Three former Memphis officers were acquitted of all state charges on Wednesday, including a second degree murder, in the fatal slory of Reifen Nichols after running from a traffic stop in January 2023
A jury outside the city from a majority-white district took about eight and a half hours over two days to unstoppable Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith after a nine-day legal proceedings before the state court in Memphis, which is too black with several majority. After the jury was read, the accused hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers. A relative screamed in front of the courtroom: “Thank you, Jesus!”
Martin Vommermach, Smith’s lawyer, said the Associated Press of Text: “It is easy to defend a good person. It is nerve -wracking to represent an innocent man.”
The three defendants still look before the view of years of prison after they were condemned for federal costs In October in October, although they were also acquitted from the most serious charges there. Two other former officers previously guilty of both the state and federal courts, including Emmitt Martin, accused the defender for the majority of violence.
Bean and Smith are in bond and under house arrest according to their federal judgments. Haley is held in the federal prison.
Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, fled from a traffic stop after being thrown out of his car, had been pronounced pepper and beaten with a taser. Five officers who are also black caught up with him and hit, kicked and beat him with a police staff. They tried to handle not when he only called steps from his house after his mother. Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after beating.
The film material of the blows captured by a police collar camera also showed that the officials who stuck around, talked and laughed when Nichols had to struggle with his injuries, a video that triggered an intensive police testing in Memphis.
Family of Reifen Nichols “Destroyed”
The civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the family of Nichols, gave a statement in which he is outraged by the result of the process.
“Today’s judgments are a devastating miscarriage,” says the explanation. “The world observed how tires were not beaten by those who are sworn to protect and serve.”
Steve Mulroy, Memphis district prosecutor, said that he respect the jury, but believes that the evidence for any indictment that the public prosecutor had raised were there.
“Was I surprised that there was a single guilty judgment in terms of counts or one of the less accused crimes, given the overwhelming evidence that we presented? Yes, I was surprised. Did I have an explanation for it?”
He said he spoke to Nichol’s family briefly and “they were destroyed on the ground. … I think they were outraged and we can understand why they would be outraged in view of the evidence.”
The former officers of Memphis, Desmond Mill Jr. and Martin, who were also involved in the strokes, did not stand in court before the state court after they had agreed to a plea with prosecutors. They also guilty in front of a federal court, where the conviction of all five civil servants is pending.
Defenders emphasized in court proceedings that Martin Nichols kicked and beaten several times.
The defense also seemed to score points with their experts in the use of Force that said that the three officials were traded in court in accordance with the police and the generally recognized law enforcement standards. Lawyers from Bean and Smith named character witnesses who said that the men were good officers who did their job right.
Mills said for the public prosecutor and said he regretted his failure to stop the blows, which led to the death of Nichols by blunt force trauma. Nichols suffered tears and bleeding in the brain, said Dr. Marco Ross, the medical examiner who carried out the autopsy in court statements.
The officials had been charged with murder’s second degree, severe bodily harm, severe kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. The prosecutors not only said not to beat, but also said that the officials could not intervene and that medical staff had not noted that Nichols had been repeatedly hit in the head.
Mills admitted on the stand that he was obliged to intervene, but not. He admitted that Nichols had not beat or kicked any of the officers.
But Mills also strengthened the case of the defense when he said that Nichols acted actively against the arrest and did not meet the order to fulfill his hands. Under crossing, he stated that he hadn’t hit Nichols if Nichols had put his hands behind his back. He also agreed that an officer is not sure until a suspect was tied up with handcuffs and searched for a weapon.
Komenmach found that credit and debit cards that did not belong to Nichols were found in his car when they were searched after beating, and probably said why Nichols ran before the traffic stops. Defenders have argued that the fatal blows would not have taken place if Nichols had only tied up with handcuffs.
Jury from Hamilton County selected
The jury for the state trial was selected in Hamilton County, which also includes chattanooga after judge James Jones Jr. had belonged to the case of people outside of Shelby County, which also includes Memphis.
The officials of the officials had argued that intensive advertising made a fair jury difficult.
The public prosecutor Paul Hagerman said reporters in front of the courtroom that the Chattanooga area was selected for the selection of the jury after the city was shown in a study that it had the slightest public relations work in the largest cities of Tennessee before the procedure.
In December the US Ministry of Justice said An investigation resulted The Memphis police authority starts excessive violence and discriminates against black people.
The five officials, the city of Memphis and the chief of police are Silzen by Nichol’s family for 550 million US dollars. An attempt is planned for next year.
