Trial begins for three Memphis police officers charged in Tyre Nichols' death – NBC Connecticut

Jury selection was set to begin Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers accused of violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old whose fatal beating was captured on police cameras and sparked 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 from across the country. Nichols' family is expected to attend the trial.

Nichols, who was black, died in a hospital on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and beaten with a police baton. A police video released later that month shows five 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 unit called the Scorpion Unit, which was disbanded after Nichols' death.

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.

Former Memphis police officer Desmond Mills Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally beating Tyre Nichols.