Two days ago, a grand jury failed to hold police officers accountable for Breonna Taylor’s death in Louisville, Kentucky.

[link removed]
View in browser ([link removed])
John —

Two days ago, a grand jury failed to hold police officers accountable for the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

The grand jury charged only Brett Hankinson, one of three police officers involved in her death, with wanton endangerment. Brett is also the only officer to be fired so far in connection with the case. The charges against him are for firing shots towards the apartments of Breonna’s neighbors.

This announcement two days ago sparked protests across the country calling for greater police accountability, a cause to which the Innocence Project is deeply committed.

Among the thousands of people exonerated in the last 30 years, half were wrongfully convicted in cases involving police and/or prosecutorial misconduct. Yet, because of law and policies including qualified immunity and “cooling off periods,” officers accused of or known to have engaged in misconduct often receive more legal protections than innocent people. Without real accountability, police misconduct can and often does lead to injustices like wrongful convictions, and in Breonna Taylor’s case, death.

Breonna was a 26-year-old emergency medical worker and was at home when she was shot and killed in the middle of the night by police officers who entered her apartment in search of her ex-boyfriend who did not live there. At the time of Breonna’s killing, police had already located her ex-boyfriend elsewhere.

In the wake of widespread outrage over her death, Louisville officials have since banned the use of no-knock warrants. But calls for meaningful police accountability in connection with her needless death continue to go unanswered.

The Innocence Project is committed to fighting for increased transparency around police misconduct, and for meaningful police accountability. ([link removed]) Through the advancement of such policies, we can prevent future police misconduct and injustices like the needless loss of Breonna Taylor’s life.

— Innocence Project Team

============================================================
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** YouTube ([link removed])
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
** www.innocenceproject.org ([link removed])

Copyright © 2020 Innocence Project, All rights reserved.
212.364.5340
[email protected]

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.