(23 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Memphis, Tennessee – 23 August 2024
1. Mid of former Memphis police officer Emmitt Martin entering federal courthouse
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ mother:
"For him to plead guilty, its something. I feel like we’re going in the right direction."
Rodney Wells, Tyre Nichols’ father:
"Accepting responsibility."
RowVaughn Wells:
"Accepting responsibility. We still have three more that we need to find guilty or they need to plead guilty or something. And I am hoping that we don’t have to go to trial."
3. Tight on a Tyre Nichols pin on RowVaughn Wells
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen Ross Johnson, attorney for Emmitt Martin:
"Today, we are all witness to Mr. Martin accepting responsibility for what he did. Pleaded guilty. He accepted responsibility. And today is a new day."
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Crump, attorney for Tyre Nichols’ family:
"The blood is not only on these officer’s hands. The blood is on the Memphis Police Department and everybody who instituted the policy of the Scorpion unit."
6. Tight on a Tyre Nichols’ pin worn by Rodney Wells
STORYLINE:
A second former Memphis police officer has pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the 2023 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
Prosecutors on Friday agreed to recommend that Emmitt Martin be sentenced to no more than 40 years for his part in Nichols’ killing.
Nichols was horribly beaten by five Memphis officers after a traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, and he died of his injuries three days later.
Joined by her attorney Ben Crump, Nichols’s mother RowVaughn Wells told reporters after the hearing that while this latest guilty plea was important, she would not be content until all the officers charged either were found guilty or pleaded guilty.
"We still have three more that we need to find guilty or they need to plead guilty or something," said Wells. "And I am hoping that we don’t have to go to trial."
One other former officer has also pleaded guilty. Three more still face a federal trial. All five are charged separately in state court with second-degree murder.
Martin’s defense attorney, Stephen Ross Johnson, said after the hearing that Martin was "driven by fear when he later attempted to cover that up — fear of the consequences of what he had done."
One other former officer has also pleaded guilty. Three more still face a federal trial. All five are charged separately in state court with second-degree murder.
But the attorneys for the Nichols’ family said that the issue of police brutality in Memphis was not isolated to those officers.
"The blood is not only on these officer’s hands," said Crump. "The blood is on the Memphis Police Department and everybody who instituted the policy of the Scorpion unit."
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