Office Hymon Case Study

Office Hymon and Wright of the Memphis Police Department on October 3, 1974 responded to a call about a burglary in progress. When Hymon and Wright arrived at the address there was a woman standing in the doorway and told the officers that she had heard the sound of glass breaking next door and as she said finished her words Office Hymon went around the side of the house. When Hymon reached the backyard, he was a person run from the backside of the house. When Hymon reached the backyard he found a person crouched down next to the fence at the back of the yard. Hymon identified himself as a police officer and ordered the man to stop. The younger man ignored the command to halt and proceeded to attempt to jump the fence. Officer Hymon fired his

In August of 1976 the trial was held. At the close of the plaintiffs’ case, the district court granted a motion for a verdict in the favor of the Police Department and the City. Later the court found the remaining defendants on all of the issues. The Sixth Circuit on appeal affirmed the part of the district court 's decision to dismiss the case against each of the individual defendants. The court remanded with respect to the City in the light of Monell v. Department of Social Services, an intervening Supreme Court decision holding that municipalities could become subject to liability under the United States Code, title 42, section 1983. The district court was instructed to consider whether the municipality was entitled to become qualified immunity because its policies had been set in accordance with the state law, and if not, whether the use of deadly force to capture no dangerous fleeing felons was constitutionally permissible. On remand, the district court found that the Tennessee deadly force statute was neither unconstitutional on its face nor as applied. Because the district court found that Garner had not been deprived of any constitutional right, it did not reach the immunity issue. An appeal again was taken to the Sixth Circuit. The appellate court determined that the Tennessee deadly force statute violated the fourth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in March 1984 and recently heard oral