Jury selection began on Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis officers charged in connection with the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols.
The former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — are facing multiple charges, including violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force and unlawful assault. Two other former officers, Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, have taken plea deals and are expected to testify. All five men already face state charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping. They pleaded not guilty.
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023, several days after a January 2023 traffic stop (captured in body camera footage and surveillance footage) which allegedly shows officers violently striking Nichols repeatedly and walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
The five officers were part of the since-disbanded Scorpion Task Force, a specialized unit created to root out street crime, and the unit was known for aggressive policing tactics. According to the U.S Department of Justice, two counts carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, and the other two each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
In September 2023, a federal grand jury indicted the five former officers, with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stating that the officers conspired to cover up their crimes including falsely stating that Nichols had actively resisted arrest: “Tyre Nichols was just minutes away from home when he was pulled over by law enforcement officers sworn to protect him. As the indictment charges, the defendants in this case, who at the time were serving as detectives of the Memphis police department, brutally beat Mr. Nichols, they then failed to render medical aid to Mr. Nichols and further failed to tell emergency responders that they had struck him repeatedly even as his condition deteriorated and he became unresponsive.”
After Nichols’ death, the Justice Department commissioned a review of the use of specialized units within law enforcement and produced new guidance.
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