MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A jury from outside of Memphis will be seated in the state court trial of three former police officers charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023, a judge ruled Friday.
Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr. did not specify where the jury will come from to hear the case against former Memphis Police Department officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who have pleaded not guilty in Nichols’ death.
Two other officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., also have been charged with second-degree murder but will not stand trial with their former colleagues. Martin and Mills are expected to change their not guilty pleas in state court, according to lawyers involved in the case.
After Friday’s hearing, prosecutor Paul Hagerman said only that the jury will come from elsewhere in Tennessee. The trial is scheduled to begin April 28.
Police video showed officers pepper spraying Nichols, 29, and hitting him with a Taser before he ran away from the traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023. The five officers chased down Nichols and kicked, punched and hit him with a police baton just steps from his home as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled.
Nichols died three days after the beating. The five officers were fired, charged in state court with murder, and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges.
Martin and Mills pleaded guilty to the federal charges under deals with prosecutors. The other three officers were convicted in October of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges of using excessive force and being indifferent to Nichols’ serious injuries.
Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but he was convicted of two lesser charges of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury.
Sentencings for the five officers in the federal case are pending.
Nichols’ death led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S. and directed intense scrutiny toward the police force in Memphis, a majority-Black city.
A 17-month U.S. Justice Department investigation that the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people.
The department is more than 50% Black. Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis is also Black.
The five officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that has since been disbanded. The team targeted drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders, with the goal of amassing arrests, while sometimes using force against unarmed people.
