MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The federal trial for three of the five former Memphis police officers accused in the beating death of Tyre Nichols began Monday, Sept. 9.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith have all pled not guilty to various charges and will appear in the Odell Horton Federal Building in downtown Memphis.
They will be tried together as co-defendants, and all face the same four charges involving federal civil rights and conspiracy charges in Nichols' death.
The trial commenced with the jury selection, where 200 potential jurors will be interviewed. The process was delayed nearly four hours Monday while last minute motions were argued, including a last-minute defense filing asking the court to limit jurors from being able to view audio and video evidence.
Nichols' family arrived around 10 a.m., shortly before jury selection began just minutes after noon.
The case moved slowly with the first 16 jurors answering two questions during voir dire before breaking for lunch. Court resumed shortly before 3 p.m. Monday. A number of jurors needed to privately talk about various issues, including troubles with seeing a graphic video showing the beating death of Nichols, knowing one of the witnesses and a plea deal affecting judgement.
Mark Norris, the federal judge presiding over the trial, said the trial is expected to last three to four weeks. Norris read the names of 42 potential witnesses who may speak in the coming weeks.
Jury selection resumed Tuesday, with 19 potential jurors being cut so far.
Two of the five officers, Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin, entered guilty pleas in November 2023 and August 23, 2024, respectively. Martin pleaded guilty to counts one and three of the federal indictment. Count One charged Martin with using excessive force and failing to intervene in the unlawful assault. Count three charged Martin with conspiring to cover up his use of illegal force by omitting material information and by providing false and misleading information to his supervisor and others.
Several motions and pleas, including requests for change of venue and disagreements over witnesses have plagued the federal case.
During a pretrial conference Friday, Sept. 6, prosecutors revealed that they plan to show 14 videos regarding Tyre Nichols' death during the trial. According to the prosecutors, only 11 videos have been made available to the public, while three videos have not been released. On Saturday, however, discovery evidence was submitted to counsel that may include those videos.
"This Scorpion unit, not only was it corrupt, it was corrupted from the beginning," said Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for Nichols' family, in a press conference on August 23. "It never should have been formed. Those officers should not have been on there. They were not supervised."
The state criminal case, in which the officers have different charges, will be set after the federal trial. Each officer is charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, and official oppression.
"You're going to hear testimony that officers were given the right to violate the constitutional rights of citizens who look like Tyre Nichols," said Ben Crump, an attorney for Nichols' family, in a press conference on August 23. "The blood is not only on these officer's hands; the blood is on the Memphis Police Department."
The trial could take several weeks. Though new discovery evidence was submitted for good cause, the court can deny, restrict, or defer discovery. The three officers are being tried as co-defendants, but they will all receive different sentences. ABC24 reached out to several of the ex-officer's attorneys and was told they would not comment.