Aug. 30 (UPI) — Three former Memphis police officers convicted in the beating death of Tyre Nichols in 2023 will have new federal trials, a judge ruled.
In October 2024, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were found guilty in federal court after they were accused of punching, kicking and striking Nichols, 29, with a baton for several minutes after a traffic stop. It was captured on surveillance video.
In May, they were acquitted of state charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct and official oppression.
U.S. Chief District Judge Sheryl Lipman ruled Thursday the new trials were warranted because District Judge Mark Norris commented after the trial that the Memphis Police Department was filled with gang members at the top.
Norris allegedly made the comment after his law clerk was shot during a carjacking on Oct. 8, five days after the officers were convicted.
An assistant U.S. attorney recalled that Norris’ said “he could not meet with any member of the Memphis Police Department to give a statement regarding the shooting of his clerk, as MPD is ‘infiltrated to the top with gang members,” according information cited by Lipman.
On June 13, Norris recused himself from sentencing. No one else has sentenced them.
Lipman wrote she didn’t find any bias in the decisions by the judge. The officers’ lawyers, who believe he was biased, said they learned about the comments three days before the scheduled sentencing.
Smith said Norris has a “deep-seated bias against the defendants and the Memphis Police Department.”
Lipman wrote in concluding they deserved new trials: “What is required is ‘not only an absence of actual bias, but an absence of even the appearance of judicial bias.”
A jury convicted Haley of two counts of deprivation of rights resulting in bodily injury and two counts of tampering with a witness, victim or informant. Smith and Bean were found guilty of one count of tampering with a witness, victim or informant, and they were acquitted on the three other counts against them.
Attorneys for Smith and Bean said they should not be tried for charges they were acquitted of in a new trial.
Nichols was pulled over during a traffic stop on Jan. 3, 2023. Twenty-two minutes elapsed before a stretcher was brought out for Nichols and he was taken to a hospital. He died three days later.
In the federal case, two other former officers — Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mill — pleaded guilty and they haven’t been sentenced.
Attorneys for Smith and Bean said they were unable to see or stop Martin because of the pepper-spray in the chaotic scene. Haley, who arrived at the arrest scene last, kicked Nichols, according to the video. His attorney said it was to the arm to handcuff him.
Officers then picked up Nichols and put him against a car.
On Jan. 20, 2023, the five officers, all of whom are Black, like Nichols, were fired. They were members of the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods, or Scorpion unit. The unit was disbanded in 2023.
Civil-rights attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci are representing Nichols’ family in a $550 million lawsuit against the city and police department.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.