The prosecutor who broke the mold with the Tyre Nichols case

Steve Mulroy had been the Shelby county district attorney for just over 100 days when five Memphis police officers beat and killed Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man.

The election of Mulroy, a former law professor and Justice Department lawyer, was the result of a growing push for criminal justice reform in Memphis. In August, he quietly won the biggest prosecutor race last year, ousting Amy Weirich, a Republican, who failed to bring charges in several police killings and whose office had been accused of repeated misconduct.

The Guardian spoke with Mulroy about his handling of the Tyre Nichols case and criminal justice reform in Memphis. This interview has been condensed and edited.

When I first saw the video, my main reaction was that of real sympathy for the family of Tyre Nichols. I imagined what it would be like when they watched this video and inevitably I knew they would. And my heart went out for them.

And that strategy seems to have worked. Do you agree?

And do you agree that this is the blueprint for how these highly charged cases should be handled moving forward?

I do and I hope that they will.

The video certainly suggests that this may not be the first time that officers acted this way. And the discrepancy between the statements they made on the video about what had happened and what they clearly saw. And statements made later on by the officers and what we now know to have happened raise issues about their honesty in this case.

Could convictions be reversed?

I wanted to ask you about the Scorpion unit more broadly. First, did something go wrong with this unit? And if so, what happened? How did this happen?

There are additional city employees that have come under investigation after the initial five officers were charged. Can you explain the delay?

At the end of the day, as many people have reminded me, since the Tyre Nichols case has become prominent, elections have consequences.