With the news of the indictment of former Louisville detective Brett Hankison for three felony counts of wanton endangerment. We offer this reprise presentation of the opening statement that Crime Story Consulting Editor Paul Butler would give if he was prosecuting the case. While officers Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly were not indicted, Butler makes the case for why they too should be facing trial.
On March 13, 2020, three plainclothes Louisville Metro Police Department officers entered Breonna Taylor’s apartment. Minutes later, Taylor was dead, shot eight times by the police officers. For the past five months, protesters from around the world have called for justice for Breonna Taylor.
Today we present a vision of what that justice might look like.
Paul Butler is one of the nation’s most frequently consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice. He is a former prosecutor and a frequent guest on TV news programs. He is currently a professor at Georgetown Law and serves as Consulting Editor to us at Crime Story Media.
He says the evidence warrants reckless homicide charges against the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor. In this video, which Paul wrote and recorded, we present the opening statement that he would give if he was prosecuting the case against the officers who killed Breonna Taylor.
