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In Memphis next month, three former police officers are to stand trial on federal civil rights and conspiracy charges in the beating death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols. He was killed in January 2023 after a traffic stop. Two other former policemen have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors. NPR's Debbie Elliott has more. And a note - this story includes disturbing audio of the beating.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Tyre Nichols' parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, are ready for the courthouse.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: Oh, I'm going to be at the trial every day.
RODNEY WELLS: Every day, not most of the time.
ELLIOTT: They've been diligently showing up for all the court hearings leading up to this federal trial and a separate state murder case.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: You're the mother. You want to make sure that what they're saying is correct, and you want to make sure that everything is going accordingly. So you have to sit there and listen even though you don't want to.
ELLIOTT: Fired Memphis detectives Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley are charged with depriving Nichols of his rights through excessive use of force, failure to intervene and obstruction of justice for conspiring to cover up what happened. The felony charges carry a possible sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. They were part of the so-called SCORPION task force, created to root out street crime and known for aggressive policing tactics. Disturbing surveillance and body cam video released by the Memphis Police Department shows the officers, all also Black, brutally punching, kicking and using pepper spray and police batons on Nichols after a traffic stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Give me your hand.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hey...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Watch out. Watch out.
ELLIOTT: Nichols died three days later. An autopsy classified his death a homicide from blunt-force trauma.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: I'm curious to see how they're going to try to maneuver out of this because the video don't lie.
RODNEY WELLS: And thank God. Thank God for that sky cam video.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: Yes.
ELLIOTT: The Wells are bracing for defense lawyers to make it sound like their son was in the wrong for resisting the officers. But they say the video makes clear he was confused and in fear.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: He ran because he was scared for his life. He was just trying to get home - just like he was saying, all I'm doing is trying to get home - and calling his mama.
ELLIOTT: Wells says she struggles to understand their motivation.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: I want them to look at me and say why we did this to your son.
ELLIOTT: The broader Memphis community is also looking for answers from this trial.
VAN TURNER: We still don't know why.
ELLIOTT: Civil rights attorney Van Turner was president of the Memphis branch of the NAACP when Nichols was killed.
TURNER: Why was he pulled over? And then, why was there such an aggressive frisk, takedown? And then, when you pepper-sprayed him, and he started to run, you caught the guy. Why was there the need to beat him to death? I mean, what is the motivation?
ELLIOTT: Aware of the fact that winning convictions against law enforcement officers is difficult, Turner says the stakes are high for the outcome of this trial.
TURNER: This really could set the course from Memphis for years to come. And I'm hopeful and I'm prayerful that we will get it right and that those officers who beat Mr. Nichols to death that night for no reason at all will have a long time to think about what they did in jail.
ELLIOTT: The federal prosecutor declined to comment, and defense lawyers for the ex-officers set to go on trial declined to speak to NPR. Two of their former colleagues could be key witnesses in the case after changing their pleas and cooperating with prosecutors. Last week, Emmitt Martin pleaded guilty. Stephen Ross Johnson is his attorney.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEPHEN ROSS JOHNSON: Today, we are all witness to Mr. Martin accepting responsibility for what he did.
ELLIOTT: Outside, after the change-of-plea hearing, he said Martin was driven by anger.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: He admits that he violated Mr. Nichols' civil rights and used excessive force. He was driven by fear when he later attempted to cover that up - the fear of the consequences of what he had done.
ELLIOTT: As part of the plea agreement, two other charges against him were dropped, and prosecutors are recommending a prison sentence of up to 40 years. Another former detective, Desmond Mills Jr., changed his plea last year. For him, prosecutors are recommending a maximum sentence of 15 years.
The killing of Tyre Nichols has amplified calls for police reform and sparked the U.S. Justice Department to launch what's known as a pattern-or-practice investigation, looking at the Memphis Police Department's use of force and whether officers engage in discriminatory and aggressive policing. The Reverend Jason Lawrence Turner of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis says seeing the video footage of police beating Nichols is part of a recurring trauma for African Americans.
JASON LAWRENCE TURNER: No sense of humanity, no sense of compassion by any of those officers. And so it brought a lot of feelings. But particularly, in this instance, all the officers were Black. And so it really brought to light - there is a culture that has to be dismantled, not only in Memphis policing, but in policing across this country.
ELLIOTT: Turner is president of the Memphis Black Clergy Collaborative, formed in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, also recorded on video. Turner served on a Memphis committee that recommended ways to reimagine policing in a city struggling with high crime but says he's seen little come from it. He thinks the best opportunity for change will likely be from federal intervention. Protesters like Black Lives Matter activist Amber Sherman, who took to the streets after Nichols was killed, will also be watching to see what comes from the trial.
AMBER SHERMAN: I think there's going to be a lot of things that come out of this trial that affirm the same things we've been saying about the practices of the Memphis Police Department, especially around how they brutalize people.
ELLIOTT: Chase Madkins, an organizer with Equity Alliance, says he'd like to see these ex-officers receive a just due punishment.
CHASE MADKINS: I don't think we anticipate to see a systemic change. I think the best we could hope for is that these officers - because they were just simply caught, right? It's a bad look. It compromises police - people's trust of the system, if you will, of the government, so they got to punish them harshly for that.
ELLIOTT: For Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, there's opportunity for Memphis to right a wrong.
ROWVAUGHN WELLS: We want the world to see that when police officers do wrong, that they're held accountable. We're going to get our justice. I have faith. We're going to get our justice.
ELLIOTT: The family has also filed a $550 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city. Jury selection is set to begin September 9 in the federal civil rights trial for the three former detectives. They also face murder charges in state court. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Memphis.
(SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, "SING ABOUT ME, I'M DYING OF THIRST" ) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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