Three ex-Memphis officers guilty of witness tampering in fatal beating

Three former police officers have been found guilty of witness tampering in the death of a 29-year-old man who died after he was beaten during a traffic stop last year in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were among five officers who punched, kicked and hit Tyre Nichols on 7 January 2023. The other two already pleaded guilty.

Bean, Haley and Smith were all found guilty on Thursday of one count of obstructing justice by witness tampering, but all three were cleared of the most serious counts of civil rights violations that could have resulted in life in prison.

Mr Nichols's death sparked protests against police brutality and calls for reform in one of the nation's largest majority-African-American cities. All officers fired and charged in the case are black, as was Mr Nichols.

The federal court jury delivered their verdict on Thursday after about six hours of deliberations following a nearly month-long trial.

The five officers were members of the Memphis police department's Scorpion Task Force, a since-disbanded street unit that had been tasked with bringing down crime levels in the city.

Video footage of the incident shows Mr Nichols being pulled over by police for alleged reckless driving.

A scuffle develops and officers use pepper spray and a Taser on Mr Nichols as he breaks free.

The five policemen caught up with him about a block away and began to assault him as he cried out for his mother.

He died three days later, with a post-mortem examination ruling it a homicide from blunt-force trauma.

The two other officers, Emmit Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr, pleaded guilty to federal civil rights and conspiracy charges in relation to Mr Nichols’s death.

The five officers are also facing second-degree murder charges in Tennessee state court. A trial date for that case has not yet been set.

Mr Nichols’s family has sued the city of Memphis for $550m (£420m) over their son’s death.