The decide reported that there have been “loud noises” coming from the jury room at instances throughout deliberations this week, and court docket safety officers needed to go to the room. Jurors then instructed the decide Thursday they had been deadlocked on each counts in opposition to Hankison, unable to achieve a choice — prompting Jennings to declare a mistrial.
It’s doable {that a} mistrial might result in Hankison being retried, however that shall be decided by federal prosecutors at a later date.
Hankison, 47, was acquitted by a Kentucky jury. last year Charged with endangerment. Prosecutors alleged he unlawfully endangered Taylor’s neighbors. Months after his acquittal final yr, the US Division of Justice introduced brought new charges in opposition to Hankison, together with a bunch of different officers concerned in drafting the warrant.
US Lawyer Merrick Garland mentioned Taylor, a 26-year-old Black lady finding out to grow to be a nurse, “must be alive immediately” when he introduced the federal costs in August 2022. The costs Hankison confronted carried a most penalty of as much as life in jail. life. .
Hankison was the one officer who fired his weapon on the evening of the Taylor raid to be charged criminally. Prosecutors determined that two different officers had been justified in returning fireplace after one among them was shot within the leg.
Federal prosecutor Michael Songer mentioned Monday within the trial’s closing arguments that Hankison “was a legislation enforcement officer, however he was not above the legislation.” Songer argued that Hankison couldn’t see the goal and knew that blindly capturing into the constructing was a mistake.
Hankison’s lawyer, Stuart Matthews, responded that he was appearing rapidly to assist his fellow officers, who he believed had been “executed” by a gunman who opened fireplace from inside Taylor’s house. Taylor’s boyfriend fired one shot as police burst via the door. Her pal, Kenneth Walker, mentioned he thought an intruder was breaking in.
“If his notion was cheap given the chaos of that second, then this was not legal,” Matthews mentioned.
On the evening of the raid, Hankison mentioned he noticed a shot from Taylor’s boyfriend within the hallway after her door was damaged down. He stepped again and ran across the nook of the constructing, capturing into the facet of the house.
“I needed to reply,” he testified. “I had no alternative.”