A grand juror in the Breonna Taylor case has spoken out after a judge approved their request for panel members to discuss behind the scenes details of the proceedings.
Kentucky’s attorney general Daniel Cameron fought hard for the juror to be silenced and lost.
In a written statement, the grand juror alleged that they were only asked to consider one wanton endangerment charge against one officer. When the jurors asked whether they could consider charges against the other two officers involved in the shooting, they were told, “there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick.”
There was uproar across the country on September 23 as Cameron announced the grand jury investigation results, claiming prosecutors “walked the grand jury through every homicide offense.”
Cameron said, “the grand jury agreed” that the officers who shot Taylor were justified in returning fire because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, struck one of them in the leg with his weapon. Walker says officers failed to identify themselves. He was not aware the police were at the door.
The anonymous panel said the jury “didn’t agree that certain actions were justified,” and grand jurors “did not have homicide charges explained to them,” adding, “The grand jury never heard anything about those laws. Self defense or justification was never explained either.”
Cameron continues to defend his actions.
“As Special Prosecutor, it was my decision to ask for an indictment on charges that could be proven under Kentucky law,” Cameron said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “Indictments obtained in the absence of sufficient proof under the law do not stand up and are not fundamentally fair to anyone. I remain confident in our presentation to the Grand Jury, and I stand by the team of lawyers and investigators who dedicated months of work to this case.”
