After Liberal Prosectors Allowed Memphis Cops to Get Away w/the Recorded, Brutal Beating Murder of Tyre Nichols, Liberal Judge Orders a New Trial for Cops on their Obstruction of Justice Convictions
/
A judge ordered a new trial Thursday for three former Memphis police officers who were convicted of federal charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, after defense lawyers argued that another judge who presided over their trial was biased in his belief that at least one of the men was in a gang.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman issued the order for a new trial for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who were found guilty in October 2024 of obstruction of justice through witness tampering.
The ruling marks the latest setback for prosecutors in a case that shocked the country when videos were released showing officers violently kicking and punching Nichols during a traffic stop. The officers who have been granted a new trial in the federal case were acquitted of state murder charges in May. And last year federal prosecutors were unable to secure convictions on the most severe counts against Bean and Smith.
Two other officers charged, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., pleaded guilty before the federal trial.
Lipman took over the case in June after U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris, who presided over the case and the trial, recused himself days before the sentencings for the five officers.
In a statement shared by his judicial office Thursday, Norris said, "Because of the code of judicial conduct, I cannot make a statement on this matter."
New trial based on judge's comments [sounds like elite liberal clogic and bullshit]
Liberal Prosecutors doing NOTHING but Locking Up Black People in Memphis (and many other places), while failing to protect in city named the most unsafe city for the past 2 years.
Federal case
In the federal case 3 Memphis police officers were found guilty of federal witness tampering charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. But all three defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of violating his civil rights by causing his death.
One officer, Demetrius Haley, was convicted on a lesser charge of violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights by causing bodily injury. That is, he was acquitted of causing the Black man’s death but found guilty of the lesser charge of only causing bodily injury.
State Case
On January 26, 2023, the Grand Jury of the State of Tennessee indicted each of the five MPD officers for multiple charges: second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping (two counts), official misconduct (two counts), and official oppression.[103][104]
On November 2, 2023, it was reported that Mills had agreed to plead guilty to all of the state charges as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors.[4][108] The District Attorney's office confirmed that Mills would testify against the other officers as part of the deal.[109] Martin would ultimately plead guilty to state charges against him as well.[12]
Trial of Bean, Haley and Smith began on April 28, 2025. On May 7, 2025, after a 9 day trial and 8 1/2 hours of deliberations over a two day period, a Tennessee jury delivered not guilty verdicts on all counts for all three officers.
Civil Complaint
According to the complaint filed in the civil case (atty Ben Crump);
Nichols was two minutes away from his home when he was stopped by MPD at 8:24 p.m. on January 7, 2023. Officers Haley, Martin, and Preston Hemphill[32]conducted the initial stop of Nichols' at the intersection East Raines Road and Ross Road,[33] with police vehicles surrounding his car on three sides. The body-worn camera footage released by the City of Memphis on January 27, does not "show any activity earlier than an officer responding to a stop in progress ..."[34]
Haley and Martin were at the traffic stop when Hemphill arrived at 8:24 p.m.[35][15] By 8:25 p.m., Haley[36] pulled Nichols out of his car as Nichols said: "I didn't do anything."[35] An officer shouted: "Get on the fuckin' ground" and moments later an officer shouted "I'm gonna tase your ass."[37] Officers pushed Nichols to the ground. At about 8:25:45 p.m., Nichols was laying on his side in the road - an officer had Nichols' left hand, a second officer had Nichols' right hand, a third officer held a taser against Nichols' left leg while also using his right hand to hold Nichols to the ground.[35] From the moment that Nichols was pulled from the car, to being held on the ground, officers simultaneously yelled numerous commands, threats, expletives, and made "assaultive comments"[15] at him. While being held on the ground an officer continued to yell for Nichols to lay down. Nichols responded "I am on the ground". An officer yelled back "Lay on your stomach". Moments later, Haley, deployed pepper spray against Nichols[15], which hit several of the other officers.[37] Nichols broke free and began to run. Hemphill, against regulations,[38] deployed his taser at Nichols. At 8:26 p.m., Nichols began running south on Ross Road, as he was pursued by at least two officers. Two more police units arrived at the scene around 8:29 p.m.[39] Footage showed that one officer who remained at the area of the traffic stop said, "I hope they stomp his ass".[40]
At 8:33 p.m., Officers Bean, Mills, and Smith caught up to Nichols and had him on the ground at Castlegate Lane and Bear Creek which is approximately a half a mile (800 meters) away from the original traffic stop.[36] Footage from a pole-mounted CCTV camera showed an officer using his leg to push Nichols hard to the ground. Between 8:33 p.m. and 8:36 p.m. Nichols was punched, then pepper sprayed a second time, then kicked in the upper torso numerous times by a fourth officer, then an officer can be heard yelling "I'm going to baton the fuck out of you." before striking Nichols several times with a baton, then punched five times in the face by one officer.[41][42] The video footage showed officers had control of Nichols' arms when he was struck with the baton, kicked, and successively punched in the face 5 times.[43][44] A fifth officer arrived, as Nichols was on the ground and in the process of being handcuffed, and kicked him in the upper torso, which was followed by another kick to the upper torso by another officer. Fox News reported that in the videos, "Nichols can be heard calling out to his mother before police beat him into a daze".[34] Nichols' conduct has been initially described as non-resisting[45] and non-violent;[15] there is no indication that he struck back at the officers.[46]
By 8:37 p.m., Nichols was handcuffed and limp; officers propped him against the side of a police car.[47] After Nichols was on the ground, the involved officers convened and shared their stories about the arrest. In the body-worn camera footage, Michael Ruiz of Fox News reported, "officers can be heard discussing his alleged driving, 'swerving' and nearly hitting one of them".[48] One officer bragged: "I was hitting him with straight haymakers, dog", while another exclaimed: "I jumped in, started rocking him."[49]
Medics arrived around 8:41 p.m. but did not begin to assist Nichols until 16 minutes later. An ambulance arrived at 9:02 p.m. and took Nichols to St. Francis Hospital at 9:18 p.m. after he complained of shortness of breath.[39]
On scene, video footage showed officers issued at least 71 commands over 13 minutes; The New York Times described the orders as "often simultaneous and contradictory" and "sometimes even impossible to obey". The Times cited one such example of many, where an officer shouted "Give me your fucking hands!" while Nichols had one officer pinning his arms behind his back, a second officer holding his handcuffed wrist, and a third officer punching Nichols' face.[50][51][52][15] One former police officer described the officers' interaction with Nichols as having "started with poor communication" and going downhill from there.[51]
On January 8, the department stated that the traffic stop of Nichols was due to reckless driving.[53][54] On January 27, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn J. Davis stated that her department reviewed footage, including from body cameras regarding the traffic stop and the arrest, to "determine what that probable cause was and we have not been able to substantiate that – ... It doesn't mean that something didn't happen, but there's no proof.” [MORE]
