Overview

• Chief U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman ruled that Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith must be retried in the federal case stemming from Nichols’ 2023 beating and death.
• Lipman found no biased rulings in the 2024 trial but concluded the risk of bias was constitutionally intolerable due to circumstances that arose after the verdict.
• The issue centers on an alleged comment by Judge Mark Norris that the Memphis Police Department was "infiltrated to the top with gang members," reported after his law clerk was shot in a carjacking on Oct. 8, 2024.
• Norris, who had been slated to sentence the three in December, recused himself on June 13, and the officers have not been sentenced in federal court.
• Five former officers were charged federally in total, with Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills pleading guilty and awaiting sentencing, and the three officers ordered to new trials having been acquitted on state charges in May.