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Deadly Force : Police Use of Lethal Force in the United States
3. SCOPE & METHODOLOGY This report is primarily based on a state-by-state legislative survey of use of lethal force statutes within the United States. Amnesty International also looked at particularly relevant US Supreme Court and federal court cases,16 Department of Justice Guidelines on the Use of Force, as well as media reports related to police use of lethal force, and available statistical data including data collected by the Center for Disease Control and the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. In reviewing state laws on the use of lethal force the following three issues were reviewed: 1. Does the state have a statute governing the use of lethal force? 2. Does the statute comply with international law and standards on the use of lethal force? 3. Does the statute comply with the lower US constitutional standards on the use of lethal force, as established in the US Supreme Court decision in Tennessee v. Garner? This report is based primarily on a review of each state’s statute on the use of lethal force by law enforcement officials. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive review of all of the issues related to use of lethal force by law enforcement in the United States. This report does not attempt to examine in detail individual cases or the numbers of those killed every year. It only examines state use of lethal force statutes and does not include a review of the state’s broader use of force statutes. Furthermore, it does not examine the relevant case law in each state, which may strengthen or weaken the protections against unlawful use of lethal force. Nor does this report examine the use of lethal force policies and practices that exist in over 18,000 police departments across the country but does recommend that this is something that should be undertaken to ensure that practice by law enforcement agencies complies with the US obligations under international law. Furthermore, this report does not examine the existing oversight and accountability mechanisms that may exist in every state (some aspects of which may be included in other parts of states’ statutes), which is an essential element of ensuring compliance with any law, policy or standard.
TERMINOLOGY In this report, Amnesty International has used the terms “lethal force” to refer to the use of force that is deadly or has the potential to be deadly. As any use of firearms has the potential to be lethal, the term “lethal force” should be read to include the use of firearms, but does not exclude other forms of force that may also cause death. In the United States the term “deadly force” is frequently the terms used to refer to lethal force, in the statutes on the use of lethal force. Amnesty International strives to use language that respects the wishes of the individuals or communities concerned. Recognizing that no single term is universally accepted, Amnesty International has used African American and black throughout this report, particularly if it has been used in studies cited to in this report. This is no way intended to minimize or ignore the complexity or the great diversity of ways in which people identify.
Amnesty International - June 2015
