A state board has declined to fulfill Tamika Palmer’s request to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the police killing of her daughter Breonna Taylor, which took place in Louisville on March 13.
The Prosecutors Advisory Council voted unanimously against Palmer’s request on Friday. Citizen participants on the web call reacted immediately to the vote, speaking up to voice their opposition.
Chris Cohron, a member of the nine-person council, said the body did not have the authority to grant the request. Cohron is the commonwealth’s attorney for Warren County.
Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council punted on appointing a new special prosecutor in the Breonna Taylor case, saying they don't have the authority.
— Adam K. Raymond (@adamkraymond) December 4, 2020
The council agreed unanimously, then the public turned on their mics. pic.twitter.com/h0Z3bCFCcB
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Louisville attorney Sam Aguiar, who represents Palmer, disagreed with the council’s decision.
“They said they don’t think they have the authority to do it,” he said in a text message to WFPL News. “So we will ask the court system to rule that they do.”
He was not immediately able to provide further details.
Palmer asked for the appointment of a special prosecutor in October, the month after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced there would be no charges related to Taylor’s killing against the three officers who fired their weapons during a late-night raid on her apartment.
Cameron’s office served as special prosecutor after Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell recused himself due to a conflict.
While Cameron is a member of the council, he did not participate in Friday’s call and his representative did not vote on this matter, according to the Courier Journal.
Representatives for Cameron’s office and the council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The attorney general’s decision was both highly anticipated and highly criticized, with supporters of Taylor’s family saying he failed to hold anyone accountable for killing Taylor.
In her letter to the council, Palmer asked them to appoint a “competent and capable prosecutor willing to handle the case involving the death of my daughter, Breonna Taylor.”
One of the three officers, former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison, was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for bullets that went into an apartment neighboring Taylor’s.
