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Rights advocates on Monday applauded U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey for taking a “bold step toward healing and justice” by introducing the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would ban nationwide the kind of no-knock warrants that led to the 26-year-old woman’s death in 2020.
Nearly four years to the day after Taylor was killed by police officers who forcibly entered her home in Louisville, Kentucky without warning, after allegedly lying to obtain the no-knock warrant, McGarvey (D-Ky.) joined Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in proposing the bill.
Louisville and Kentucky policymakers have both prohibited or severely restricted no-knock warrants since Taylor’s killing.
“Louisvillians remember Breonna Taylor and are still grieving the tragedy of her inexcusable killing by police. After Breonna’s death, we passed a ban on no-knock warrants at the state and local level—if we can do this in Kentucky, we can do this nationally,” said McGarvey. “The Justice for Breonna Taylor Act is going to protect people and keep our communities safe.”
Under the proposal, federal law enforcement and state and local police departments that receive federal funding would be prohibited from executing no-knock warrants.
Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, denounced no-knock warrants as “legalized home invasions that put lives at risk on either side of a door.”
In Taylor’s case, police officers used a battering ram to break down the door to the Louisville apartment shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020.
They had been investigating two men for suspected drug dealing, including one who had previously been romantically involved with Taylor and who they believed had used Taylor’s apartment to receive packages.
“We know it was Breonna Taylor’s dream to save lives,” Duke said of the emergency room technician, “and this proposed legislation would do just that. We applaud Congressman McGarvey and the bill’s co-sponsors for taking this bold step toward healing and justice.”
The legislation was introduced as federal authorities announced former Officer Brett Hankison will face a jury for a third time in the case.
None of the officers involved in the shooting have ever been charged with killing Taylor, but Hankison was charged by the state of Kentucky for endangering Taylor’s neighbors. He was acquitted in March 2022 and the U.S. Justice Department then charged him with civil rights violations. A federal jury deadlocked in that trial.
“He shouldn’t be the only one charged,” attorney Lonita Baker, who represents Taylor’s mother and sister, told The Washington Post.“But the reality is that’s where we stand and that’s better than nothing.”
