The Leadership Conference Demands Better from Department of Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: [email protected] 

WASHINGTON — Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Department of Justice asked for a one-day sentence for the ex-police officer convicted in the killing of Breonna Taylor:

“Breonna Taylor should be alive today, and we all deserve to know that the police will be accountable for their actions. The Department of Justice has instead decided that the scales of justice will not be balanced. It has requested a one-day sentence for Officer Brett Hankinson, convicted of one count of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights. No line prosecutors signed the court document delivering this insult to justice, human dignity, and the value of Black lives. That is its own loud message.

“This decision must be understood as part of the infamous Trump administration executive order explicitly stating that police should be ‘unleashed.’ We must remember the Department of Justice’s explicit mission is ‘to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.’ We deserve a department that does justice, but this DOJ is deliberately turning its back on that mission.

“Breonna Taylor was asleep in her own bed and deserved to believe that she would be safe in it. All of us do. We will not stop loving justice, demanding police accountability, and using all our power to bend the moral arc of the universe back toward justice.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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