Two grand jurors who were involved in the Breonna Taylor case spoke to journalists by phone Wednesday evening and revealed the Taylor case was unlike dozens of other cases they heard throughout their month of service.
According to CNN, the jurors who heard the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office presentation of the Breonna Taylor case claim prosecutors were dismissive of their questions and that there was an “uproar” when jurors realized Louisville police officers wouldn’t face any charges for Taylor’s death.
“Was justice was done? No, I feel that there was there’s quite a bit more that could have been done or should have been presented for us to deliberate on,” Grand Juror 1, described as a white male, told reporters on the call.
The grand jurors are speaking out anonymously after Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O’Connell earlier this month granted their request to do so. Grand Juror 1 filed court documents suggesting public comments by Attorney General Daniel Cameron about the proceedings were misleading.
Cameron said in a news conference last month that six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law weren’t considered against the officers who fired their weapons in Taylor’s apartment because “they were justified in the return of deadly fire” after being shot at once by Tayor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Grand Juror 1 called Cameron’s comments “inaccurate” and said the first time he heard there were six possible homicide charges that the jurists could have reviewed was during Cameron’s news conference.
The juror claims that even though they asked for other charges to be brought, they were never informed of any additional charges, “We were just told that they didn’t feel that they can make any charges stick” and that “LMPD officers were justified in returning fire,” the juror said.
The second grand juror, a Black male, concurred. He said there should have been additional charges against “maybe up to the six officers that were there” when Taylor was killed.
“We were open the whole time to listen to everything they presented, and it would have been nice if they had presented every charge, but they only presented those three charges,” Grand Juror 2 said, referring to the charges brought against the only officer charged, former LMPD detective Brett Hankison.
