UPDATED 10/29, 10:15 a.m. ET: Breonna Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer has filed legal documents requesting that the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council put an independent prosecutor on the case of her daughter’s death, which would then be presented to a new grand jury.
"At minimum, my daughter deserves, as do all aggrieved victims, a competent and capable prosecution team which is committed to properly investigating the case, evaluating the law from an unbiased lens, presenting the evidence and allowing the grand jurors to perform the functions guaranteed to them under the law," Palmer wrote in her request, per CNN. She said her family "would have remained in the dark as to these lies expressed by [Attorney General Daniel] Cameron” if grand jury members hadn’t placed "themselves and their freedom in jeopardy" by talking about the case’s problems.
Palmer's attorney Lonita Baker said the jurors’ statements are proof Cameron’s office presented a “flawed” and unjust case. "Through this process, we seek to have an independent prosecutor appointed to present a full and unbiased case to a new grand jury," Baker stated.
Per CNN, the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council is comprised of three commonwealth attorneys, three county attorneys, two citizen members, and Cameron. Palmer has asked the AG to recuse himself from the decision-making.
See original story below.
In a new interview, two of the grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case break down how the Louisville Metro Police Department failed in their duties from the very beginning.
Speaking with Gayle King for a special discussion set to be aired in full this week on CBS This Morning, the two jurors—who spoke on the condition of anonymity and are identified only as No. 1 and No. 2—were asked to share their assessment of the police's "behavior and actions" on the night of March 13.
"Negligent," one grand juror said. "They couldn't even provide a risk assessment and it sounded like they hadn't done one. So their organization leading up to this was lacking. That's what I mean by they were negligent in the operation." The other interviewee, identified as grand juror No. 2, said the officers were "criminal" in their actions.
"They were criminal leading up to this in everything that they [did]," the juror said. "The way they moved forward on it, including the warrant, was deception."
The two grand jurors also took issue with the comments Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has made about the case and explained that they were not given the chance to consider murder or manslaughter charges. Juror No. 1 said their desire was to consider additional charges, though they were ultimately told that wouldn't happen because prosecutors believed such charges wouldn't stick.
Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot and killed when Louisville cops in plain clothes—identified as Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove—forced their way into her apartment. While cops have claimed that they identified themselves as police officers prior to forcing their way into the apartment, Kenneth Walker—Taylor's boyfriend—said he never heard any such announcement.
