MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The attorney for a former Memphis police officer accused in the beating death of Tyre Nichols is now asking for his charges to be dismissed.

Demetrius Haley’s attorney filed a motion on April 21 to dismiss the indictment against him on double jeopardy grounds.

His attorney argues that Haley was indicted due to his interactions as a police officer with Nichols on January 7, 2023, but he was also indicted by the federal government based on the same incident.

The attorney notes the district attorney has worked alongside the federal government in prosecuting Haley.

The motion says the indictment is a violation of Haley’s rights to be free from being put in jeopardy twice to allow the state to prosecute him for his encounter with Nichols, because it is “apparently unsatisfied” with the jury verdict.

This comes days before Haley and two other former officers are set to go to trial. The three ex-officers are facing state charges of second-degree murder.

On March 28, the attorney of Justin Smith, the other former officer accused in the beating death of Nichols, also filed a motion to dismiss the indictment.

The motion says the United States and Tennessee Constitutions protect a defendant from being twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense.

Smith’s attorney says the State of Tennessee should not be permitted by the court to conduct a prosecution arising from the same facts already tried in the federal civil rights charges brought against him.

He notes the state can not point to any distinct state interests that were not fully addressed in the federal trial against Smith.

However, Thaddeus Johnson, a criminal justice and criminology professor for Georgia State University, says that argument does not apply to this case.

“Under dual sovereignty, the federal government and states are considered to be sovereigns. Separate, right? And each may kind of prosecute the same conduct, without it violating double jeopardy,” Johnson said.

Johnson also tells WREG that the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols created distrust within the Memphis community.

“I think a big issue in this case is the race fact,” Johnson said. “You know, we always say, well, it’s white officers on Black folks. Well, these were Black officers on a Black man and I think it woke everybody up about the realities of policing and the nuances of policing.”

Johnson says the outcome of this state trial will play a role in the community’s future relationship with the Memphis Police Department.

He says it’s also important for MPD to create transparency and conversations within the community that eventually lead to improvements and reduced crime.

“How people feel about the police, the legitimacy, they’re willing to call the police,” he said. “How this case turns out can really impact that, because it’s already been an impact in the trust in police. And if people don’t trust the police, they won’t call when they’ve been victimized.”

District Attorney Steve Mulroy addressed the upcoming state trial in his weekly email Friday, saying that the federal and state charges were separate.

“In our criminal justice system, criminal acts can violate federal law and state law separately, and those separate offenses can be tried separately in federal and state court. That’s happening here: there was a federal trial, with sentencing occurring this June. In the meantime, we will try the three defendants in state court,” Mulroy wrote.