Tennessee Vs Garner Research Paper
Tennessee v. Garner
The landmark case of Tennessee v. Garner took place in 1985 in Memphis, Tennessee. One evening in October of 1974, an officer who had responded to a burglary in progress call, shot an unarmed 15 year old boy named Edward Garner who was running away from him. The boy had in fact stolen ten dollars “and some jewelry from an unoccupied house” (Criminal investigation, 2013, p. 246). As the officer shouted at his back for him to stop, he attempted to flee by jumping a fence. At this time, the officer whose weapon was believed to already be drawn, shot the teen, fatally wounding him. He died that night at the hospital during surgery from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
This case called for the Supreme Court to rule that police “may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead” (Criminal investigation, …show more content…
Just months ago, an unarmed man was killed by an officer in Charleston, South Carolina as he ran away from him. The officer fired multiple rounds hitting the man at least 7 times, killing him. In my opinion, because the man was older than the officer, had not committed a violent crime, nor was he trying to harm the officer, he did not pose much of a threat in this occurrence. It has become more and more common for this to happen.
Initially, no charges were brought against the officer for this incident. Edward Garner’s father then filed a claim with the Federal District Court with no success. They had affirmed the decision that the officer had acted in good faith and within reason. The dissenting opinion of the Court was that the officer had done no wrong and acted rationally under the statute of the state and the departmental policy. The majority opinion was that the 4th Amendment had been violated because the reasonableness of the officers action could not be validated as no harm had been attempted on
The landmark case of Tennessee v. Garner took place in 1985 in Memphis, Tennessee. One evening in October of 1974, an officer who had responded to a burglary in progress call, shot an unarmed 15 year old boy named Edward Garner who was running away from him. The boy had in fact stolen ten dollars “and some jewelry from an unoccupied house” (Criminal investigation, 2013, p. 246). As the officer shouted at his back for him to stop, he attempted to flee by jumping a fence. At this time, the officer whose weapon was believed to already be drawn, shot the teen, fatally wounding him. He died that night at the hospital during surgery from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
This case called for the Supreme Court to rule that police “may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead” (Criminal investigation, …show more content…
Just months ago, an unarmed man was killed by an officer in Charleston, South Carolina as he ran away from him. The officer fired multiple rounds hitting the man at least 7 times, killing him. In my opinion, because the man was older than the officer, had not committed a violent crime, nor was he trying to harm the officer, he did not pose much of a threat in this occurrence. It has become more and more common for this to happen.
Initially, no charges were brought against the officer for this incident. Edward Garner’s father then filed a claim with the Federal District Court with no success. They had affirmed the decision that the officer had acted in good faith and within reason. The dissenting opinion of the Court was that the officer had done no wrong and acted rationally under the statute of the state and the departmental policy. The majority opinion was that the 4th Amendment had been violated because the reasonableness of the officers action could not be validated as no harm had been attempted on