Trial of three former Memphis police officers accused in Tyre Nichols' death is about to begin

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols. 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 while sparking protests and calls for police reform.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his rights through excessive use of force and failure to intervene and obstructed justice by witness tampering.

Nichols was stopped in his car in January 2023 and fled from police after being dragged from the vehicle. Officers caught up with Nichols and beat him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video shows.

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 attention across the country. Nichols' family is expected to attend the trial.

Nichols, who was black, died in hospital on January 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and beaten with a police baton during the traffic stop on January 7. Memphis released Footage from a police bodycam and later that month, surveillance footage that captured the violent incident on video, showing five police officers, who are also black, beating Nichols as he screamed for his mother about a block from his home. The video also shows the officers loitering and talking among themselves while Nichols sat on the ground, struggling with his injuries.

Officials said Nichols was stopped 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 showed that Nichols died from blows to the head and that the cause of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries as well as cuts and bruises on the head and elsewhere.

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 unitformed 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, where they pleaded not guilty. They were then 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 trial date in state court has not yet been set.

Mills was the first of five former police officers charged in Nichols' death agree to a deal last November. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of excessive use of force and obstruction of justice, as well as related state charges, and agreed to appear as a cooperative witness in both federal and state investigations, the Shelby County District Attorney's Office said at the time.

Martin pleaded guilty in August of excessive force and witness tampering, just days before the judge's deadline for any settlement in the case.