How a Tennessee case forever changed police shootings

Edward Garner fled through the darkness outside a Memphis house one night in 1974, crouching beside a 6-foot chain-link fence. The 15-year-old had $10 and a purse stolen from a nearby home.

"Police, halt," called out Memphis Police Officer Elton Hymon.

The black teen began to climb over the fence. Hymon shot Edward Garner in the back of the head so he could not get away.

And it was justified — for a while.

The shooting prompted a decade of legal battling in courtrooms in Memphis and Tennessee and all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1985 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Tennessee law that allowed police to shoot fleeing suspects for any reason was not constitutional.

The court said shooting a fleeing suspect was a violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable seizure, finding that the shooting was a seizure of a person.

The court said officers must have probable cause to believe a suspect poses a threat of death or injury to the officer or other people in order to use deadly force.

The Memphis shooting became the seminal court case for current standards of why and how police can justifiably use deadly force.

When New York police officers put Eric Garner in a chokehold, when a Ferguson, Mo., police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, when Baltimore police arrested Freddie Gray and he died of a spinal injury, and when a North Charleston, S.C., officer fatally shot Walter Scott, the ruling in Tennessee v. Garner framed the discussion about what penalties — if any — officers should face.

Attorneys involved in the Tennessee case 30 years ago say it came during a time of tension between police and minority communities, similar to what the more recent killings have revived.

"You will note that in any police shooting, in almost every law enforcement shooting now, the police defense is either that the person was posing a danger to (the officer), or to bystanders," said Jerry L. Smith, a former Tennessee assistant attorney general who helped present the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983. "That’s exactly the language that comes from the case."

Smith said the Supreme Court decision came amid sweeping national change in police practices.

The justices noted at the time that many major police and federal agencies had already changed policies to stop use of deadly force against nonviolent suspects. Smith said that he and others argued in support of Tennessee's law because it was their job to do so, not because they believed it was right.

Garner's father, who filed the initial lawsuit, claimed Memphis police violated his son's civil rights. During the case, Steven Winter, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, represented the Garner family.

"The main thing about Garner was there are other things to do besides shoot," said Winter, who now teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. "There are other and better things to do than shoot, and the police have to be better trained to do that."

He said the North Charleston case, which led to the death of Scott earlier this year, was a clear violation of the Supreme Court ruling in Garner's case. The North Charleston police officer, Michael Slager, was indicted on a murder charge in Scott's death. Video shows Slager shooting at Scott as Scott fled a traffic stop.

Christopher Slobogin is a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and director of the school's criminal justice program. He said two studies conducted about the time of Garner's death in 1974 showed black suspects were shot significantly more often than white suspects. Winter cited another study that said the same thing.

Slobogin said the Garner case was the first time the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of police use of deadly force. And although other cases since then have dealt with the topic, he said, Garner's basic ruling remains intact.

Officers must have probable cause to believe a suspect is going to cause harm to the officer or others to justify the use of deadly force. That became an issue last year in Ferguson, Mo., when Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown. Wilson said that he feared for his life because Brown reached for his gun and charged at him. A grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to charge Wilson in Brown's death.

Slobogin said the Ferguson case called into question Missouri's law. The law says officers can use force when crimes have been committed and not necessarily only when there is a threat of further harm.

“Academics and commentators have been discussing whether Garner was violated in that case, and also whether the Missouri statute that is on the books right now is constitutional under Garner," Slobogin said.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.

By the numbers

Metro Nashville police were involved in 61 use-of-force shootings from 2005 to 2014. All officers were found to be compliant with the use of force policy unless noted otherwise. Shootings outside department policy were punished by termination, suspensions and reprimands.

2014: 3, all fatal

2013: 1, non-fatal, not compliant with policy

2012: 6, none fatal

2011: 2, none fatal

2010: 10, 4 fatal

2009: 6, 1 fatal

2008: 4, 1 fatal

2007: 7, 3 fatal

2006: 9, 1 fatal, two not compliant with policy

2005: 13, 3 fatal, two not compliant with policy

Nashville police said force of any kind was used at the following rate per 100 arrests in each of the following years.

2014: 0.77

2013: 0.62

2012: 0.69

2011: 0.84

2010: 0.74

2009: 0.90

2008: 0.98

2007: 1.26

2006: 1.55

2005: 2.33