Au premier jour de leur procès, les cinq policiers inculpés pour meurtre après le passage à tabac fatal en janvier de l'Afro-Américain Tyre Nichols ont plaidé, vendredi 17 février, non coupable. Cette affaire avait fait craindre un embrasement social et à la Maison Blanche, qui s'était fortement impliquée.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr had been charged with murder, aggravated bodily harm, aggravated kidnapping, professional misconduct and abuse by a person in public authority.

The officers, themselves black and who were fired after the fact, appeared before a judge on Friday in Memphis, Tennessee, accompanied by their lawyers.

The latter announced their decision to plead “not guilty”.

Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, was present in the courtroom, as was his lawyer Ben Crump, very active in cases of police violence.

The right to a fair trial

Judge James Jones Jr called on the defendants and the audience for "patience", urging the ex-police officers to "work" and "cooperate" with their lawyers.

"We understand that there may be strong emotions in this matter, but we ask that you continue to be patient. Everyone involved wants the file to be closed as soon as possible," he later told the room.

“But it is important that you all understand that the State of Tennessee, as well as each of these defendants, has the absolute right to a fair trial, and I will not permit any behavior that would jeopardize that right,” the judge warned. .

At a press conference after the hearing, Ben Crump appeared to respond to the magistrate by asking for action "quickly".

"We don't want it to last forever. We have videos," he said.

Images of the arrest were indeed made public and broadcast at the end of January on the largest channels in the country, showing the extent of the young man's ordeal and the relentlessness of the police, with punches, kicks and truncheons. .

>> To read also: The United States in turmoil after the revelation of the video of the fatal arrest of Tire Nichols

"His entire family deserves a transparent, full and prompt investigation," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. 

Tyre Nichols' mother said she would attend all hearings "until we get justice for my son."

"And I want each of these policemen to be able to look me in the eye. They haven't done that yet...they haven't even had the courage to look me in the eye after what they did to my son," she added.

The next hearing has been set for May 1.

"Black Lives Matter"

Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested on January 7 by officers from a special unit in Memphis, in the southern United States, for a traffic violation, according to police.

But beaten relentlessly, so much so that he had become unrecognizable according to his family, he died three days later in hospital.

Ben Crump held on Friday to forcefully deny "salacious" rumors reporting a "personal" reason (a connection between the victim and one of the police officers) which would have caused the arrest.

"These rumors circulating are bogus and false," he hammered.

The unit to which the agents belonged "had a systematic tendency to do this to black people in Memphis. That's it. No need to go any further," he insisted.

The White House was heavily involved in the case, probably to avoid demonstrations against racism and police violence like those which had set the country ablaze during the death of African-American George Floyd, killed by a white police officer in May 2020, united around the slogan "Black Lives Matter" (Black lives matter).

President Joe Biden had called Tire Nichols' parents, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, had attended his funeral.

The young man's parents had also been invited to President Biden's big State of the Union speech in Washington.

With AFP

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