US federal jury convicts three officers of fatal beating of Tire Nichols | Black Lives Matter news

Three former police officers have been convicted of federal charges related to the fatal beating of Tire Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee – a 2023 incident that sparked nationwide protests and calls for law enforcement reform.

All three were found guilty of witness tampering at Thursday's sentencing. However, they were acquitted of the most serious charge: violating the civil rights of 29-year-old Nichols by killing him.

One officer, Demetrius Haley, was nevertheless convicted of violating Nichols' civil rights resulting in bodily harm and witness tampering.

Federal witness tampering charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is expected to take place in January.

“A win is a win. They're all going to prison,” Rodney Wells, Nichols' stepfather, told The Associated Press outside the courthouse.

Haley and the two other ex-officers – Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith – were among five members of a special police unit accused of beating Nichols to death on January 7, 2023.

The beating was captured on police body cameras and video from a nearby street pole camera, and the images have since gone viral.

They show Nichols fleeing a traffic stop after being shot with pepper spray and a Taser. He ran to his mother's house, but the police caught up with him first and dragged him to the ground, where he was then punched, kicked and beaten with a baton.

Nichols could be heard calling for his mother during the beating.

He died three days later. An autopsy revealed he died as a result of repeated blows to the head.

Prosecutors argued the incident was part of a pattern of violence by the police unit known as SCORPION, an acronym for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.”

They claim the SCORPION unit beats escaped suspects and refer to the beatings as a “road tax” or “walking tax.”

In the Nichols case, prosecutors also accused the officers of concealing the extent of the beating from their superiors and medical professionals.

Throughout the trial, jurors were repeatedly shown graphic clips from the body camera footage. The video also showed officers standing around as Nichols battled his injuries.

However, the defense argued that the situation was potentially dangerous – and therefore the officers did not use “unreasonable force.”

Officials testify

The death of Nichols, a Black man, sparked nationwide calls for police reform. Advocates also called for the officers involved, who were also Black, to be held legally accountable.

Two of the officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., pleaded guilty ahead of trial to federal charges of excessive force and witness tampering. They ultimately testified against their colleagues Haley, Bean and Smith during their trial.

Mills burst into tears on the stand, saying he was sorry for the beating and acknowledging that he had left Nichols' infant son fatherless. He added that he wished he had stopped spanking.

Mills later said that he agreed to a cover-up in the hope that Nichols would survive and the incident would “go away.”

Martin testified that Nichols was “helpless” when he was beaten. After the beating, he explained that there was an agreement between the officers that “they wouldn't tell me and I wouldn't tell them.”

In response, the defense accused Martin of being one of the main aggressors of the attack.

The five officers have also been charged with second-degree murder in Tennessee state court, although the trial has not yet begun.