Nichols was beaten, pepper sprayed, and shocked with a stun gun by five police officers during a traffic stop in Memphis last year.
Three former Memphis police officers were convicted of federal felonies on Oct. 3 following the death of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old black man who died after being beaten by police during a traffic stop last year.
A federal jury found three officers—Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, and Justin Smith—guilty of witness tampering to cover up Nichols’s fatal beating, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Thursday.
The jury convicted Haley of violating Nichols’s civil rights causing bodily injury, but acquitted him of the most severe charge of civil rights violations causing death, which could have resulted in a life sentence. He was also convicted of conspiracy to witness tampering.
Bean and Smith were acquitted of all civil rights charges.
The DOJ stated that the trio faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for their offenses, with their sentencing scheduled for January 2025.
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Two other former officers indicted in the case, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., had pleaded guilty to federal charges and testified at a trial that Nichols did not pose a threat during the incident.
Attorneys for the Nichols family welcomed the verdicts, saying that they sent “a powerful message” that law enforcement officers who commit crimes will be held accountable under the law.
“Tyre should be alive today, and while nothing can bring him back, today’s guilty verdicts bring a measure of accountability for his senseless and tragic death,” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.
They said that the fight for Nichols’s justice is “far from over.”
The five officers are also facing second-degree murder charges in Tennessee state court, though a trial date has not yet been determined.
“We will continue to push for justice in the state criminal case and the civil case, so that no family has to endure this kind of heartache again,” Crump and Romanucci said.
According to the DOJ’s statement, Nichols’s death was ruled a homicide owing to blunt force trauma to the head, which included rotational brain injury and brain bleeding, and extensive blunt force injuries to his neck, arms, legs, and torso.
“A medical emergency responder testified that had they been told that Nichols’ injuries were caused by strikes to the head, they would have significantly altered their course of care,” the DOJ stated.
Prosecutors said during the trial that the officers reported that Nichols had been driving dangerously and sped up to beat a red light, which prompted a traffic stop.
Reuters contributed to this report.
