LEXINGTON, Ky. — The U.S. Department of Justice is asking that Brett Hankison, one of the Louisville police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, be released from federal prison while he appeals his conviction.

The DOJ filed a 28-page brief Thursday supporting Hankison’s bid for bail before the 6th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Hankison, a former detective for the Louisville Metro Police Department, was found guilty in November 2024 of violating Taylor’s civil rights and using unjustified and unreasonable force against her in 2020 when he fired into her window, which was covered with blinds and curtains through which he could not see, on the night she died. The shots he fired did not hit anyone.

It was the third time Hankison was tried in connection with the shooting.

In 2022, he was acquitted in a state trial on wanton endangerment charges in connection to the shots he fired that entered a neighboring apartment.

Then, in November 2023, a mistrial was declared when a jury could not reach a verdict in the federal case.

After the 2024 retrial and conviction, the government argued before Hankison’s sentencing in July that he should receive a one-day sentence and be on supervised release for three years.

However, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings said the DOJ’s recommendation was not appropriate, and she sentenced Hankison to 33 months in prison, as well as three years of supervised release.

On Aug. 28, Hankison’s attorneys filed a motion for bail while his case is pending appeal, but the motion was denied Oct. 6.

Hankison surrendered himself Oct. 9 to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence, but his attorneys are appealing the judge’s decision to imprison him while he appeals his conviction.

The DOJ said in its brief Thursday that Hankison should be granted bail during his appeal for three reasons:

“First, as the district court has found, defendant is not a flight risk or a danger to the community if released. Second, defendant’s appeal is not for the purpose of delay, and raises some ‘substantial’ issues of law or fact that are ‘close questions’ (i.e., novel questions that ‘could go either way’) and would, if successful, likely result in reversal, a new trial, or a substantially reduced sentence. Finally, defendant has ‘clearly shown’ that there are ‘exceptional reasons’ why defendant’s detention pending appeal ‘would not be appropriate.’”

Hankison’s attorneys make similar arguments in the brief they filed with the appeals court Nov. 7.

Although prosecutors have supported Hankison’s request for bail, they said in the brief that “in taking this position, the government stresses again that it is not hereby conceding that any of defendant’s contemplated claims of error on appeal will ultimately prove meritorious.

“The government reserves the right to oppose any and all claims of error based on any available grounds after full consideration of the record and all available case authorities.”

Hankison, who previously worked for the Lexington Police Department, served 17 years with the Louisville police before being fired in June 2020 for violating procedure when he fired blindly into Taylor’s apartment.

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, became a galvanizing issue in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, leading to calls for search warrant reform across the nation and months of nightly protests in Louisville.

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