Federal trial begins for former officers charged in Tyre Nichols case

UPDATE, 5 p.m.: The judge has named 40 potential witnesses. Eight jurors have now been eliminated.

UPDATE, 3 p.m.: The jury pool was pulled from four counties in west Tennessee: Tipton, Lauderdale, Fayette and Shelby. They will be narrowing the pool of 200 down to 16 —12 jurors with four alternates.

Each day, the trial should finish around 5 to 5:30, with the trial lasting 3-4 weeks.

The first question to potential jurors: “What is a good characteristic for a juror to have?” For the second question, the jurors were asked what they thought bias was and to give examples of it.

UPDATE, 2:30: Jury selection is underway, and 16 out of 200 potential jurors have been asked questions.

The judge asked if anyone had work or family issues that would keep them from being on the jury for four weeks.

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

Earlier coverage is below.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. ( WREG ) — The federal trial and jury selection for the three former Memphis Police officers accused of killing Tyre Nichols began Monday morning.

► MORE ON TYRE NICHOLS

The three former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith — were seen waiting with their attorneys outside the Odell Horton Federal Building in downtown Memphis at 7:30 a.m. A line for the jury pool stretched down the sidewalk on Front Street.

At 10 a.m., Tyre Nichols’ family entered the courtroom.

A federal grand jury indicted the former officers last September on charges of federal civil rights violation, conspiracy, and obstruction. These are separate from the state criminal charges in the incident.

Five now-former Memphis Police officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith — were fired for misconduct, indicted by a grand jury, and taken into custody.

Martin and Mills, who have already taken plea deals in the case, are expected to take the stand.

A pretrial conference was held on Friday for representatives of the former officers. During the meeting, Bean was the only former officer who attended.

In January 2023, Tyre Nichols died in a hospital three days after being beaten by Memphis Police during a traffic stop near his home. Video and body cam footage of Nichols’ violent arrest was released by MPD weeks after the incident.

Each is charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct, and official oppression.

All five suspects still face an upcoming murder case at the state level. Tyre Nichols’ family also has a $550 million lawsuit pending against Memphis Police and the City.

WREG will update this story with new developments Monday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLRT - FOX16.com.