The federal trial for three former Memphis police officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols begins Monday with jury selection. 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 and also sparked protests and calls for police reform.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges of depriving Nichols of his rights by excessive force and failure to comply and obstructing justice by coercing witnesses.
Nichols was pulled over in his car in January 2023 and ran from police after being pulled from the vehicle. Officers grabbed Nichols and beat him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video showed.
Jurors will be selected from a pool of about 200 people. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks and will draw media from around the country. Nichols’ family is expected to attend the trial.
Memphis Police via AP
Nichols, who was black, died in a hospital on January 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and beaten with a police baton during a traffic stop on January 7. Memphis released police bodycam footage and street surveillance cameras later that month captured the violent incident on video, which shows five officers, also black, beating Nichols as he screamed for his mother a block from his home. The video also showed the officers standing around and talking to each other as Nichols sat on the ground, struggling with his injuries.
Officers said Nichols was pulled over 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 had died from blows to the head and that the cause of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries and cuts and bruises to the head and other areas.
The three officers now on trial, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols’ death for violating Memphis Police Department policy. They were members of a crime-fighting team called the SCORPION unitwhich was formed by the Memphis Police Department to combat street crime. The group had become notorious and weeks after Nichols’ death, the Memphis Police Department announced that it dissolved and “permanently deactivated.”
Shortly after their firing, the five officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court, to which they pleaded not guilty. They were subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.
Mills and Martin have both pleaded guilty in federal court and could testify at the trial. A date for the state court trial has not yet been set.
Mills was the first of five former officers charged in Nichols’ death agree to a deal last November. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of excessive force and obstruction of justice, as well as related state charges, and agreed to cooperate as a witness in both federal and state investigations, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said at the time.
Martin pleaded guilty in August on charges of excessive force and witness coercion, just days before the deadline the judge had set for any plea agreements in the case.
