by Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
August 5, 2025

Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison has appealed the nearly three-year sentence he received for his role in the 2020 police raid that killed Breonna Taylor, an unarmed Black woman. 

The notice of appeal, filed Tuesday, comes after U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings last month sentenced Hankison to 33 months in prison for violating Taylor’s civil rights during the raid. 

Former police officer involved in Breonna Taylor raid gets 33 months sentence

Hankison “appeals both the conviction and the sentence imposed in this case,” the notice says. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release in July.  

In handing down that sentence, Jennings, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s recommendation that Hankison be sentenced to a single day of time served.  

On the night Hankison and others came to Taylor’s apartment in March 2020 with a “no-knock” search warrant, police were investigating a former boyfriend of Taylor’s who lived at a different address. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were in bed when police broke into the apartment. Walker fired at what he thought were intruders breaking into the residence, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in his thigh. Mattingly initially sued Walker but dropped the case voluntarily in 2023. 

Hankison and two other officers fired their guns a total of 32 times. Hankison fired from outside the apartment through a covered sliding glass door and window, hitting a neighbor’s apartment. It was later determined that officer Myles Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor, whose death led to massive protests in Louisville and beyond. He was not charged and was later hired by a police force in Carroll County. 

https:ecf.kywd.uscourts.gov:cgi-bin:show_temp.pl?file=4868762-0–88181.pdf&type=application:pdf

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content presents a detailed and factual account of the legal case involving former officer Brett Hankison and the Breonna Taylor incident. It highlights civil rights violations, the sentencing, and the surrounding controversy, including the community protests and the DOJ’s differing sentencing recommendation. The tone is predominantly factual but includes elements that emphasize accountability for police misconduct and systemic issues in law enforcement, which tends to align with a center-left perspective emphasizing social justice and reform within the justice system.