Jury selection to begin in case connected to police raid that killed Breonna Taylor

Jury selection to begin in case connected to police raid that killed Breonna Taylor

Transcript¹

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of an ex-Louisville Metro² Police Department officer for his involvement in the high-profile, deadly raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment in March 2020.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Jury selection begins this morning in Louisville, Ky., in the trial of former police officer Brett Hankison. Hankison was one of the officers who fired his gun while serving a no-knock warrant at the apartment of Breonna Taylor in March of 2020. We all know the name Breonna Taylor because of what happened next. Her boyfriend had fired once at police, thinking they were intruders. The police shot back 32 times, and Taylor was killed in her hallway.

Roberto Roldan of WFPL in Louisville has been reporting on the case. Good morning, Roberto.

ROBERTO ROLDAN, BYLINE³: Morning.

FADEL: Brett Hankison's trial is connected to Breonna Taylor, right? But he's not being charged for her killing⁴. Can you explain that?

ROLDAN: Yeah. So it's important to note that no Louisville police officer has been directly charged with Taylor's killing. Two other officers who were involved in the search warrant were fired. Hankison was the first to be terminated. Hankison fired 10 bullets that night, and while none of them struck Taylor, some of them did end up in a neighboring apartment that was occupied at the time. His termination letter from the Louisville Metro Police Department said Hankison fired through a covered window and couldn't see who he was shooting at. So he was indicted⁵ by a grand jury last year on three counts of wanton endangerment, which is a felony. In Kentucky, wanton endangerment means a person is behaving with extreme indifference⁶ to human life. So Hankison is being charged for endangering the people in the neighboring apartment, not Taylor.

FADEL: Now, Taylor's killing sparked months of protests in Louisville, across the nation. What does that mean for selecting the jury?

ROLDAN: Well, so the process is really just getting started. About 250 potential jurors arrived at the downtown courthouse on Friday to fill out a written questionnaire. Prosecutors⁷ and Hankison's lawyer are going to spend the next three weeks questioning each person individually, roughly 21 jurors each day. But prior to jury selection, Hankison's lawyer, Stew⁸ Matthews, requested a change of venue⁹ because he doesn't think Hankison can get a fair and impartial¹⁰ jury. When I spoke¹¹ to him recently, he cited the protests and the media coverage¹² around it as one of the reasons why.

STEW MATHEWS: I think everybody in Jefferson County and beyond is aware of this case, and I wouldn't be surprised if most people haven't formed an opinion one way or another.

ROLDAN: The judge ultimately denied his request, but she did leave open the possibility of considering it again after they see what kind of jury they can put together.

FADEL: So it sounds like jury selection is going to be a long process like we saw in Minneapolis, like we saw in the case of the killers¹³ of Ahmaud Arbery. When should we expect the actual trial to get underway?

ROLDAN: Well, right now we're expecting that to happen at the end of the month, probably around February 22. That's when they should be done with questioning jurors individually, and then they have to whittle¹⁴ that long list down to 12. Once that's done, we should see lawyers start to make their arguments and witnesses getting called. We know from court documents that the other two officers who fired their weapons, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, are going to testify. We're also expecting to hear from other officers who were at Taylor's apartment that night and the Louisville Police Department's firearms trainer.

FADEL: And what has Breonna Taylor's family and the community in Louisville been saying about the trial?

ROLDAN: We haven't seen much in the way of protests yet, but I expect that's going to change as we get closer to the trial. We did hear from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is one of the lawyers representing Taylor's family, and he said essentially¹⁵ that these charges of wanton endangerment should be the lowest charges, not the highest. And he said that the trial will be a reminder¹⁶ of the lack of justice for Breonna Taylor.

FADEL: That's Roberto Roldan of member station WFPL in Louisville. Thank you.

ROLDAN: Thanks for having me.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

6 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

7 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

8 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

9 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

10 impartial   

adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的

参考例句：

• He gave an impartial view of the state of affairs in Ireland.他对爱尔兰的事态发表了公正的看法。
• Careers officers offer impartial advice to all pupils.就业指导员向所有学生提供公正无私的建议。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

13 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

14 whittle   

v.削（木头），削减；n.屠刀

参考例句：

• They are trying to whittle down our salaries.他们正着手削减我们的薪水。
• He began to whittle away all powers of the government that he did not control.他开始削弱他所未能控制的一切政府权力。

15 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

16 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。