State of Tennessee v. Haley
Case Numbers: 300401, C2300402, C2300403, C2300404, C2300405
Court: Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, for the Thirtieth Judicial District at Memphis
Clients: The Associated Press, The Daily Memphian, The Commercial Appeal, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Marc Perrusquia, The New York Times Company, WREG-TV, Cable News Network, Inc., and WATN-TV/WLMT-TV
Background: In November 2023, a judge partially rescinded two court orders prohibiting the city of Memphis and Shelby County from releasing many public records they provided to the district attorney in the prosecutions of five former police officers related to the killing of Tyré Nichols. The move came in response to a motion filed by a news media coalition with free legal support from Paul McAdoo, the Reporters Committee’s Local Legal Initiative attorney for Tennessee. The released records, including 21 hours of audio and video recordings and 1,300 pages of documents, helped shed additional light on what happened immediately after police brutally beat Nichols.
Despite those disclosures, much of the case still remains shrouded in secrecy — even after three of the officers charged in Nichols’ murder were found not guilty and two others reportedly reached plea agreements in their cases.
A court order still prohibits the city and county from disclosing records known as “Garrity” material, which in the context of this case is likely to be statements made by the police officers during internal investigations under the threat of termination. There is also at least one sealed order in the case, including a sealed order sealing other records, including juror information.
On behalf of a coalition of Tennessee and national news organizations and reporters, McAdoo filed this motion to intervene for the limited purpose of lifting the court’s order barring release of the Garrity material by the city and county, unsealing all sealed orders, and accessing juror information. The motion argues that there is no longer a compelling government interest in shielding records from the public in the high-profile case.
Filings:
2025-08-14: Motion to intervene