A federal grand jury has indicted five former Tennessee police officers in the deadly beating in January of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black motorist.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges, which include federal civil rights violations, conspiracy and obstruction. The civil rights charges carry a sentence of up to life in prison.
"The country watched in horror as Tyre Nichols was kicked, punched, tased and pepper sprayed, and we all heard Mr. Nichols cry out for his mother and say, 'I'm just trying to go home,'" Garland said at a press conference Tuesday.
"Officers who violate the civil rights of those they are sworn to protect undermine public safety, which depends on the community's trust in law enforcement," he said. "They dishonor their fellow officers who do their work with integrity every day."
Nichols died on January 10, three days after he was violently assaulted by the officers during a traffic stop near Memphis.
The incident, captured on camera and exposing one of the worst cases of police brutality in recent memory, ignited nationwide outrage and triggered investigations by local and federal authorities.
The five detectives — Emmitt Martin III, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were fired days later.
In January, they were charged with second-degree murder and other felony counts. Second-degree murder in Tennessee carries a sentence of 15 to 60 years. Like Nichols, all five officers are Black.
The federal indictment adds to the charges against the officers and exposes them to harsher penalties. It accuses them of willfully depriving Nichols of his constitutional rights and can send them to prison for the rest of their lives.
The federal indictment alleges that the officers violated Nichols' "right to be free from unreasonable force" by assaulting him and by failing to stop the assault. It also alleges that the officers violated Nichols' "right to be free from deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs" by failing to render first aid and advise emergency personnel about his condition. Both counts carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The indictment also accuses the officers of conspiring to cover up their alleged use of force and obstructing the police investigation of the incident. Those charges carry up to 20 years in prison.
The charges announced on Tuesday are separate from a Justice Department civil investigation of the Memphis Police Department.
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the charges against the five officers reflect the Justice Department's "commitment to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of every American and preserving the integrity of the criminal justice system."
"We stand ready to hold law enforcement officers accountable for their misconduct, because no one is above the law in our country," Clarke said.
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department has brought more than 100 prosecutions involving violations of constitutional and legal rights by law enforcement officers, Clarke said. During the same period, the department has obtained more than 86 convictions.
"We will never stop working to fulfill our duty to protect Americans against unlawful acts of police violence," Clarke said at a press conference in Memphis.
Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers for the Nichols family, praised the federal charges against the five officers as a "critical precedent for accountability and justice."
The indictment "gives his family hope as they continue to grieve and inspire change in his honor," Crump and Romanucci said in a statement.
Lawyers for the five officers could not be immediately reached. They have pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
