The administration asked the judge in the case to sentence the former officer to essentially the brief time he had served when he was first charged, and three years of supervised release.
The chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights unit has asked a federal judge to sentence a Louisville police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to one day in prison, a stunning reversal of the unit’s longstanding efforts to address racial disparities in policing.
Last year, a federal jury in Kentucky convicted Brett Hankison, the officer, of one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force in discharging several shots through Ms. Taylor’s window during a drug raid that went awry.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a judge will consider the government’s request at a sentencing scheduled for next week.
On Wednesday, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, asked the judge in the case, Rebecca Grady Jennings, to sentence Mr. Hankison to to one day in prison — essentially the brief time he had served when he was charged — and three years of supervised release.
In the filing, Ms. Dhillon suggested the prosecution was excessive, arguing that the Biden Justice Department had secured a conviction against Mr. Hankison after his acquittal on state charges and the ending of his first federal trial in a mistrial.
“In this case, two federal trials were ultimately necessary to obtain a unanimous verdict of guilt,” Ms. Dhillon wrote, adding that Mr. Hankison, now a felon who was fired from his job five years ago, had already paid a substantial penalty for his actions.
