Tennessee v. Garner

Tennessee v. Garner
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 30, 1984 Decided March 27, 1985
Full case name	Tennessee v. Edward Garner, et al.
Citations	471 U.S. 1 (more) 105 S. Ct. 1694; 85 L. Ed. 2d 1; 1985 U.S. LEXIS 195; 53 U.S.L.W. 4410
Case history
Prior	Garner v. Memphis Police Dep't, 710 F.2d 240 (6th Cir. 1983); cert. granted, 465 U.S. 1098 (1984).
Holding
Law enforcement officers pursuing an unarmed suspect may use deadly force to prevent escape only if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	White, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Dissent	O'Connor, joined by Burger, Rehnquist
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. IV

Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), is a civil case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that, under the Fourth Amendment, when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, the officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless "the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others."^[1]

It was found that the use of deadly force to prevent escape is an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment, in the absence of probable cause that the fleeing suspect posed a physical danger.^{[2]: 563–7} Legal scholars have expressed support for this decision stating that the decision had "a strong effect on police behavior" and specifically that it can "influence police use of deadly force."^[3]