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39 Mitchell Hamline L. J. Pub. Pol'y & Prac. 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/hplp39 and id is 1 raw text is: Shah: Licensed to Kill? An Analysis of the Standard for Assessing Law E MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW JOURNAL OF PUBLIC POLICY AND PRACTICE VOLUME 39 SPRING 2018 © 2018 by Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice LICENSED TO KILL? AN ANALYSIS OF THE STANDARD FOR ASSESSING LAW ENFORCEMENT'S CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR USE OF DEADLY FORCE Raoul Shah I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 II. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON POLICE USE OF FORCE LAWSUITS ......... 4 A. Tennessee v. Garner: The Beginning ............................................... 5 B. Graham v. Connor: Elaborating Reasonableness ...................... 8 C. Jumping Forward: M ullenix v. Luna ............................................... 10 D. Clarifying Qualified Immunity: Pauly v. White ............................... 13 III. DIFFERENTIATING CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS FROM CIVIL LAWSUITS AND DEFENSES TO CRIMINAL CHARGES ............................................. 16 A. Separating Criminal and Civil Law .................................................. 16 B. Justification Defenses in Criminal Prosecutions ............................. 18 1. Self-D efense .......................................................................... . . 19 2. D efense of O thers ..................................................................... 21 3. Public Authority Justification ................................................ 22 IV. ANALYZING POLICE OFFICER'S CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR USE OF DEADLY FORCE ......................................................................................... 26 V. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 29 I. INTRODUCTION Criminal charges are rare, almost non-existent, for those who are licensed to kill. Those cases that are charged rarely result in convictions. At common law, police officers were essentially given such a license; they were allowed the use of whatever force was necessary to effect the arrest of a fleeing felon.' The United States Supreme Court imposed some level of restriction on that license by holding that deadly force may not be used unless it is necessary to 1. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 12 (1985). Published by Mitchell Hamline Open Access, 2018