Tennessee v. Garner Court Case, Arguments, Impact

In Tennessee v. Garner (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer may not use deadly force against a fleeing, unarmed suspect. The fact that a suspect does not respond to commands to halt does not authorize an officer to shoot the suspect, if the officer reasonably believes that the suspect is unarmed. Fast Facts: Tennessee v. Garner Case Argued: Oct. 30, 1984Decision Issued: March 27, 1985Petitioner: The state of TennesseeRespondent: Edward Eugene Garner, a 15-year-old shot by police to prevent him from escaping over a fenceKey Question: Did a Tennessee statute authorizing the use of deadly force to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect violate the Fourth Amendment?Majority Decision: Justices White, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, StevensDissenting: Justices OConnor, Burger, RehnquistRuling: The Supreme Court ruled that under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer may not use deadly force against a fleeing, unarmed suspect. Facts of the Case On October 3, 1974, two police officers responded to a late night call. A woman had heard glass breaking in her neighbor’s house and believed a â€Å"prowler† to be inside. One of the officers went around the back of the house. Someone fled across the backyard, stopping by a 6-foot fence. In the darkness, the officer could see that it was a boy and reasonably believed the boy to be unarmed. The officer yelled, â€Å"Police, halt.† The boy jumped up and began to climb the 6-foot fence. Out of fear that he’d lose the arrest, the officer opened fire, striking the boy in the back of the head. The boy, Edward Garner, died at the hospital. Garner had stolen a purse and $10. The officer’s conduct was legal under Tennessee law. The state’s law read, If, after notice of the intention to arrest the defendant, he either flee or forcibly resist, the officer may use all the necessary means to effect the arrest. Garner’s death sparked over a decade of court battles resulting in a Supreme Court ruling in 1985. Constitutional Issues Can a police officer use deadly force against a fleeing, unarmed suspect? Does a statute that authorizes the use of deadly force on an unarmed suspect violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? The Arguments Attorneys on behalf of the state and city argued that the Fourth Amendment oversees whether a person may be detained, but not how they may be apprehended. Violence will decrease if officers are able to do their jobs by any means necessary. Resort to deadly force is a â€Å"meaningful threat† to deter violence, and is in the interest of the city and state. Furthermore, the attorneys argued that the use of deadly force against a fleeing suspect was â€Å"reasonable.† Common law revealed that, at the time of the Supreme Court’s ruling, multiple states still permitted this type of force. The practice was even more common at the time of the passage of the Fourth Amendment. The respondent, Garner’s father, alleged that the officer had violated his son’s Fourth Amendment rights, his right to due process, his Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, and his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The court only accepted the Fourth Amendment and due process claims. Majority Opinion In a 6-3 decision delivered by Justice Byron White, the court labeled the shooting a â€Å"seizure† under the Fourth Amendment. This allowed the court to determine whether the act was â€Å"reasonable† when taking into account a â€Å"totality of the circumstances.† The court considered several factors. First, the court focused on whether Garner posed a threat to the officers. He was unarmed and fleeing when an officer shot him. Justice White wrote: â€Å"Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so.† The court was careful to include in its majority opinion that deadly force may be constitutional if a fleeing suspect is armed and poses a significant threat to officers or those around him. In Tennessee v. Garner, the suspect did not pose a threat. The court also looked to police department guidelines across the country and found that the long-term movement has been away from the rule that deadly force may be used against any fleeing felon, and that remains the rule in less than half the States.† Finally, the court considered whether its ruling would prohibit officers from effectively accomplishing their jobs. The Justices concluded that preventing officers from using deadly force against an unarmed, fleeing suspect would not meaningfully disrupt police enforcement. There was no proof that the threat of deadly force increased the effectiveness of policing. Dissenting Opinion Justice O’Connor was joined by Justice Rehnquist and Justice Burger in her dissent. Justice OConnor focused on the crime Garner was suspected of, noting that there is a strong public interest in preventing burglaries. Justice OConnor wrote: The Court effectively creates a Fourth Amendment right allowing a burglary suspect to flee unimpeded from a police officer who has probable cause to arrest, who has ordered the suspect to halt, and who has no means short of firing his weapon to prevent escape.† OConnor argued that the majoritys ruling actively impeded officers from enforcing the law. According to OConnor, the majoritys opinion was too broad and failed to provide officers a means of determining when deadly force is reasonable. Instead, the opinion invited a second-guessing of difficult police decisions. The Impact Tennessee v. Garner subjected the use of deadly force to Fourth Amendment analysis. Just as an officer must have probable cause to search someone, they must have probable cause to fire on a fleeing suspect. Probable cause is limited to whether an officer reasonably believes that the suspect is an immediate threat to the officer or the surrounding public. Tennessee v. Garner set a standard for how courts handle police shootings of suspects. It provided a uniform way for courts to address the use of deadly force, asking them to decide whether a reasonable officer would have believed the suspect to be armed and dangerous. Sources Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985)

Analyse How Christian Religious Practices Influence the...

Analyse how Christian religious practices influence the lives of adherents. In your answer, refer to baptism. â€Å"Christianity has developed into a highly ritual-filled tradition and many of its significant practices are acts of public worship associated with the sacraments.† – Living Religion, 4th edition pg. 266. Ever since its inception, Christianity has been epitomised by a range of religious practices that explore the sacred beliefs that have been upheld and spread around the world. These practices thus continue to bear a significant influence over the lives of adherents and how they seek to express their faith in Christianity. One such religious practice is that of baptism which functions as a significant milestone in the life of any†¦show more content†¦Baptism has many inextricable ties to the beliefs that are held so very tightly by the Christian church and its adherents. It is one of the many traditions of the faith that seeks to express aspects of the religion that are essential to its practice. Baptism is linked to beliefs about: spiritual rebirth through Christ who seeks to cleanse and purify each individual from their sins, admission into the Christian Church and its mission, faith in the Holy Trinity, particularly in the power of the Holy Spirit which seeks to bring know ledge of God to the world as well as the need for salvation from eternal damnation as emphasised in Lewis Sperry Chafer’s book Major Bible Themes which states that: â€Å"...baptism when practiced can be no more than an expression of faith and the hope...that the child will ultimately be saved.† Baptism also highlights the Christian beliefs based on faith and repentance-reconciling with God and accepting one’s role as His son/daughter, participation in the life, death and resurrection of Christ by being able to partake in celebrating His sacrifice for mankind, and finally the forgiveness of sins- turning towards a life filled with God’s guidance and righteous presence. Baptism is often understood to symbolise the resurrection of Christ-the revival of the sinner to a life of righteousness. Romans 6:3-11: â€Å"Do you not know that all ofShow MoreRelatedRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 PagesCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edmonds, Ennis Barrington. Rastafari : from outcasts to culture bearers / Ennis Barrington Edmonds. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513376-5 1. Rastafari movement. 2. Jamaica—Religious life and customs. I. Title. BL2532.R37 E36 2002 299†².676—dc21 2002074897 v To Donnaree, my wife, and Donnisa, my daughter, the two persons around whom my life revolves; and to the ancestors whose struggles have enabled us to survive and

Observation of social situation Essay Example For Students

Observation of social situation Essay While systematically observing a social situation for approximatly one week, I have observed some common patterns of interaction and have rendered some possible explanations for these patterns of behavior. While there were some irregular observations, most of the behavior was consistent with that of my hypotheses. My research question involves the behavior of males versus females in the setting of a workout room or gym. I hyptohesized that males are more likely to interact with each other than females are, and males are more likely to use weights than females, while females are more likely to utilize aerobic activity machines more than males. All of these hypothesis will be further supported within the basis of my My basic observation technique included using qualitative research methods and concentrating on how people interacted with each other, how they themselves acted , and how other people reacted to them. This included using the participant observation technique where the researcher participates in the activities of the unit under study. All of my observations took place in both the Bream Wright Hauser weight room and the ________________ workout room. I chose to observe both of these locations because of the varitey of people who could be observed and the type of people who used both of these facilities. In the Bream Wright Hauser weight room, there are three step machines, and a bike located along the left wall, and the whold right side of the room includes weight machines to work various parts of the body. In the middle of the room and to the back are the free weights and weight benches. This room includes mostly weights and very few aerobic machines. In the______________ weight room, however, there are very few weight and an abundance of aerobic machines. One small corner contains weights and the rest of the room includes several step machines, bikes, and other aerobic machines. One observation which I noticed was that while the Bream Wright Hauser room included predominatly males with a few females, including myself, the ____________room comtained all women and no men. I think this is owed to the contents of the room. Even in Bream Wright Hauser, the small number of women tended to use the aerobic machines. This leads me to one observation that the women are much more likely to use the aerobic machines than men. Also, because there was not a single man in the ___________room, I also concluded that men tend to utilize the weights much more frequently than the aerobic machines. The situation which I observed is located on the Gettysburg College campus in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The participants include men and women in the age range of approximatly 18 23 who constitute a social aggregate. The number of participants vary from night to night and depending on the time of the day in which the observation is taken. The characteristics of the participants also vary but include both men and women from mostly middle class, white backgrounds who come together for the common goal of physical fitness. The patterns of interaction which I observed basically coinsided with the statements in Bibliography: .

Psychology Class free essay sample

Life span perspective helps us to know about other people and developmental nature and changes during their lifetime. It focuses on how individual process and carry out the movement and evolution throughout their lives along with the change. Lifespan perspective is multidirectional and development is also multidimensional. Life span perspective is not unidirectional and is focused on the experience, observation and experiment. Human development is plastic in nature and its main characteristics are development and change (Berger, 2008). There are two theories of lifespan perspective development: 1. Erik Erikson’s theory 2. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Both of these theories focus towards the internal drives and crisis due to management and internal conflicts. Freud treated his patients and discovered that their problem were as the outcomes of experiences they had in their early life (Berger, 2008). He analyzed that as children proceed further in their developmental stage, their focus drifts from mouth to the anus and then finally to the genitals. We will write a custom essay sample on Psychology Class or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Freud in his theory discovered the three most important stages in development of a child including oral, phallic and anal and are characterized by taking an erotic nature. The initial stage is oral stage which focuses on the mouth. During initial childhood time, the anal become the erotic center while during the preschool year’s penis and phallic stage is the erotic center. He also states that phallic stage produces envy in girls and pride in boys. He concluded that reaction of their parents to child erotic drives create a deep and ever-lasting effect on the lifelong development and the personality of an individual (Berger, 2008). According to Feud, first and foremost motivation for behavior of a human being is sexual in nature however Erikson theory accepts the reason behind it to be social and shows a desire to affiliate with other human being. Freud theory focuses that our basic personality is molded during the early five years of life but Erikson theory states that, developmental change can occur in short stages all along the life span of an individual. Freud gives early experience more priority than later experience while Erikson laid more importance to both later as well as the experiences that occur in the early stages of life. In Erikson’s theory, he considered life as eight stages of development. At every stage, a unique and rare task of development is being faced by the individual with a crisis which must be faced and solved (Berger, 2008). The more successfully an individual resolve the crisis, the healthier their development will be. Erik Erikson’s theory focuses on how parental response, society, cultural patterns and history alters the stages of growth during childhood development. He also focuses on the exchange of development in human psyche in childhood and its social influence. He had a strong belief that psychological crisis enhances the development and growth all along the eight important stages of development. Heredity and environment has a great effect on the development. They influence the individuals from birth throughout their life time (Berger, 2008). They both constantly influence on development. There are various ways in which individuals are affected by environment. Environment and gene are related to each other. In human being have gene in their DNA which gets affected by the environment. If there is no gene, then there is no behavior and without an environment, none of the gene is able to express. Berger’s theory states that nature is something that is focused on the traits which are being inherited and nurture refers to external affects which influence the individual from the birth of an individual and throughout his lifespan (Berger, 2008). The interaction of nurture and nature both have an influence on the individual. The exchange of initial experiences and various experience and situation along with worldly accepted tendencies of culture and whole human race come together to create dynamic nature of the individual. Biological and genetic situations also have a deeper effect on an individual (Kempler, 2001). According to Berger, genes plays an important role as it affects every stage of human behavior including cognitive and social behavior, influence of environment on children which live in same home are not shared. So, both environmental influence and intrinsic states modify and affect the development. The genetics exchange along with the surrounding predicts the way of changes occur and the way by which these changes affect the individual and affect its development. So, heredity and environment play an important role in one’s life span development. References Berger, K. S. (2008). The developing person through the life span (7th ed. ). New York: Worth Publishers Kempler, B. (2001). Jung Society of Atlanta Resilience of the Human Spirit. Jung Society of Atlanta Provides fellowship amp; education relating to the work of Carl Jung. Retrieved December 16, 2010, from http://www. jungatlanta. com/resilience. html