Searching for healing and justice at the trial for the killing of Tyre Nichols

MLK50 EDITOR’S NOTE : In the United States, federal trials carry a prohibition against recording by the media. In our commitment to community-centered reporting, we asked contributing artist Mikhaila Markham to help us bear witness by illustrating scenes from the frontlines of accountability.

In the most functional sense, a trial is a community event. The American criminal legal system presents courts and their due process as a way to address our collective grievances and repair what’s been harmed. The widely circulated video of Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols laid bare where harm happened. The recently concluded federal trial against three of those officers showed that repair is much harder to see..

Last week, a federal jury of their peers found Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith and Demetrius Haley guilty of some charges related to the death of Tyre Nichols. Bean and Smith were convicted of witness tampering, but acquitted of civil rights charges. Haley was convicted of violating Nichols’ civil rights by causing bodily harm (a lesser charge that absolves the officer from causing his death), witness tampering and conspiring to hide the officers actions. They were acquitted of more serious civil rights charges they were facing.

“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,” said the family’s attorney Ben Crump in a statement following the verdicts. Other officials echoed the sentiment that they were grateful the officers were held partiallyaccountable.

Cases like these offer a unique perspective on the limits of our current criminal legal system. The individual police officers in the case are being held responsible by a series of charges tailored to each one’s respective involvement on the scene.

We’ve watched how Tyre’s family, particularly his parents, respond to the expectations that accompany their visibility. They are stewards of their son’s legacy, fighting to prevent it from being erased by the system that allowed his death to happen. They are fighting to keep another life from being robbed rather than protected. They know the pain of the wounds they carry in the wake of his death and how elusive it is to find healing.

This trial’s conclusion, while holding these police officers to account, comes up short in addressing the violent systemic issues that created the circumstances that led to Tyre’s death and keep our communities under oppression. Healing requires justice, but scenes of justice in our criminal legal system are rare.

SEPT. 20, 2024 |

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Searching for healing and justice at the trial for the killing of Tyre Nichols