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Three former Memphis police officers have been acquitted of all charges in the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols, a Black motorist, a case that had intensified national demands for police reform in the United States.
The jury’s decision on Wednesday cleared Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith of all state-level charges, including second-degree murder. The trial followed the release of harrowing footage showing Nichols, 29, being repeatedly punched, kicked, tased, and pepper-sprayed by the officers during a traffic stop near his Memphis home. He died three days later in hospital.
All five officers involved—who are also Black—were part of a now-disbanded police unit known as the Scorpion Unit. While two of them accepted plea deals on both federal and state charges, the three acquitted officers chose to contest the charges in court.
According to the Commercial Appeal, the jury, which was mostly white, reached its verdict after deliberating for over eight hours.
Nichols’s family attorneys, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, condemned the outcome as a “devastating miscarriage of justice,” asserting that the family was robbed of accountability and closure.
Although cleared in the state case, the trio has already been convicted on federal charges, including witness tampering. Haley was also found guilty of using excessive force. They could each face up to 20 years in prison when sentenced after the state proceedings conclude.
The other two officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills, pleaded guilty in both federal and state cases to charges including excessive force and tampering with evidence.
The death of Nichols drew widespread outrage. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris attended his funeral, and his family was present at President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.
