The state trial for three former Memphis police officers who are accused in the beating death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols is expected to begin Monday.
Here is some background on case:
Who is on trial and what charges do they face?
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith face second-degree murder, official misconduct, official oppression and aggravated kidnapping and assault charges for their role in Nichols’ fatal arrest on Jan. 7, 2023.
They have pleaded not guilty. A judge ordered the jury pool be selected from Hamilton County due to the publicity surrounding the case.
The three ex-officers were a part of MPD’s since disbanded SCORPION unit, a specialized team dispatched to neighborhoods with high crime rates.
What do the charges stem from?
Haley – along with fellow officer Emmitt Martin – initially pulled Nichols over in southeast Memphis for what they reported at the time as reckless driving.
Publicly released body camera footage from another arriving officer shows Haley pulling Nichols from his car. Nichols, who appears to try and comply with the officers’ commands, eventually flees on foot after pepper spray and a taser are deployed.
Smith, Bean and their colleague, Desmond Mills Jr., locate Nichols several blocks away as the 29-year-old runs towards his mother’s house. Martin, and eventually Haley, later arrive. Body camera and a pole-mounted police surveillance camera captured officers either punching, kicking or striking Nichols as they take him into custody.
Nichols went into cardiac arrest at the scene and was transported to the hospital. He died three days later. An official autopsy attributed his death to blunt force trauma to the head and classified it as a homicide.
What happened at the separate federal trial?
Bean, Smith and Haley were charged with four federal crimes including violating Nichols civil rights by using excessive force, failing to tend to his medical needs and acting to cover up their conduct.
In September of last year, a jury found Haley guilty on all charges but determined that his actions resulted in Nichols’ bodily injury, not death, which would have allowed for a harsher penalty. Bean and Smith were acquitted of most charges but convicted of witness tampering for providing false or misleading information to their superiors.
In a deal with prosecutors, Martin and Mills pleaded guilty to using excessive force and conspiring to lie about their conduct. They testified against their former colleagues at trial and alleged there was an unspoken understanding among officers that they would not tell on one another.
Martin said he exaggerated the reason for initiating Nichols’ traffic stop and that officers doled out punishments to suspects who ran from them as part of a so-called “run tax.”
Martin and Mills are expected to also plead guilty to state charges.
Federal sentencing is set for later this year.
What have the officers’ attorneys said?
During the federal trial, lawyers for the defendants focused on each of the responding officers’ individual roles in the arrest and called in their own use of force experts who testified that the officers’ actions were within the scope of their police training. They argued that Nichols escalated the situation by fleeing and resisted efforts to arrest him.
Who was Tyre Nichols?
Nichols was a 29-year-old father who had relatively recently relocated to Memphis from California to live with his mother and stepfather, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells. Loved ones described him as a cherished family member who was easy-going, goofy and independent. He was an avid skateboarder, FedEx employee and spent free time at Shelby Farms taking photos.
In the wake of his death, his parents have become vocal advocates for police reform. His mother is suing the city of Memphis for $550 million. The case is slated to go to trial next year.