Jurors have found three former Memphis police officers not guilty of all charges in the in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were acquitted Wednesday after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis – more than two years after the January 2023 incident.
After the jury’s verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, “Thank you, Jesus!”
Nichols fled from a traffic stop on January 7, 2023, after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser.
Five officers caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a police baton, struggling to handcuff him as he called out for his mother near his home.
Shocking footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled.
Nichols’ death led to nationwide protests, calls for police reforms in the U.S., and intense scrutiny of police in Memphis, a majority-Black city.
The officers were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. They still face the possibility of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges last year.
Former Memphis officers Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin also were charged in the case. They have agreed to plead guilty to the state charges and are not standing trial. They also pleaded guilty in federal court, where sentencing for all five officers is pending.
Prosecutors argued that the officers used excessive force in trying to handcuff Nichols during the traffic stop in January 2023.
The officers also had a duty to intervene and stop the beating and tell medical personnel that Nichols had been struck in the head, but they failed to do so, prosecutors said.
As Nichols struggled with Bean and Smith, who were holding him on the ground, Mills pepper-sprayed Nichols and hit Nichols three times in the arm with a police baton, he said. Martin punched and kicked Nichols in the head, and Haley also kicked Nichols, as Bean and Smith were restraining him while trying to handcuff him
In closing arguments, which concluded on Tuesday, prosecutor Melanie Headley said that the officers were criminally responsible for Nichols’ death.
“It’s five officers acting together,” Headley said.
But throughout the trial, defense attorneys have sought to chip away at accusations that the officers used unnecessary force to subdue Nichols.
They argued that Nichols was actively resisting arrest by running away and failing to give his hands to officers so that he could be handcuffed. They also have argued that their use of force complied with police department policies.
Mills testified that he regrets his failure to stop the beating, which led to Nichols’ death three days later from blunt-force trauma. Dr. Marco Ross, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, testified that Nichols suffered tears and bleeding in the brain.
John Keith Perry, Bean’s lawyer, said in his closing argument that Nichols ignored commands to give officers his hands dozens of times. Bean was merely trying to handcuff Nichols and he followed his Memphis Police Department training in doing so.
“Bean doesn’t do anything to punish this person,” Perry said.
The five officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that was disbanded after Nichols’ death, the Associated Press reported.
This team targeted drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders to amass arrests, while sometimes using force against unarmed people
The trial comes months after the U.S. Justice Department said in December that a 17-month investigation found that the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people.
