Month: September 2024

Jury selection began on Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis officers charged in connection with the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols.

The former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — are facing multiple charges, including violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force and unlawful assault. Two other former officers, Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, have taken plea deals and are expected to testify. All five men already face state charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping. They pleaded not guilty.

Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023, several days after a January 2023 traffic stop (captured in body camera footage and surveillance footage) which allegedly shows officers violently striking Nichols repeatedly and walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.

The five officers were part of the since-disbanded Scorpion Task Force, a specialized unit created to root out street crime, and the unit was known for aggressive policing tactics.  According to the U.S Department of Justice, two counts carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, and the other two each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

In September 2023, a federal grand jury indicted the five former officers, with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stating that the officers conspired to cover up their crimes including falsely stating that Nichols had actively resisted arrest: “Tyre Nichols was just minutes away from home when he was pulled over by law enforcement officers sworn to protect him. As the indictment charges, the defendants in this case, who at the time were serving as detectives of the Memphis police department, brutally beat Mr. Nichols, they then failed to render medical aid to Mr. Nichols and further failed to tell emergency responders that they had struck him repeatedly even as his condition deteriorated and he became unresponsive.”

After Nichols’ death, the Justice Department commissioned a review of the use of specialized units within law enforcement and produced new guidance.

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A judge has agreed to move the murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022, to a different city. The new location was not immediately clear. The decision will be left up to Idaho’s highest court.

In an order dated Friday, Idaho Second District Judge John C. Judge ruled that the venue will be changed in the University of Idaho quadruple murder trial. Judge stated he was concerned about Kohberger’s ability to receive a fair trial at the Latah County courthouse in Moscow, given extensive media coverage of the case as well as statements by public officials suggesting Kohberger’s guilt. The trial could be moved to Boise in Alda County, which is 326 miles south of Moscow. Kohberger’s lawyers want the trial to take place in Boise, the capital and largest city in Idaho. The trial had been scheduled to begin June 2, 2025, and last about three months.

Lawyers for the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, pushed to move the trial to Boise, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity. Judge sided with the defense, citing concerns that the local community is prejudiced against Kohberger, 29. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty in the first-degree murder case. Judge said, “Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County. Thus, the Court will grant Kohberger’s motion to change venue for presumed prejudice … The court has spent many months carefully considering the legal and logistical concerns with a trial of this length and magnitude, carefully reading each submission, listening to each expert, and evaluating each party’s position. Based upon the totality of the factors, Defendant’s Motion for Change of Venue is granted.”

Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, which is across the state line in Pullman, 11 miles west of Moscow. Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home on Dec. 30 in Monroe County, Pa. and later charged with the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle on Nov. 13, 2022. Their home, which has since been demolished, was located off the school’s main campus.

According to court documents, investigators have linked him to a white vehicle seen near the killings, with DNA recovered from a tan leather knife sheath found in the home and cellphone location data was nearby. Kohberger’s attorneys have stated that they have an alibi as part of his defense.

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