MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Monday Aug. 26 was the final day for the former Memphis Police officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols to enter any plea agreements in federal court ahead of the Sept. 9 trial.
Ex-MPD officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith Jr. all face federal charges (including deprivation of rights and failure to intervene) in addition to the second degree murder charges brought forth by the State of Tennessee.
None of them changed their not guilty plea.
Most of Monday’s pretrial conference revolved around the two other ex-officers who pleaded guilty, Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, and the testimonies in court that are part of their plea deals.
Defense attorneys said the jury should know that the former officers are testifying to avoid life in prison, while Judge Mark Norris worries this could taint the perspective of the entire jury.
The defense argued that during cross examination, they should be able to ask Martin and Mills about the specific penalties they're trying to avoid by testifying so that the jury can get an idea of how biased those testimonies may or may not be.
“Because, you know, the court can reject the plea,” Ben Crump, attorney for Tyre Nichols’s family, told reporters on Friday.
Records show both Mills and Martin faced a maximum sentence of life in prison if they didn't agree to a plea deal and were convicted by a jury.
The prosecution argues that while the defense can ask general questions about the two witnesses hoping to avoid a lengthy prison sentence, it is improper to tell jurors the ex-officers faced life in prison, because that will taint their views on the defendants and that the sentence of life in prison is all the jury would be thinking about. It is against the jury’s instructions for them to consider possible punishments.
Crump is hopeful Nichols’s family gets justice once both sides make their cases in September.
“The jury, I think, is going to return a guilty verdict very fast,” he said. “And I know the judge is a human being too, and I know that he is going to apply the law.”
As part of their plea deals, prosecutors recommended Martin get 40 years in prison and Mills get 15 years. Judge Norris could go lower or higher in their respective sentencing dates.