Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so.
Byron WhiteRead
The risk of racial prejudice infecting a capital sentencing proceeding is especially serious in light of the complete finality of the death sentence.
Interpretation
Racial bias can severely impact death penalty decisions, highlighting the irreversible consequences of such judgments.
Byron White emphasizes the grave danger that racial prejudice poses in capital sentencing. Given that a death sentence is irreversible, the potential for bias calls into question the integrity and fairness of these proceedings, making it crucial to address and eliminate such prejudices within the judicial system.
In practice
During a discussion on criminal justice reform, this quote can highlight the need for sensitivity to racial issues.
Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so.
To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way effected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law.
The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed.
The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.
A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government.
Sports constantly make demands on the participant for top performance, and they develop integrity, self-reliance and initiative. They teach you a lot about working in groups, without being unduly submerged in the group.
If we continue to tell ourselves the popular myths about racial progress or, worse yet, if we say to ourselves that the problem of mass incarceration is just too big, too daunting for us to do anything about and that we should instead direct our energies to battles that might be more easily won, history will judge us harshly. A human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch.
And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.
Fill the seats of justice with good men, not so absolute in goodness as to forget what human frailty is.
The power to arrest - to deprive a citizen of liberty - must be used fairly, responsibly, and without bias.
I know that every trial requires fairness and truth. Any trial that abandons the pursuit of truth cannot be considered fair or just.
The legal system is designed to protect men from the superior power of the state but not to protect women or children from the superior power of men. It therefore provides strong guarantees for the rights of the accused but essentially no guarantees for the rights of the victim. If one set out by design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one could not do better than a court of law.
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