A United States jury has exonerated three former police officers in connection with the controversial beating death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old father who died following a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. The verdict came on Wednesday, with former officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith cleared of state-level charges including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, official misconduct, and official oppression. This trial followed their acquittal on most federal charges for Nichols’s death, though they were found guilty of witness tampering for attempting to cover up the beating.
The Nichols case involved a total of five police officers, all members of the now-defunct SCORPION unit of the Memphis Police Department, which focused on crime hotspots. Nichols was initially pulled over for alleged reckless driving, but the validity of this reason has been questioned, as police body cameras showed no evidence of wrongdoing. The officers tased Nichols while he was on the ground, and after an attempt to flee, they subdued him in a nearby residential neighborhood, where they proceeded to kick, punch, and beat him with a baton. Nichols died three days later in the hospital due to blunt force trauma to the head.
Two officers, Desmond Mills Jr and Emmitt Martin, avoided trial by striking deals with federal prosecutors, pleading guilty in exchange for lesser charges. The trial for the other three officers lasted nine days, ending with their acquittal despite the family’s and prosecutors’ outrage over the lack of a guilty verdict. It was argued by the defense that Nichols had resisted arrest and fled, possibly due to credit and debit cards found in his vehicle not belonging to him, which could have explained his actions. Prosecutors countered that Nichols fled out of fear for his life and that the officers had a duty to stop the assault.
A civil rights lawyer for the Nichols family denounced the verdict, calling it a “devastating miscarriage of justice” and highlighting the brutal nature of Nichols’s death at the hands of those intended to protect and serve. The trial took place in Hamilton County, a predominantly white area in Tennessee, following a judge’s order to relocate proceedings from Shelby County to avoid potential jury influence from public scrutiny.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/7/us-jury-acquits-three-memphis-police-officers-in-tyre-nichols-beating-death?traffic_source=rss
