The federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in the killing of Tyre Nichols is set to begin Monday. The former officers are accused of violating the civil rights of Nichols, a 29-year-old man whose fatal beating was captured on police body cameras, sparking protests and calls for police reform.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his rights through excessive use of force and failure to intervene and obstructed justice by witness tampering.
Nichols was arrested in his car in January 2023 and fled from police after being pulled out of the vehicle. Officers caught up with Nichols and beat him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video shows.
Jurors will be selected from about 200 people. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks and will draw media from across the country. Nichols’ family is expected to attend the trial.
Memphis Police Department via AP
Nichols, who was black, died in hospital January 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and beaten with police batons during the January 7 traffic stop. Memphis released police body camera footage and street surveillance camera footage from later that month that captured the violent incident on video, showing five officers, who are also black, beating Nichols as he yelled at his mother about a block from his home. The video also shows the officers fidgeting and arguing with each other as Nichols sat on the ground, struggling with his injuries.
Officers said Nichols was arrested for reckless driving, but the Memphis police chief said there was no evidence to support that claim.
Nichols worked for FedEx and enjoyed skateboarding and photography.
An autopsy report found that Nichols died from blows to the head and the cause of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries, cuts and bruises to the head and other areas.
The three officers now facing trial, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols’ death for violating Memphis Police Department rules. They were members of a crime suppression team called the SCORPION unitwhich was created by Memphis police to combat street crime. The group had become infamous, and within weeks of Nichols’ death, Memphis police announced that he was dissolved and “permanently deactivated”.
Shortly after their firing, the five officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. They were later indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.
Mills and Martin have both pleaded guilty in federal court and could testify at trial. A date for a state court trial has not yet been set.
Mills was the first of five former officers charged in Nichols’ death accept an agreement Last November, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of excessive use of force and obstruction of justice, as well as related state charges, and agreed to act as a cooperating witness in federal and state investigations, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said at the time.
Martin pleaded guilty in August to charges of excessive use of force and witness tampering, days before the judge’s deadline for any plea deal in the case.
