LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A second day of jury deliberations in the federal retrial of Brett Hankison has concluded.
Hankison, a former Louisville Metro Police detective, is charged with violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor and her neighbors during the botched raid at her apartment in March 2020.
During Thursday's deliberations, jurors asked the judge a critical question which may provide insight into what's going on behind closed doors.
"Do we need to know whether Breonna Taylor was a living victim when Brett Hankison fired?" the jury asked, seeking clarification.
The judge's instructions are clear: to convict Hankison, jurors must find he "deprived a living victim of a constitutional right."
It comes a day after defense attorneys' stunning closing argument, in which they said that Taylor's civil rights died with her. They said Hankison fired his shots after former detective Myles Cosgrove had already shot and killed her in the apartment.
"What evidence has the DOJ proved to you that [Breonna Taylor] was alive with freedom of movement?" the defense asked the jury in closing arguments on Wednesday.
Breonna Taylor's family is frustrated by the argument. Her cousin, Kamal Wells, called it "painful."
"When you're dealing with a situation where it was a botched warrant to begin with," he said. "That's like a slap in the face -- adding insult to injury."
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Sam Marcosson, a University of Louisville law professor who has followed the case since it began, told WHAS11 the jury question is shedding light on what they may be discussing in those hours of deliberations.
"My gut is telling me that they don't even need to ask that question, unless they believe -- at least potentially it shows -- that they may believe he acted recklessly and violated the civil rights of anyone who was alive," Marcosson said.
When entering the courthouse on Thursday, Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, told WHAS11 she's left it up to God.
"That's all I can do right now," she said.
'Unfathomable danger'
For days, federal prosecutors have painted a picture of the "unfathomable" danger Hankison put Taylor and her neighbors in saying Cody Etherton "felt the drywall splatter on his face as the bullet whizzed by."
"If [Hankison] suggest his shots didn't harm people, he is dead wrong," prosecutors told the jury.
Defense attorney Don Malarcik pushed back, arguing the Hankison's shot didn't hit anyone
"Not a single human being -- no one," he said.
Malarcik described the "12 seconds of chaos" of what Hankison testified as sounding like "machine gun fire," arguing he had "three to four seconds to make a decision to save the lives of officers."
One of those officer, retired LMPD Sgt. John Mattingly who was shot in the leg that night, told WHAS11 that after four years, much of the community feels differently about the case now.
"All these things that were lies from the beginning that this city, this department, never pushed back and allowed the people to come in and destroy this place and run businesses out, now these truths are getting out," he said.
But Breonna Taylor's family isn't letting go of hope for justice.
"I think that they have plenty of evidence to convict Brett Hankison of the charges," Lonita Baker, the family's attorney, said.
Jury deliberations will continue into a third day on Friday.
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