Taylor's death, which said: "While there are six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law these charges are not applicable to the facts before us because our investigation showed, and the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their return of deadly fire."
Juror No. 1 said the press conference where Cameron made the statement was the first he'd ever heard of "six possible homicide charges." At the same time, Juror No. 2 said "this was all Cameron."
"This was up to him. We didn't get a choice in that at all, so I was livid," he said. "By the time I heard what he was saying, everything that came out of his mouth, I was saying, 'Liar.'… 'Cause we didn't agree to anything."
View the full interview with the jurors below:
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