After news broke that three officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ death were acquitted, community and civil rights leaders called out the ongoing need for police reform.
On May 7, the three Memphis police officers learned of their fate for the death of Nichols during a traffic stop in January 2023. Nichols’ case reignited calls to action within the Black Lives Matter movement on addressing police brutality.
With this latest update on the case, many social and racial justice advocates expressed their disappointment with the results. Legal analyst and media personality Judge Glenda Hatchett shared her thoughts about the court decision. Hatchett, who also represented Philando Castile’s family in his wrongful death case in 2018, is quite familiar with trials involving law enforcement.
“I was stunned and deeply disappointed that the three officers were acquitted in the murder trial of Mr. Nichols given the horrific circumstances of his death in Memphis,” Judge Hatchett told BLACK ENTERPRISE
. “Statistically very few police officers are ever charged with the death of an individual and far fewer are ever found guilty.”According to the Police Integrity Research Group out of Bowling Green State University, between 2005 and 2019, out of 104 law enforcement officers charged with murder or manslaughter, only 35 were convicted. The number of officers involved in police killings jumped to 155 in 2022, but the rate of convictions — one third — remained steady a Washington Post’s “Fatal Force” coverage revealed.
“Tyre and his family deserve true justice — not only in the courtroom, but in Congress, by passing police reform legislation once and for all,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson posted on social media. “Traffic stops should never be a death sentence, and a badge should never— ever — be a shield to accountability.”
Nichols, a 29-year-old father, was on his
way home from taking photographs of the sky when Memphis police officers stopped and accused him of a traffic violation. At the stop, he was pulled out of his vehicle by one of the officers and shot with a taser. Video footage reportedly showed him running away before five officers began to beat him. An autopsy later revealed his cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.Rev. Al Sharpton also released a statement on the officers’ acquittals. He reminded not only Black Americans, but Nichols’ parents, that justice could come in other forms. The officers still await sentencing in a federal civil rights case.
“Justice can still be delivered,” emphasized Sharpton. “Tyre’s death was preventable, inexcusable, and tragic.”
While the three officers beat the state charges, which included second-degree murder, they still face another case in the matter. Nichols’ family sued all the five officers, as well as the City of Memphis and police chief, for $550 million.
“Let this be a rally and cry: We must confront the broken systems that empowered this injustice and demand the change our nation — and Tyre’s legacy — deserves,” said Benjamin Crump, civil rights attorney representing the Nichols.
Following Nichols’ death, a federal investigation was launched into the Memphis Police Department. The investigation revealed multiple civil rights violations, including excessive force and illegal traffic stops.
Although police traffic-stop forms were enacted in the Tennessee city, the state’s GOP Gov. Bill Lee repealed the measures. Now, local leaders have expressed their concerns about what this acquittal signals to the public, the police, and Black Americans.
“For a lot of people who have had engagement with police officers, the message is loud and clear: that even if we get you on camera, doing what you did to Tyre, that you cannot face justice,” shared Andre Johnson, a pastor and community activist.
Despite the backlash, city officials claim Memphis intends to hold law enforcement accountable for any conduct violations. Many in the area still feel true change is a ways away.
“I do believe that reform is local, but I do believe this has kind of put a black eye on things,” explained Thaddeus Johnson, a former Memphis police commander and a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, on the trial’s results. “People feel like police cannot be held accountable. Or they won’t be held accountable.”