Jury selection begins in trial for 3 former Memphis officers charged in Tyre Nichols' death

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jury selection began Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis officers charged with violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man whose fatal beating was caught on police cameras, triggering protests and calls for police reform.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering.

Nichols was pulled over in January 2023 and ran from police after he was yanked out of his car. Officers caught up with Nichols and pummeled him in a Memphis neighborhood, police video showed.

Jurors will be selected from a pool of about 200 people. The trial is anticipated to last three to four weeks. Nichols’ mother and stepfather were in court Monday for the trial’s outset.

Nichols, who was Black, died in a hospital on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton. Police video released later that month showed five officers, who also are Black, beating Nichols as he yelled for his mother about a block from his house. Video also showed the officers milling about and talking with each other as Nichols sat on the ground, struggling with his injuries.

The officers said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief has said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.

Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography.

An autopsy report showed Nichols died from blows to the head and that the manner of death was homicide. The report described brain injuries and cuts and bruises to the head and other areas.

The three officers now facing trial, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after Nichols’ death for violating Memphis Police Department policies. They had been members of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion unit, which was disbanded after Nichols’ death.

Shortly after their dismissal, the five officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. They were then indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.

Mills and Martin have each pleaded guilty in federal court and could testify in the trial. A trial date in state court has not been set.