News News•
A second U.S. police officer has pleaded guilty in the case surrounding the death of Tyre Nichols, a black man who was fatally assaulted by five black officers in Memphis early last year.
Emmett Martin has now pleaded guilty to depriving Nichols of his civil rights and witness tampering in the federal case against him and his four former co-workers.
Statements condemning
He will also fully cooperate with the investigation, which, according to the Associated Press, could mean he could make incriminating statements against his three former colleagues who have yet to plead guilty. The five officers involved were fired after Nichols’ death.
“Out of anger, Emmett Martin used excessive force against Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023,” his attorney wrote in an email about Martin’s guilty plea. “Out of fear, he tried to cover it up. Today in a public hearing, he accepted responsibility for what he did.”
Nichols’ mother nodded and smiled in the courtroom as the judge accepted Martin’s confession.
In exchange for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors are now proposing a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison for Martin. He had been facing life in prison. In November, another officer, Desmond Mills, pleaded guilty. His plea will see him serve a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Face of the movement against police brutality and racism
Nichols’ death sparked outrage in the United States. Vice President Kamala Harris, now a Democratic presidential candidate, spoke at his funeral. Officers claimed they had stopped the 29-year-old Nichols for reckless driving, but no evidence of reckless driving was found.
Nichols was then severely assaulted by officers. Bodycam footage showed Nichols being punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed in the eyes and beaten with a baton for several minutes. According to the family’s attorney, he was treated like a “human piñata” by the officers.
He died three days later in the hospital from his injuries. After his death, Nichols was mentioned in the same breath as Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Eric Garner, among others, who also died from police brutality. Nichols thus became one of the faces of the American movement against police brutality and racism.