On Thursday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The Fed left its key interest rate unchanged again Wednesday and gave no hint it plans to lower it soon. Commercial Appeal Criminal Justice Reporter Lucas Finton has the latest from Memphis after former police officers were found not guilty of murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. All three former officers were separately convicted in federal court and still face time in federal prison. A nonpartisan analysis said millions of Americans could lose Medicaid health insurance coverage under different Republican Congressional proposals to cut spending. Airline CEOs rally behind Trump's air traffic control plan. USA TODAY Education Reporter Zach Schermele discusses how some think China could benefit from Trump defunding university research. Today is VE Day, marking 80 years since the end of the European theater in World War II.
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Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, May 8th, 2025. This is The Excerpt.
Today, the Fed has given us our latest checkup on the economy, plus a not guilty verdict for former officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols. And while Trump keeps defunding university research, some think China will benefit.
The Federal Reserve is still in wait-and-see mode. The Fed left its key interest rate unchanged again yesterday and gave no hint that it plans to lower it soon. That comes as President Donald Trump's tariffs raise the risks of both another inflation spike and recession. Officials signal they're growing increasingly concerned about both. The decision leaves the Fed's benchmark short-term rate at a range of 4-and-a-quarter to 4.5% for a third straight meeting. The central bank lowered the rate by a percentage point late last year as a pandemic-related price surge eased, but has paused since as it gauges the impact of Trump's duties.
A jury returned a not guilty verdict on all counts in the state case for three of the former Memphis police officers charged in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith Jr. have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
I spoke with Commercial Appeal criminal justice reporter Lucas Finton for more from Memphis. And a warning, some of the details in this story are graphic.
Lucas, hello. Thank you so much for giving me some time on this.
So, Lucas, let's just start here before we get to this verdict. Going back to the incident itself, what happened to Tyre Nichols?
So going back to January 7th, 2023, we were looking at Tyre Nichols getting pulled over by three officers with Memphis Police Department's Scorpion Unit. It was an elite task force basically sent to catch the most violent offenders in Memphis.
Tyre Nichols is very aggressively pulled over at the start of that interaction. After a brief struggle, Tyre Nichols is running away from these officers. There was pepper spray, there was a taser, very unclear which hit and which didn't. But we do know that Tyre Nichols was able to get away at least momentarily, and he was running back to his mother's house when he got tackled by more officers from that same unit. And as more officers started to converge, you see him start to take punches, take kicks, more pepper spray at almost a point-blank range. And then, ultimately when they handcuff him and drag him to the side of a squad car, you see him start to slump over before medical professionals are able to get to the scene.
So, fast-forward to yesterday, Lucas, what verdict did the jury return here? And can you just remind us what led up to this point in court? What had we heard from the legal teams?
Yesterday we heard a blanket not guilty verdict for the three defendants that saw trial. Looking back to yesterday and what led up to that verdict, we saw prosecution start and stop its case with two days, and they called five witnesses, including Tyre Nichols's mother, RowVaughn Wells. They called no use-of-force experts and closed their case after only two days, which came as quite a shock to most of the people in the courtroom.
Since then, it was all up to the defense and the defense went on to call each defendant. All three of them called their own use-of-force expert that said their client did nothing wrong, and the jury at the end agreed there was not enough evidence to convict these three officers for killing Tyre Nichols. At the end of the proof, the judge did read jury instructions, and in addition to those seven charged offenses, there were 36 lesser offenses that the jury also could have convicted on. And essentially that required during deliberations the jury to say, "We are not convicting on the charged offense of," for example, "count one, second degree murder." And then they went down a litany of other charges and after about eight-and-a-half hours of deliberations, about four hours on Monday, and then four-and-a-half hours Tuesday, and brought back blanket not guilty verdicts for all defendants on all counts.
So, we should note Lucas, that we're talking here shortly after the verdict came in. What's the reaction been either around the court, in Memphis, or I guess, nationally? I mean, how is this landing with Americans?
It's still kind of new to a lot of people. There was the federal trial last fall, and for a lot of people it's one trial and it's done. In this case, there were two criminal trials that had to happen before anything else could happen.
So, we just wrapped up the second criminal trial yesterday with that verdict. Inside the courtroom, Tyre Nichols's family was very, very stoic, but as they got up and were hurried out, some of them had tears in their eyes. There were a couple of activists in the courtroom that have become very close with the family who were very teary-eyed. And of course, the three former officers also had family in the courtroom. That family, also very, very teary-eyed themselves.
Well, as you mentioned, Lucas, there's still a separate federal case. What's next for that? Where do we go from here?
The federal case still has sentencing and that'll see all of the five original officers be sentenced. We had Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin, both of them entered plea deals and it's not clear what their sentences will be on that front.
As for Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, and Justin Smith, the three officers that were on trial both federally and in state court, they have their own federal convictions. Demetrius Haley was convicted on all four charged counts, and so he could face up to life in federal prison. And if that's the sentence the judge decides for him, he could spend it all there. There is no parole in the federal system. Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean, they were only found guilty on the witness tampering charge. They were acquitted of the other counts having to do with violating Tyre Nichols's civil rights. And so, that charge could see them sentenced up to 20 years. We don't know which sentence they'll receive, but that'll be coming down in the next couple of weeks.
We'll keep an eye out there. Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, part of the USA TODAY network. Thank you, Lucas.
Millions of Americans could lose Medicaid health insurance coverage under different Republican congressional proposals to cut spending to support President Trump's tax cuts and domestic policy agenda. The estimates of people who could lose Medicaid coverage range from 2.3 million to 8.6 million under different proposals floated by congressional Republicans according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Congressional Democrats asked the CBO to analyze five scenarios that Republicans have reportedly discussed as the House Energy and Commerce Committee seeks $880 billion in savings and spending reductions from Medicaid and other programs under its jurisdiction. It's still unclear what Medicaid cuts Republicans might pursue. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters earlier this week that Republicans have ruled out reducing federal payments to states that have expanded Medicaid. Johnson also appeared to be leaning against per capita caps