1. Last night, a juror in the Breonna Taylor case who claims the attorney general mischaracterized the panel’s deliberation came forward via his attorney. It’s the latest ripple in this complicated case which has left the community in Louisville frayed: nytimes.com/2020/09/28/us/…
2. The juror, who remains unidentified, is asking in a court motion to be allowed to speak publicly in order to set the record straight. He’s also asking for the attorney general to release the transcripts of last week’s proceedings so that the public can judge for themselves
3. Yesterday evening, less than an hour after the juror’s complaint was filed with the court, @nytimes was the first to sit down with the juror’s attorney to understand what happened. The juror came to him Friday, two days after the panel disbanded. He was confused & “in turmoil”
4. At issue is the fact that the Kentucky attorney general in his press briefing last week repeatedly presented his findings as being decision that the grand jury agreed with him on. The juror is suggesting that that was - at best - exaggerated.
5. The juror is also concerned that the panel was not given a choice of criminal charges for the two officers who shot Ms Taylor. The attorney general made clear no such charges could be filed b/c the officers didn’t fire first. They returned fire when her boyfriend shot at them
6. I burned the midnight oil speaking to legal experts like longtime criminal defense attorney Ramon McGee to understand this little-known institution called the grand jury. He argues that the prosecutor is within his rights to only present the charges he feels are justified:
7. But what Mr. McGee says is problematic is the attorney general’s press conference in which he repeatedly said “and the grand jury agrees with me” when presenting his rationale. The issue is one of potential misrepresentation, he said.
8. But the unidentified juror’s motion had an immediate impact. Just hours after it was filed, the officer of the attorney general announced that recordings of last week’s session would be made public this week:
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