Kentucky council unanimously denies request for independent prosecutor in Breonna Taylor case

8 min readDec 5, 2020

The Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council unanimously decided on Friday to not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the death of Breonna Taylor. The council argued that it does not have the legal authority to appoint the prosecutor, although attorneys for Taylor’s family say otherwise.

Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, called for an independent special prosecutor and a new grand jury to be appointed to the case in October.

Council member Christopher Cohron said during Friday’s meeting that after reviewing Palmer’s petition, he believes the council doesn’t have the legal authority to grant her request.

The council unanimously agreed. But when it was asked if there was any opposition, members of the public watching the meeting virtually chimed in.

WLKY reporter Deni Kamper caught the moments after the decision was made, in which several people criticized the council.

“You’re wrong and you know it,” one person could be heard saying.

“You have the authority. You’re scared,” another said.

Palmer’s October request for a new prosecutor came just days after two members of the original grand jury that reviewed Taylor’s case anonymously told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King that they were not presented with the option to indict any of the police officers involved on charges directly linked to her death.

None of the officers present on the night Taylor was killed were charged directly for her death. One officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with wanton endangerment for shooting at the apartment adjacent to Taylor’s.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron told a local Kentucky TV station in September that if the grand jury “wanted to make an assessment about different charges, they could have done that.”

“It was a betrayal,” Juror №2 told “CBS This Morning.” “They didn’t give us the charges up front… when they gave us all of that testimony, over 20-something hours, and then to say that these are the only charges that they’re coming up with, it’s like, ‘Well, what did we just sit through?’”

Lonita Baker, one of the attorneys representing Palmer, said case law supports Palmer’s request for a new prosecutor, according to CBS affiliate WLKY.

“There is plenty of authority that this council can appoint a special prosecutor by majority vote,” Baker said.

Sam Aguiar, another of Palmer’s attorneys, told CBS News the situation shows “how the cards stack so heavily in favor of law enforcement and against Black women.”

“Daniel Cameron completely undermined the integrity of our justice system, exposing its bias and the unethical conduct which happens behind the secret walls of grand jury proceedings,” Aguiar said. “Rather than fix this, eight prosecutors today chose to condone it. Their failure to step up here was cowardly. The whole world now sees clearly how the blindness of lady justice does not exist in Kentucky for Black women.”

Aguiar also said Palmer’s team will likely file an action in the courts to better interpret the legislation the council was referring to in their decision.

The council’s decision came on the same day that Taylor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, held a ribbon cutting ceremony to rename Monroe Center Street NW “Breonna Taylor Way.”

“I want to make one thing clear,” said Justice for Black Lives president Alyssa Bates at the ceremony. “That street sign is not equal justice, at all. Just because that street sign is being hanged, it does not mean we are going to settle. We are going to keep applying pressure to make sure justice is served.”

“Black Panther” star Letitia Wright faces backlash after posting anti-vax video

British-Guyanese actress Letitia Wright has been scolded by fans after sharing a controversial video Thursday with unsubstantiated claims about the coronavirus vaccine.

The actress, who starred alongside the late Chadwick Boseman in the blockbuster film “Black Panther,” shared an hourlong YouTube video with her 360,000 Twitter followers.

In the video from On The Table, a discussion channel, host Tomi Arayomi voiced unsubstantiated claims about the dangers of taking vaccines.

“I don’t understand vaccines medically, but I’ve always been a little bit of a skeptic of them,” Arayomi said, stating that he doesn’t know if he can trust a vaccine for coronavirus. At one point, he says those who decide to get vaccinated should “hope to God it doesn’t make extra limbs grow.”

Wright immediately found herself in hot water with her fans, who condemned the star for using her platform to share misinformation. The post even drew criticism from “Iron Man” actor Don Cheadle, who described the video as “hot garbage” after Twitter users tagged him in several posts, beckoning him to respond. “Jesus… just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up,” Cheadle tweeted. “I would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won’t throw her away over it. the rest i’ll take off twitter. had no idea.”

Author and essayist Roxane Gay, who wrote the spin-off comic book “Black Panther: World of Wakanda,” also chimed into the heated Twitter thread. “Promoting anti-vaccine propaganda and shrouding it in intellectual curiosity is asinine. And dangerous,” wrote Gay.

Wright told commenters she was just asking questions and responded to individual fans who denounced her sharing the clip. “Just using my own mind to think — which I’m free to do,” the 27-year-old said in response to one user.

Following the flood of criticism, Wright tweeted “if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.”

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By Friday morning, the original post with the link to the video had been taken down. But Wright, who currently stars in Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe,” stood by her comments saying her “intention was not to hurt anyone.”

“My ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies,” she said. “Nothing else.”

Britain has become the first country in the West to approve a COVID-19 vaccine. However, its rapid release has raised eyebrows among many, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who criticized the U.K. for rushing through the approval process. He later apologized for his comments.

Stateside, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant emergency use authorization in the coming weeks for two separate vaccines from pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and biotech company Moderna. While widespread misinformation about the coronavirus vaccines spreads online, the scientific consensus on the jabs is that they are safe and effective. Promising results show that the vaccines expected to be released by the end of the year appear to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19.

Trump orders most US troops to withdraw from Somalia

The Pentagon said Friday it is pulling most U.S. troops out of Somalia on President Donald Trump’s orders, continuing a post-election push by Mr. Trump to shrink U.S. involvement in counterterrorism missions abroad.

Without providing details, the Pentagon said in a short statement that “a majority” of U.S. troops and assets in Somalia will be withdrawn in early 2021. There are currently about 700 troops in the Horn of Africa nation, training and advising local forces in an extended fight against the extremist group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Trump recently ordered troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he was expected to withdraw some or all troops from Somalia. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said on Wednesday that the future structure of the U.S. military presence in Somalia was still being debated.

The adjusted U.S. presence, Milley said, would amount to “a relatively small footprint, relatively low cost in terms of number of personnel and in terms of money.” He provided no specifics but stressed that the U.S. remained concerned about the threat posed by al-Shabab, which he called “an extension of al-Qaida,” the extremist group that planned the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States from Afghanistan.

“They do have some reach and they could if left unattended conduct operations against not only U.S. interests in the region but also against the homeland,” he said. “So they require attention.” Noting that Somalia remains a dangerous place for Americans, he said that a CIA officer was killed there recently.

The acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, made a brief visit to Somalia last week and met with U.S. troops.

Depending on what remains of the U.S. presence in Somalia when he takes office January 20, President-elect Joe Biden could reverse Trump’s drawdown or make other adjustments to reflect his counterterrorism priorities. The U.S. military also has a presence in neighboring Djibouti on the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Representative Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, criticized the Trump pullback in Somalia as a “surrender to al-Qaida and a gift of China.” Langevin is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee.

“When U.S. forces leave Somalia in response to today’s order, it becomes harder for diplomats and aid workers to help people resolve conflicts without violence and loss of life,” Langevin said. “With upcoming elections in Somalia and conflict raging in neighboring Ethiopia, abandoning our partners could not come at a worse time.”

Langevin said China will use the opportunity to build its influence in the Horn of Africa.

The Pentagon said the drawdown in Somalia does not mark the end of U.S. counterterrorism efforts there.

“As a result of this decision, some forces may be reassigned outside of East Africa,” it said. “However, the remaining forces will be repositioned from Somalia into neighboring countries in order to allow cross-border operations by both U.S. and partner forces to maintain pressure against violent extremist organizations operating in Somalia.”

“The U.S. will retain the capability to conduct targeted counterterrorism operations in Somalia, and collect early warnings and indicators regarding threats to the homeland,” it added.

The nature of the threat posed by al-Shabab and the appropriate U.S. response has been a matter of increasing debate in the Pentagon, which has been looking for opportunities to shift its focus toward China as a greater long-term challenge.

A Defense Department watchdog report last week said U.S. Africa Command has seen a “definitive shift” this year in al-Shabab’s focus to attack U.S. interests in the region. Africa Command says al-Shabab is Africa’s most “dangerous” and “imminent” threat.

Kentucky council unanimously denies request for independent prosecutor in Breonna Taylor case

Written by Ralixo