Teaching the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Announcement in Real Time

"Justice failed us today. It failed us in a way that's been failing us for generations."

-Kentucky State Rep. Charles Booker

The Breonna Taylor grand jury announcement started immediately before my criminal adjudication class this past Wednesday, and while I knew the announcement would be disappointing and painful, I also knew I couldn’t ignore it. Rather than moving forward with class as usual, I decided to livestream the announcement of the grand jury’s decision as well as the Kentucky State Attorney General’s press conference with my class.

I was shocked and angered: By the grand jury’s decision to indict only one of the LMPD officers, Brett Hankinson, with three counts of first degree wanton endangerment, not for killing Ms. Taylor or endangering her or her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, but for endangering their neighbors in surrounding apartments. By Daniel Cameron’s press conference, which made it plain that prosecutors presented exculpatory evidence to the grand jury, which prosecutors only ever seem to do for cops. By Cameron’s continuing defense of the officers and of law enforcement in general. By his suggestion that many of the ills in the execution of search warrants could somehow be remedied by the formation of a new task force, likely to be headed by police officers and to accomplish nothing. 

My students were just as angry, confused, and heartbroken as I was. I let my students ask whatever questions or express whatever thoughts they felt comfortable sharing. They had astute questions about the operation of the grand jury, about the types of evidence allowed, about the meaning of “wanton endangerment,” and about whether grand jury transcripts would be released. A student remarked that, for the first time, they were having to confront the fact that “the law” and “justice” are not one and the same. Another asked, “Why do we keep using the grand jury when it seems fundamentally broken?”

I was honored and grateful to be able to discuss the grand jury’s decision, in real time, with my students. I’ve recently adopted a more thematic and problem-centered approach to my criminal procedure teaching as advocated by Lanni and Steiker in A Thematic Approach to Teaching Criminal Adjudication, rather than the traditional, strictly chronological approach. The class is more flexible and more immediately relevant to my students by incorporating more supplemental readings and materials outside of our traditional casebook, reflecting more recent developments in the field. This adaptability made it easier for us as a class to depart from the syllabus altogether to focus on the Taylor case, yet another important chapter in the story of criminal law, procedure, and police violence that unfolded that day before us. 

With the upcoming fight over the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Election Day only a few weeks away, and the COVID-19 pandemic wearing on, we as law professors should be mindful not just that our students may feel spread thin, but that their law school experience--oftentimes tons of reading and discussion of often fusty old cases and other materials--may feel completely disconnected from their everyday lives. All our students likely have strong feelings about much of the recent news. Using current events in the law school classroom gives students the opportunity to connect what they’re learning with the world around them in concrete fashion, and can help to illustrate the importance of what they’re studying in a much more immediate and relatable way. Students have so many important questions and observations about the current political and legal environment; giving them the opportunity to voice them provides important opportunities for them to learn from each other anad for us, as professors, to teach and learn from them, even if doing so pushes us outside our pedagogical comfort zones.

Comments

[LawProf John Banzhaf]

Law students, and even law professors (such as Maybell Romano), who had such strong feelings about the grand jury’s actions regarding the Breonna Taylor incident, might do well to read the legal analysis by my GWU Law School colleague and criminal law expert, Jonathan Turley.
https://bit.ly/2GbZyNX

Yes, “using current events in the law school classroom gives students the opportunity to connect what they’re learning with the world around them in concrete fashion.”

But if they and/or their professors want to do more than just “learn from them,” and actually do something about important events rather than just complain when they disagree, perhaps they should use their legal skills, as my law students have done for dozens of years, and “Sue The Bastards.”

Indeed, they are likely to learn a lot more that way than in a traditional law school legal clinic.

See, e.g.,

TRY CLINICAL COURSES WITHOUT CLIENTS
https://bit.ly/33b2ZgP

BANZHAF’S BANDITS RIDE AGAIN
https://bit.ly/3kWjPWK

MY ODYSSEY FROM GEEK TO GIGOLO TO GOOD DOER
https://bit.ly/3jeiRop

[Enrique Guerra-Pujol]

As an historical aside, weren't grand juries at one time considered "a cornerstone of American democracy"? Alas, the grand jury system of today is a hollow shell of the grand jury of yore--the grand jury of the founding fathers. If only so-called "originalists" would take their own originalist theories seriously...

[Ediberto Roman]

Professor Romero, I wanted to let you know how and why I am not surprised by a quick and fairly harsh comment to your efforts at teaching law in a real world setting. You keep it going, I say. As I am sure you realize, at the heart of many of these concerns are other issues and agenda. While criminal law is not one of the nearly three dozen law courses I teach, I will tell you, I believed all along this was a very difficult case for the victims family and others that wanted a murder indictment, especially in light of qualified immunity as well as the deference likely given in a setting were shots were fired by both the police and the lawful gunowner resident. But what troubles me from one comment above is its classic imperial directive and tone. Even if we differ, keep doing what you are doing--bring not only compassion to the classroom, bring different perspectives. Because try as they might, critics fail to accept the world is and will change. Thank you for your contribution. Peace, Ediberto Roman

[Joan Howarth]

Thanks for a great post. Our students deserve our best, as you are giving them.