Memphis, Tenn. – The fate of three former Memphis police officers accused of Tira Nichols beating was in the hands of 12 people who do not live in the city when the jury’s deliberations began on Tuesday in the death of the 29 -year -old black man.
The jury began to deliberate after a prosecutor and defense lawyers presented final arguments at the Tadarrius Bean trial, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who declared themselves innocent of state positions that include second degree murders. They already face the possibility of years in prison after condemned by federal charges last year.
Nichols fled from a traffic stop on January 7, 2023 after he was expelled from his car, sprayed with pepper and beaten with a taser. Five officers who are also black reached and hit him, kicked and hit Nichols with a police cane, fighting to handcuff him while calling his mother near his home.
Beating Captured by a Police pole chamber He also showed the officers by moving, talking and laughing while Nichols struggled. His death led to protests nationwide, demands police reforms in the United States and an intense police scrutiny in Memphis, a black majority city.
The jury of state trial was elected in Hamilton County, which includes Chattanogo, after Judge James Jones Jr. ordered that the case of people outside Shelby County, which includes Memphis, be heard. The defense lawyers of the officers had argued that intense advertising hindered the seats a fair jury.
The officers are accused of second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Prosecutors have argued that officers used excessive force trying to handcuff Nichols. The officers also had the duty to intervene and stop the beating and tell the medical staff that Nichols had been hit in the head, but did not, said the prosecutors.
Memphis Desmond Mills Jr. officers and ITIMT Martin were also accused in the case. They have agreed to declare themselves guilty of state charges and are not in trial. They already declared themselves guilty in a federal court, where the sentence for the five officers is pending.
Defensor lawyers have tried to reduce accusations that officers used unnecessary force to submit Nichols. They have argued that Nichols actively resisted the arrest by fleeing and not giving his hands to the officers so that he could be handcuffed. They also say that its use of force complied with the policies of the police department.
Mills testified that he regrets his failure to stop the beating, which led to the death of Nichols three days after Strong force trauma. Dr. Marco Ross, the forensic doctor who performed the autopsy, testified that Nichols suffered tears and bleeding in the brain.
While Nichols struggled with Bean and Smith, who held him on the ground, Mills tried to Nichols, but ended up sprinkling, he said.
After moving away to try to recover, Mills approached Nichols and hit his arm three times with a police cane. Mills told prosecutor Paul Hagerman who hit Nichols with the cane because he was angry at the pepper spray. The defense lawyers have said that the officer who acted with the greatest violence was Martin, who kicked and hit Nichols several times in the head but is not in trial.
Mills acknowledged in the position that had the duty to intervene to stop the beating, but did not.
But Mills also said that Nichols actively resisted the arrest and did not fulfill the orders of presenting his hands to be handcuffed.
During the trial, defense lawyer John Keith Perry asked Mills if he had hit Nichols with the cane if Nichols finished putting his hands behind his back. Mills said no.
Perry also asked Mills if he thought Bean and Smith were holding Nichols so that Martin could hit Nichols. Mills said he did not believe that this was the case.
Martin Zummach, Smith’s lawyer, said in the final arguments that the credit and debit cards that did not belong to Nichols found themselves in their car when it was recorded after the beating and said that it was probably why Nichols ran out of the traffic stop. Defensor lawyers have argued that the fatal beating would not have taken place if Nichols had allowed himself to be handcuffed.
“This is the fact of Emmitt Martin and Tire Nichols,” said Zummach.
Mills acknowledged that the officers were afraid and exhausted, but said that some of the methods used in Nichols complied with the police department policies, including the use of wrist locks and blows with a cane.
Mills admitted that Nichols never hit, kicked or put on top of any officer.
The five officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that dissolved after the death of Nichols. The team pointed to drugs, illegal weapons and violent criminals to accumulate arrests, while sometimes used force against unarmed people.
The trial occurs months after the United States Department of Justice said in December that A 17 -month investigation He discovered that the Memphis Police Department uses excessive strength and discriminates to blacks.
