Breonna Taylor: Grand jury 'wasn't offered homicide charges', Internet wants Kentucky AG to be fired
A grand juror has spoken out in the Breonna Taylor case and has challenged the statements made by the Kentucky attorney general. The juror says that the jury "was not offered homicide charges to consider against the police officers involved" in the death and killing of Breonna Taylor. The comments were made by a juror who chose to remain anonymous on Tuesday, October 20, The Guardian reports. The comments were made after a Louisville judge had decided to clear the way for the panel's members to talk publicly about the secretive proceedings. The juror had filed a suit to speak publicly after the Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron, announced that no officers would be directly charged in the fatal shooting of Breonna during a botched up police raid.
The grand jury had charged just one officer with endangering her neighbors. The grand juror had issued a written statement where it was said that only wanton endangerment charges had been offered to them to consider against one officer. The grand jury asked questions about bringing other charges against the officers "and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick", the grand juror said. Cameron had opposed allowing grand jurors to talk about the proceedings but said he would not be appealing the judge's ruling. Cameron had revealed the results of the grand jury investigation in a news conference on September 23. During the announcement, he said that prosecutors 'walked the grand jury through every homicide offense'.
Breonna was fatally shot during a botched police raid while she was inside her Louisville apartment on March 13. At the time of the incident, Breonna and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had reportedly been sleeping and were awakened when the officers burst into the home.
She was killed when three police officers opened fire at her boyfriend. The police had broken down her door using a battering ram in the middle of the night as part of the investigation into her ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover.
Cameron had also said that 'the grand jury agreed' that the officers who shot Breonna were justified in returning fire after they were shot at by Walker. The anonymous grand juror has challenged Cameron's comments saying that the panel "didn't agree that certain actions were justified" and grand jurors "did not have homicide charges explained to them".
"The grand jury never heard anything about those laws. Self-defense or justification was never explained either," the statement read.
In a statement that was released by Cameron, he said, "Indictments obtained in the absence of sufficient proof under the law do not stand up and are not fundamentally fair to anyone."
Many social media users have reacted to the news and commented on the anonymous grand juror's statement. One such user wrote, "That's not jury tampering, but he can be brought up on ethics violations since it appears he lied to the public."
Another added, "It is no wonder many of us do not believe the legal system is fair, unbiased and follows laws. The AG and everyone else involved in this totally unfair set up should immediately resign or be fired." Yet another commented, "But, this is the legal system that many claim is so fair. The system is broken and the individuals in charge of the system are broken."
That's not jury tampering, but he can be brought up on ethics violations since it appears he lied to the public.
— SuperMassiveBLACKhole (@cdenisegayle) October 20, 2020
It is no wonder many of us do not believe the legal system is fair, unbiased and follows laws. The AG and everyone else involved in this totally unfair set up should immediately resign or be fired.
— MissingMySon🙏🏾 (@judyposton22) October 20, 2020
But, this is the legal system that many claim is so fair. The system is broken and the individuals in charge of the system are broken.
— Promoters4Purpose (@Promo4Purpose) October 20, 2020