ACS Shares Anger Over Lack of Justice for Breonna Taylor  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nancy Rodriguez media@acslaw.org

Washington, D.C. -- American Constitution Society President Russ Feingold released the following statement in response to the Kentucky Attorney General not charging any officers for their role in the death of Breonna Taylor. One of the officers faces three felony counts for first-degree wanton endangerment.

"The failure of the grand jury to return any indictments directly related to the killing of Breonna Taylor is disheartening and disturbing. ACS grieves with Breonna's family and the Louisville community, particularly its Black community, and shares in its anger at the failure of the criminal legal system to afford justice for Breonna.

While we in the public are not privy to the proceedings or deliberations that led to the grand jury's decision, a system that fails to hold police officers criminally responsible for an avoidable and tragic death at their hands is a system that is not working toward justice for all. Whether it was the failure of the prosecutors presenting the case, the jurors considering the charges, or the law under which both labored, we are all too familiar with the failure of our criminal legal system to offer justice for Black and Brown people killed and injured by police.

True justice, healing, and reconciliation is not possible until our criminal legal system, and the police that are its vanguard, acknowledge the humanity of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. At the very least, this requires holding criminally responsible those police officers and others whose actions reinforce the racial terror under which people of color, and Black people in particular, live and have lived throughout the history of our country.

It will also, more broadly, require a complete reassessment of a criminal legal system that has, time and again, proven itself rife with institutional racism."

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AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
ACS believes that the Constitution is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We interpret the Constitution based on its text and against the backdrop of history and lived experience. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars, and many others, we work to uphold the Constitution in the 21st Century by ensuring that law is a force for protecting our democracy and the public interest and for improving people’s lives. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter at @acslaw.