On Thursday (Oct. 22), a second grand juror released a statement regarding the Breonna Taylor investigation, reports WLKY.
Grand juror No. 2, who is choosing to remain anonymous, agrees “wholeheartedly” with grand juror No. 1’s initial statement that Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron limited the group on what charges they could consider against former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Detective Brett Hankison.
“The grand jury was only allowed to consider the three wanton endangerment charges against Detective Hankison,” the statement, which was released by Attorney Kevin Glogower, read. “No opportunity to consider anything else was permitted. Anonymous grand juror No. 2 agrees wholeheartedly with the statement released on behalf of anonymous grand juror No. 1 on 10/20/2020 and is looking forward to continuing to help set the record straight.”
On Tuesday (Oct. 20), Judge Annie O’Connell ruled that the grand jurors who worked on the Taylor case could speak publicly about what happened during the proceedings.
“There exist additional interests to consider in making this decision: the interest of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to be assured that its publicly elected officials are being honest in their representations, the interest of grand jurors, whose service is compelled, to be certain their work is not mischaracterized by the very prosecutors on whom they relied to advise them and the interest of all citizens to have confidence in the integrity of the justice system,” she wrote.
Grand juror No. 1 immediately released a statement revealing that Cameron and his office never gave them an option to file homicide charges against Hankison.
“The grand jury was not presented any charges other than the three wanton endangerment charges against Detective Hankison,” said grand juror No. 1. “The grand jury did not have homicide offenses explained to them. The grand jury never heard anything about those laws. Self-defense or justification was never explained either. Questions were asked about additional charges and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick.”
“The grand jury didn’t agree that certain actions were justified, nor did it decide the indictment should be the only charges in the Breonna Taylor case. The grand jury was not given the opportunity to deliberate on those charges and deliberated only on what was presented to them. I cannot speak for other juror, but I can help the truth be told,” the statement concluded.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents Taylor’s family, is now calling for the appointment of a new independent prosecutor for the case.