By Parker Quinlan | October 7, 2025, 5:10 p.m. EDT
·
A former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department officer who was convicted of firing shots into Breonna Taylor's home must remain in federal prison, after a district court judge denied him bail pending his appeal of his three-year prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings notice On Monday, former police officer Brett Hankison failed to present a sufficient legal issue on appeal to warrant setting bail, despite being a low flight risk, according to the opinion.
The judge said that although Hankison raised several issues – including the length of her sentence, whether the evidence was sufficient for a conviction and whether the jury instructions were clear – she was not convinced of the potential success of the appeal.
“Although the motion does not present narrow or difficult issues, the need to research a complete record and flesh out the bare arguments and case law makes this memorandum and opinion considerably longer than the arguments should have warranted,” according to the opinion. “Hankison raises numerous questions but does not indicate how the Court's decisions, the majority of which were discretionary, presented closely or novelly or violated Sixth Circuit standards.”
Judge Jennings concluded that under the bail reform law, incarcerated people are only allowed to be released if they are not a flight risk and if their appeal is likely to result in a reversal, a new trial or a sentence reduction less than what the defendant has already served.
The law created a presumption against discharge upon appeal, meaning defendants must prove their case is exceptional and they will win the high burden of proving their appeal will be successful, the opinion noted.
The appeal contains a variety of issues, with Hankison arguing that his sentence was greater than necessary; There was insufficient evidence to convict; and the court improperly allowed rebuttal testimony and refused to issue specific jury instruction language requested by Hankison, the judge said.
Judge Jennings found that none of the specific reasons Hankison appealed would likely result in his conviction being overturned and that while he was not a flight risk, he could not prove that his appeal would be legally sufficient to warrant bond.
Hankison filed an appeal before the Sixth Circuit after he was sentenced in July to 33 months in federal prison for his role in Taylor's shooting death in March 2022. A jury found Hankison last year guilty of discharging a gun at Taylor's home during a no-cut police sting.
Hankison was indicted in August 2022 on two counts of violating Taylor's civil rights, and was ultimately tried three times, with the first two declared trials. Prosecutors ultimately secured a conviction in November 2024 on both counts of civil rights violations.
THE US Department of JusticeThe case has taken a dramatic turn since President Donald Trump returned to office for a second term. Before the sentencing, Trump's top civil rights division prosecutor, Harmeet K. Dhillon, and special prosecutor Robert J. Keenan requested a one-day jail sentence for Hankison.
Dhillon and Keenan, neither of whom was involved in the trial, acknowledged in their sentencing memorandum that the request was a “significant departure” from the sentencing guidelines. The Federal Probation Office requested that Hankison be sentenced to between 11 and 14 years based on federal sentencing guidelines.
The decision to involve top appointees from the Civil Rights Division indicated a shift in how the Trump administration's plans handle police misconduct cases. Keenan, a career prosecutor, began showing up in several cases like Hankison to ask for light sentences or offer plea deals to officers accused of misconduct.
Hankison's lawyer and a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Hankison is represented by Donald J. Malarcik of the Ohio Defense Firm, Jarrod James Beck of the Law Offices of Jarrod James Beck and Ibrahim Aly Farag of Farag Legal Services PLLC.
The government is represented by Andrew Braniff and Michael J. Strong of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case is USA v. Hankison, case number 3:22-CR-00084in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
– Broadcast by Covey Son.
