Judge weighs jury instructions in trial of 3 former Memphis officers charged in Tyre Nichols' death

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge considered arguments Tuesday related to dozens of pages of instructions that will be given to jurors in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged with violating Tyre Nichols’ civil rights in a beating that proved fatal following a 2023 traffic stop.

Closing arguments had been expected in the case but did not take place as U.S. District Judge Mark Norris spent hours in chambers working to finalize the lengthy, complicated instructions that jurors will receive before they begin deliberating. Norris heard from lawyers in morning and afternoon sessions about issues related to the instructions.

Prosecutor Forrest Christian said in the afternoon meeting that jurors have to find that bodily injury occurred to Nichols if they are to find the officers guilty of excessive force.

The jury spent essentially a full day in a separate room. Norris said the jury was “wasting back there.”

After prosecutors rested their case Thursday, defense attorneys asked for acquittals, arguing that prosecutors had failed to present enough evidence. Norris denied those motions Tuesday.

Attorneys for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith rested their cases Monday after each had called experts during previous days of testimony in an attempt to combat prosecutors' arguments that the officers used excessive force against Nichols, didn't intervene, and failed to tell their supervisors and medical personnel about the extent of the beating.

Police video shows five officers, who are all Black, punched, kicked and hit Nichols, who was also Black, about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother. Two of the officers, Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin. pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors.

Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.

The five officers were part of the the Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. It was disbanded after Nichols’ death.

The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. Prosecutors argued that the officers beat Nichols because he ran, saying it was part of a common police practice referred to in officer slang as the “street tax” or “run tax. ”

Haley, Bean and Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering. They face up to life in prison if convicted.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.

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Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.