Kentucky's attorney general has filed a motion requesting more time to release a grand jury recording in the Breonna Taylor case, saying it needs time to redact witnesses' personal information. That task is complicated by the recording's size: it's more than 20 hours long, the attorney general's office says.
The recording would provide a window into more than two days of grand jury proceedings in a case that has helped fuel national protests over racial injustice and police use of deadly force against Black people and other minorities.
The delay request comes just ahead of a deadline set by Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith, who took the rare step of ordering the release earlier this week. She is expected to rule on the delay request Wednesday.
If Smith grants the request, Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office would use the time "to redact personally identifiable information of witnesses, including addresses and phone numbers," said Elizabeth Kuhn, a spokesperson for Cameron, in a statement sent to NPR.
The judge ordered attorneys to release the recording amid intense public speculation over the decision to indict only Brett Hankison, a former police officer whose bullets are believed to have missed Taylor on the night she died during a botched drug raid in Louisville. Speculation has increased since a grand juror formally requested the ability to speak publicly about the case and how it was handled.
Cameron agreed to obey the release order earlier this week, but he added that he has reservations about doing so.
"The Grand Jury is meant to be a secretive body," Cameron said. "It's apparent that the public interest in this case isn't going to allow that to happen."
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