Another juror in the Breonna Taylor trial grand jury has spoken up regarding the lies Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has told. An anonymous juror identified as “Grand Juror #1” by attorney Kevin Glogower said on Oct. 20 that the grand jury not only disagreed that certain actions taken by police that night were justified, but that it was never given the opportunity to indict any officer for homicide. On Thursday, a second juror, also represented by Glogower, confirmed this statement and agreed that the group was limited in what charges they were able to consider.
"The grand jury was only allowed to consider the three wanton endangerment charges against Detective Hankison. No opportunity to consider anything else was permitted,” the statement read Thursday. “Anonymous grand juror No. 2 agrees wholeheartedly with the statement released on behalf of anonymous grand juror No. 1 on 10/20/2020 and is looking forward to continuing to help set the record straight."
Following the announcement on Sept. 23 that no charges would be pursued against the Louisville Metro Police officers involved in the killing of Taylor, Cameron claimed that the grand jurors in the case agreed the officers’ actions were justified, needing no charges. “We presented all of the information and they ultimately made a determination about whether to charge. In this instance, they decided to indict Detective Hankinson,” Cameron said.
He added that all the information and facts related to the March 13 case were provided to the jury. “The grand jury had every piece of detail needed to make their assessment and their judgments. And ultimately their conclusion was that the decision needed to be made to indict. Mr. Hankinson.”
While Cameron’s presser was filled with lies, the biggest ones he told were that the “jury agreed that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified” and that “all the evidence was given to the grand jury and they made the decision that wanton endangerment was the charge to file, or to indict against Mr. Hankinson.”
However, the first anonymous juror who spoke out disagreed and said that “questions were asked about additional charges and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn't feel they could make them stick." The juror’s quest to “get the truth out” resulted in Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O'Connell ruling that all records of the trial be released in order for jury panelists to speak publicly for themselves about the case.
"The grand jury did not have homicide offenses explained to them," Grand Juror #1’s statement read Tuesday. "The grand jury never heard about those laws. Self-defense or justification was never explained either."
Both jurors’ statements follow multiple incidents in which Cameron alleged that when the jurors were presented with all the information available, they chose not to pursue charges. He refused to acknowledge any involvement his office had in the jurors’ decision and took to blaming the jurors for the state’s inability to charge the officers who murdered Taylor.
“This is about what the grand jury decided. One of the misconceptions out there is that the Attorney General’s office was in the business of making charges, and that’s just simply not the case under Kentucky law. Our role is to present the information to the grand jury. We dispense with that responsibility. We did it after a protracted investigation that uncovered all of the facts. That was our role. That was our responsibility. And we presented everything to the grand jury for them to ultimately make a judgment about what to do next. And in this case, in this incident, they decided to indict Detective Hankinson.”
While at this time it is unclear whether other jurors will speak out or more information will be shared, Cameron’s lies have been revealed. Since the beginning, Cameron has disagreed with the release of any records related to the case, arguing that it was unnecessary as he did his job under Kentucky law. On Thursday he issued another statement in response to the judge’s decision to allow jurors to speak, stating that he is "fine with the juror speaking and making their position known. But at the end of the day, we had a responsibility to do the job of looking for the facts, and applying that to the law."
