Federal prosecutors painted a picture of officers who did not stop one another from pummeling Mr. Nichols even when he did not pose a threat.
A jury on Thursday convicted three former Memphis police officers on federal witness tampering charges in connection with the beating and death of Tyre Nichols. The officers were acquitted of the most serious charge — violating his civil rights by causing his death.
Federal prosecutors had called nearly 20 witnesses as they pressed their argument that the former officers, Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith, had both deprived Mr. Nichols of his civil rights in a Jan. 7, 2023, traffic stop and conspired to lie about it.
Taken together, the testimony painted a picture of officers who did not stop one another from pummeling or restraining Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black FedEx worker, even when he did not pose a threat. And it captured an overarching culture in the Memphis Police Department that allowed for secrecy and excessive punishment, especially when a person tried to flee police custody.
Here are some of the key revelations from the prosecution’s case.
Five former Memphis officers, all of whom are Black, were indicted on federal charges last September. Two have since pleaded guilty to some of the charges.
When one of those two officers, Emmitt Martin III, took the stand, he described a tumultuous few days back on the job after he had been hit by a person fleeing in their car and sidelined to a desk role. Already angry about a lack of arrests that night in January 2023, he said he saw Mr. Nichols speed up to beat a red light and soon initiated a traffic stop.
