By Karen Freifeld and Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – A jury in a Tennessee state court on Wednesday acquitted three former Memphis police officers of second-degree murder and all other charges in the 2023 beating death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols.
Jurors deliberated about 8 1/2 hours before finding Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Nichols, 29, an aspiring photographer, avid skateboarder and father of a young son, was severely beaten by police officers on January 7, 2023, following a traffic stop near his home, and died in a hospital three days later.
Police video footage of the encounter showed five Black officers, who were members of the since disbanded Scorpion street crimes detective unit, kicking, punching, pepper-spraying and striking Nichols with a baton as he cried out for his mother.
“We are obviously disappointed by today’s verdict,” said Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, whose office prosecuted the case. “We respect the jury’s decision, but we obviously disagree with it.”
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, representing Nichols’ family, called Thursday’s verdict “a devastating miscarriage of justice.”
“That brutal, inhumane assault was captured on video, yet the officers responsible were acquitted,” Crump said on social media.
Defense lawyers argued in court that their clients pulled Nichols over for driving dangerously and suggested he provoked violence by breaking free and trying to run away, saying a police officer must make split-second decisions based on a subject’s actions.
The incident sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls for reform of the U.S. criminal justice system, one of a series of high-profile cases of officers accused of using excessive force in the deaths of Black people and other minorities, including George Floyd in 2020.
In December, during President Joe Biden’s term, the U.S. Justice Department concluded a 17-month civil rights investigation, finding that the Memphis Police Department routinely used excessive force and discriminated against Black people.
The U.S. political climate has shifted sharply since then.
Thursday’s verdict came days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that called for “strengthening and unleashing America’s law enforcement,” while condemning efforts to “demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs.”
The three men acquitted on state criminal charges on Thursday drew a mixed verdict when they stood trial in federal court last year. They were convicted of witness tampering in the case but cleared of charges that carried the potential for a life prison sentence.
However, one of them, Haley, was found guilty on two counts of the lesser charge of deprivation of rights resulting in bodily injury, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Two other former officers involved in the beating pleaded guilty to federal charges and testified against their former colleagues in federal court, saying Nichols posed no threat to police during their encounter.
None of the officers has been sentenced in the federal case. All were fired from the Memphis Police Department.
Video evidence showed police pulled Nichols from his car, pushed him to the ground and threatened to use a Taser, spray and beat him as they held him down. Nichols broke free and ran away before police caught up to him again and the beating took place near his home.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
