By Adrian Sainz and Jonathan Mattise
Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The federal criminal case against former Memphis police officers charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols has taken a shocking, unusual twist: Three of them are getting a new trial because a judge made comments after their convictions that raised questions of bias.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman ordered a new trial for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith. They were found guilty in October 2024 of obstruction of justice through witness tampering in the January 2023 beating of Nichols after he fled a traffic stop. Two other officers involved in the beating pleaded guilty and avoided trial.
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Lipman wrote that U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris, who presided over the trial, raised “the risk of bias” when he commented in May that at least one of the officers could be in a gang, and that gang may have been responsible for shooting his law clerk.
Lipman’s order also said an assistant U.S. attorney recalled that Norris told her shortly after the shooting that the Memphis Police Department was “infiltrated to the top with gang members.”
Norris recused himself from the case in June, just days before scheduled sentencings for the five officers. He has declined comment.
It is unclear when a new trial would take place.
Here is a look at the case, and what’s next.
Tyre Nichols’s death
On Jan. 7, 2023, officers yanked Nichols from his car and then pepper-sprayed and hit the 29-year-old man with a Taser. Nichols fled, and when the five officers caught up, they punched, kicked and hit him with a police baton.
He died in a hospital three days later.
Video of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries. It prompted intense scrutiny of police in Memphis.
The police officers were fired
Bean, Haley and Smith, along with Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., were fired. They were charged in state court with offenses including second-degree murder and in federal court with civil rights violations and obstructing justice.
Bean, Haley and Smith were convicted in federal court of trying to cover up the beating by failing to say that they or their colleagues punched and kicked Nichols and broke police department rules when they did not include accurate statements about what type of force they used.
Bean and Smith were acquitted of more serious civil rights charges.
Haley was found guilty of violating Nichols’ civil rights by causing bodily injury and showing deliberate indifference to medical needs, and also conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.
This May, Bean, Haley and Smith were acquitted of all state charges.
Mills pleaded guilty in November 2023 in federal court to violating Nichols’ civil rights by causing death and conspiracy to witness tamper. Martin followed suit in August 2024. They did not stand trial in federal court.
Martin and Mills also avoided a state court trial after reaching agreements to plead guilty.
Norris’ statements led to him no longer presiding over the case
In her order, Lipman cited a notice by the U.S. Attorney’s Office about Norris’ reactions to his law clerk being shot during a car theft days after the federal trial ended. The clerk was staying at the home of another law clerk who had previously worked for Norris on the Nichols case, the notice said.
Norris met with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and an FBI agent, who explained why no federal charges would be brought in the shooting.
Norris indicated that he believed at least one of the former officers was in a gang and that it was responsible for the shooting, the notice said. Norris told those present that he believed the intended target of the shooting was the former law clerk who had worked on the case and “had been seen by one or more of the Defendants during the trial,” the notice added.
The assistant U.S. attorney who attended the May 30 meeting recalled that Norris months earlier told her he could not meet with Memphis police to give a statement because the department was “infiltrated to the top with gang members,” the notice said.
Norris recused himself on June 13.
Bean, Haley, and Smith sought a new trial, arguing that Norris was biased and violated their due process rights.
While a review showed Norris’ decisions throughout the trial were “sound, fair, and grounded firmly in the law,” a new trial is necessary “because the risk of bias here is too high to be constitutionally tolerable,” Lipman wrote.
Lipman has ordered lawyers to state what charges they believe need to be retried, and she set a Sept. 25 hearing.
Nichols’ family deals with pain
Nichols’ family members have not commented publicly on the new trial, and neither has their lawyer, Ben Crump.
But throughout their ordeal, Nichols’ relatives have expressed how difficult his death has been. During the trials, Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, and other relatives left the courtroom while jurors watched video of the beating.
Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.
