3 former Memphis officers convicted of witness tampering in beating death of Tyre Nichols

Three Memphis, Tennessee police officers were convicted in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in a traffic stop last year, reported NBC News.

The three officers, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, and Taddarius Bean were convicted of witness tampering. Haley was further convicted of violating civil rights causing bodily injury, but acquitted of the more serious charge of violating civil rights causing death. Smith and Bean were acquitted of all civil rights charges.

Both Nichols and all three police officers are Black. The officers were members of the so-called SCORPION unit, which was tasked with patrolling high-crime areas.

The case caused a national outrage and protests after extremely graphic video footage of the traffic stop was released last year.

That footage showed officers repeatedly beating Nichols as he screamed in pain and did nothing to resist arrest, and further showed that paramedics summoned to the scene failed to administer proper care. Nichols later died of his injuries, in an event that Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis called "depraved indifference to human life."

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