Center For Policing Equity: Mixed Verdict In Tyre Nichol’s Murder Trial Against Killer-Cops

By Center For Policing Equity Photos: Ben Crump Law\YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons Tyre Nichols should be alive. Tyre Nichols’ 7-year-old son should still have his father. The Memphis officers convicted Thursday for their roles in his fatal beating – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith – lied to a supervisor, to medical professionals treating Nichols, and in subsequent written reports about the extent of the force they used during the early January 2023 encounter. Police video from the brutal attack showed the officers pepper-spraying and punching and kicking Nichols. When he tried to escape his attackers, they tasered him. The footage captured Nichols calling out for his mother as the officers pummeled the 29-year-old with police batons mere steps from his home. All video evidence clearly shows that Nichols was restrained during the attack and unable to comply with instructions. Bean, Haley, and Smith now face as many as 20 years in prison after being convicted Thursday of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Yet all three were acquitted of the more serious civil rights charges underpinning the investigation. Only Haley was convicted of the lesser charge of violating Nichols’ civil rights, causing bodily injury, as well...