LOUISVILLE, KY. --
Jury choice resumed Tuesday with the primary questioning of potential jurors for the trial of a former Kentucky police officer concerned within the lethal raid that killed Breonna Taylor.
Potential jurors in Brett Hankison's wanton endangerment trial are being questioned individually, so attorneys can decide whether or not they have any preexisting biases earlier than proof is offered.
Hankison will not be charged within the dying of Taylor, who was shot to dying in a botched 2020 narcotics raid. However prosecutors stated Hankison fired pictures throughout the raid that went right into a neighbouring residence, endangering others.
The primary potential juror referred to as was a Black girl -- a medical employee similar to Taylor was -- who stated she was "impartial" on the case. Legal professionals requested if she was conscious Hankison's case is separate from the capturing dying of Taylor. The girl stated she had no opinion about Taylor's dying and indicated she might weigh the proof towards Hankison pretty. She was retained and requested to return on Feb. 22 for the subsequent section of jury choice.
Two different jurors included within the first group have been dismissed. One, a younger man, stated he had a adverse opinion of police and did not need to be on the jury. The opposite, a white girl, stated she believed Hankison was responsible in Taylor's dying.
13 potential jurors have been interviewed by mid-afternoon, and 7, together with the Black medical employee and 4 white males, have been retained for the subsequent step.
The jury pool was widened to about 250 due to heavy publicity surrounding Taylor's dying and racial injustice protests that happened in Louisville all through 2020. Potential jurors are being questioned individually, about 20 a day, to search out out if any can't be neutral on the query of Hankison's guilt. The method is anticipated to take a number of weeks.
Potential jurors provided quite a lot of opinions on the case Tuesday. One younger Black girl stated she participated in a protest over Taylor's dying in the summertime of 2020 however would be capable to decide Hankison's case impartially.
However the girl additionally remarked that Taylor "wasn't a prison, the police did not have a motive to go after her." She was dismissed. One other younger girl was dismissed as a result of she checked out information experiences concerning the case after the decide requested the jury pool to not. Others who have been dismissed had schedule conflicts or expressed some bias concerning the case.
Questioning was set to start final week, however was delayed by inclement climate and after Hankison wanted minor surgical procedure.
Hankison sat alongside his attorneys throughout the proceedings Tuesday, carrying a blue swimsuit and vibrant pink tie.
Two different officers on the scene with Hankison who fired bullets that struck Taylor weren't charged. Taylor's boyfriend fired a shot
that struck a type of officers, Jonathan Mattingly, within the leg. The boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, stated he feared an intruder was breaking into Taylor's floor ground residence.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black girl who labored as an emergency medical technician, was shot a number of occasions. No medicine have been present in her residence, and the warrant used to enter by power was later discovered to be flawed. The case additionally shined a light-weight on using "no knock" warrants, which have been later banned in Louisville.
Hankison has pleaded not responsible to 3 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, a low-level felony that carries a jail sentence of 1 to 5 years.
Jefferson Circuit Choose Ann Bailey Smith denied Hankison's request final yr to maneuver the trial out of Louisville. He had argued that publicity surrounding the case would make it laborious to seat an neutral jury.
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