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From Garner To Graham And Beyond: Police Liability For Use Of Deadly Force — Ferguson Case Study, Kyle J. Jacob Jan 2016

From Garner To Graham And Beyond: Police Liability For Use Of Deadly Force — Ferguson Case Study, Kyle J. Jacob

Chicago-Kent Law Review

On August 9, 2014, an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Just over a year later, the dust has yet to settle. Since that fateful afternoon, tensions between law enforcement and segments of American society seem to have reached a critical mass. Far, far too many tragedies have ensued. The wildfire that is social media has led to a polarization and politicization of what unfortunately seem to have become competing movements. “Black Lives Matter” and “Police Lives Matter” have somehow become competing socio-political battle cries. While …


Evolving Standards Of Domination: Abandoning A Flawed Legal Standard And Approaching A New Era In Penal Reform, Spearit Apr 2015

Evolving Standards Of Domination: Abandoning A Flawed Legal Standard And Approaching A New Era In Penal Reform, Spearit

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article critiques the evolving standards of decency doctrine as a form of Social Darwinism. It argues that evolving standards of decency provided a system of review that was tailor-made for Civil Rights opponents to scale back racial progress. Although as a doctrinal matter, evolving standards sought to tie punishment practices to social mores, prison sentencing became subject to political agendas that determined the course of punishment more than the benevolence of a matur-ing society. Indeed, rather than the fierce competition that is supposed to guide social development, the criminal justice system was consciously deployed as a means of social …