The NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund believes Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron showed “inappropriate bias” in favor of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor.
According to the Courier Journal, the NAACP believes Cameron’s office deceived grand jurors into believing the arrest warrant was valid, failed to present all evidence to the jurors that could have implicated the officers and removed the jurors’ ability to consider homicide charges.
“What was presented to the grand jury in the case involving the police killing of Ms. Taylor betrayed the public’s trust and confidence that accountability and justice would be sought in a fair and thorough presentation of charges before a grand jury,” the NAACP report said.
Since former LMPD Detective Brett Hankison was charged with three wanton endangerment counts for blindly shooting into the homes of Taylor’s neighbors, three grand jurors have come forward saying Cameron and his office did not allow them to be heard.
“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.”
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, has called for a new prosecutor to be assigned to her daughter’s case. She wants the new prosecutor “to present a full and unbiased case to a new grand jury.”
Benjamin Crump, the family’s attorney, believes Cameron “whitewashed” the evidence that was presented to the grand jurors. “It is a despicable miscarriage of justice that is disrespectful to the life of Breonna Taylor that AG Cameron whitewashed what his office presented to the grand jury,” he said. “We urge the appointment of a new independent prosecutor to do the work AG Cameron failed to do and seek justice for Breonna Taylor.”