AG Daniel Cameron rigged the grand jury to let Breonna Taylor’s killers walk.
Help us replace Daniel Cameron and elect prosecutors who will defend Black lives:
John --
Last week, a grand jury failed to bring charges against the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor. And last night, we found out why: Attorney General Daniel Cameron didn’t let them.
That’s right, John: After pressure from Breonna’s family, BLM Louisville, and Color Of Change members like you, AG Cameron finally released recordings from the grand jury proceedings.1 Here's what we know:
AG Cameron didn’t recommend any charges for the killer cops. By his own admission, he never even gave the grand jury the option to consider charges in Breonna Taylor’s death.2 Instead, Cameron said the cops who shot Breonna six times were “justified in their acts,” recommended bogus “wanton endangerment” charges, and then lied to our faces about the grand jury proceedings on national TV.3
We won’t let Daniel Cameron get away with this, John, and we won’t stop demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.
Color Of Change PAC is fully committed to removing KY Attorney General Daniel Cameron from office. We’ll use every tool we’ve got — digital and TV ads, billboards, phonebanks, get-out-the-vote events — to show Cameron the door and elect prosecutors who will actually fight for us.
Defeating prosecutors like Daniel Cameron won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen without a fight.
John, can we count on you to support our efforts to fire Attorney General Daniel Cameron and elect prosecutors who will defend Black lives? Choose an amount that feels powerful to you as an investment in this critical work:
Make no mistake, John: We knew a grand jury wouldn’t win justice for Breonna, because prosecutors like Daniel Cameron completely control the grand jury process. They choose who will sit on the jury, what evidence is presented, and which witnesses can testify. They can even recommend charges — so it’s no surprise that grand juries almost never indict violent cops.
But the grand jury recordings reveal what happened behind closed doors, and how Daniel Cameron did everything he could to ensure a favorable outcome for the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor.
In front of cameras, Cameron said that he walked jurors through “every homicide offense, and also presented all of the information that was available.”3 In reality, he didn’t give the grand jury an option to charge the three LMPD officers with her murder.4 Cameron's office told grand jurors they didn’t have enough time to show all the video footage from the case. Instead of answering their questions, the prosecutors and witnesses often implied the issues raised were not important.5 Later, Cameron admitted to stacking the deck against Breonna — claiming that allowing the grand jury to consider a murder charge in her death would have been “inappropriate.”6
The only thing that has been “inappropriate” is Daniel Cameron’s handling of this case and his unapologetic subservience to racist cops. That’s why we demanded Cameron release the grand jury transcripts last week — and why we need your help to send him packing as soon as possible.
Attorney General Cameron delayed the release of these recordings because he thought we’d lose focus and move on.7 He thought we’d stop demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman murdered by Louisville police in her own home.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
We won’t stop fighting, John, and we hope you won’t either. Because as long as Daniel Cameron is handling this case, we’ll never get justice for Bre. And as long as Cameron and prosecutors like him are in power — in Louisville, in your city, anywhere — we’ll never win real, lasting justice for Black people.
Until justice is real,
-- Arisha, Scott, Malachi, Ernie, and the rest of the Color Of Change PAC team
References:
1. Breonna Taylor grand jury recordings reveal chilling scene of chaos and misinformation. Louisville Courier Journal, 02 October 2020.
2. Grand jury not presented with murder charges against 2 officers in Breonna Taylor's death, AG Cameron says. WDRB, 29 September 2020.
3. It Sure Looks Like Daniel Cameron Lied About Breonna Taylor’s Killing. New York Magazine, 30 September 2020.
This wasn’t the only dubious claim that Cameron expected the public to take at face value. He also said that the grand jury agreed that Taylor’s death was justified. “While there are six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law,” he explained, “these charges are not applicable to the facts before us because our investigation showed — and the grand jury agreed — that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in the return of deadly fire after having been fired upon.” But the grand jury may not have actually agreed.
4. Kentucky attorney general says he did not present homicide charges to grand jury in Breonna Taylor case. The Washington Post, 29 September 2020.
5. Grand jury recordings capture dispute over Breonna Taylor’s final moments, but not prosecutors’ recommendations. The Washington Post, 02 October 2020.
Much of the public criticism of Cameron’s handling of the case has centered on what evidence his office presented to the grand jury and what charges it recommended. At a news conference announcing the grand jury’s decision, Cameron said that he walked jurors through Kentucky’s six homicide charges, but he later said his office only suggested they indict on wanton endangerment charges.
6. Grand jury was never asked to mull homicide charges in Breonna Taylor case. Politico, 29 September 2020.
7. Release of grand jury proceedings postponed in Breonna Taylor case after prosecutor requests delay. The Washington Post, 29 September 2020.
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