Washington (AFP) – Three former Memphis police officers were found not guilty of all charges Wednesday in the beating death of a Black motorist that sparked calls for police reform, local media reported. Five Black police officers were charged in connection with the January 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed.
The five officers, members of a since-disbanded special anti-crime squad called the Scorpion Unit, were captured on video beating Nichols during a traffic stop near his home in the Tennessee city of Memphis. He died at a hospital three days later. Two of the officers pleaded guilty to state and federal charges while the three others — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — chose to go to trial.
A jury acquitted Bean, Haley and Smith on Wednesday of all of the state charges they faced, including the most serious charge of second-degree murder, the Commercial Appeal reported. The Memphis newspaper said the mostly white jury deliberated for eight and a half hours before delivering the not guilty verdict.
Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, prominent civil rights attorneys who have represented the Nichols family, condemned the verdict as a “devastating miscarriage of justice.” “Tyre’s life was stolen, and his family was denied the justice they so deeply deserve,” they said in a statement. “We are outraged, and we know we are not alone.”
Bean, Haley and Smith have already been convicted of federal charges including witness tampering and could face up to 20 years in prison. Haley was also convicted of using excessive force. Sentencing was delayed until the conclusion of the state trial.
The two other former Memphis police officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills, reached plea agreements in the state and federal cases in which they pleaded guilty to using excessive force and witness tampering. Then-vice president Kamala Harris attended Nichols’s funeral and his relatives were invited to president Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in Washington.
© 2024 AFP
