Tyre Nichols case: three police officers convicted of witness tampering
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were found guilty of the witness tampering charge although they momentarily avoided conviction on other, more serious charges.
The five agents involved in the 2023 death of Tyre Nichols.
Three police officers charged in the death of the young Tyre Nichols in 2023 were found guilty on Thursday of witness tampering by a federal court; while they were acquitted of other, more serious charges they faced.
Jurors deliberated for about six hours before returning the verdict for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith.
Nichols' arrest in Memphis in January last year generated a wave of protests across the country that raised fears of a repeat of the criminal acts staged by the Black Lives Matter movement.
A video released at the time showed five police officers relentlessly beating the 29-year-old man, who died three days later in the hospital. The officers initiated the incident for an alleged traffic violation.
The five police officers were indicted by the state of Tennessee and then federally by a grand jury, which indicted them on four counts in September 2023. Two pleaded guilty.
The remaining three decided to go to trial and were found liable Thursday for witness tampering. However, all were acquitted of the other, more serious charges.
Nonetheless, the five men must still face asecond-degree murder trial before the Tennessee judiciary. Their final sentence will be known in January 2025. They could face up to 20 years in prison.
"Tyre should be alive today, and while nothing can bring him back, today's guilty verdicts bring a degree of accountability for his senseless and tragic death," his family celebrated in a statement carried by AFP.
LATEST
