lenity

And here I must observe, that the Americans can no longer anticipate lenity from the English traveller, as latterly they have so deeply committed themselves.

Diary in America, Series One Frederick Marryat 1820

But as Demeo told him, tu illum corrumpi sinis, your lenity will be his undoing, praevidere videor jam diem, illum, quum hic egens profugiet aliquo militatum, I foresee his ruin.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

The man who was in the last degree amiable was to the last degree unyielding where conscience was concerned; the soul which was so tender had no weakness in it; his lenity was the divination of a finer justice.

Literary Friends and Acquaintance; a Personal Retrospect of American Authorship William Dean Howells 1878

The colored teachers who present themselves are examined with a great deal of "lenity," -- and some who cannot even spell, are placed in charge of the young.

A North-Side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves, with an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper Canada 1856

It is even good policy to treat prisoners with the greatest lenity which is consistent with their safe-keeping.

The Lectures, Corrected and Improved, which Have Been Delivered for a Series of Years in the ... 1812

Director's Favorite Line: "When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner."

Five Acts in the Summer of the Bard Pia Catton 2011

The opposite of secret laws is openly specified, written down laws, and a strong form of that, which subsumes e.g. the rule of lenity and the prohibition on ambiguous criminal laws, is something like: nobody should be convicted of a crime unless it was unambiguously written in a law, which they could (at least in theory) read, that their behavior was criminal.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Debating Textualism 2010

Despite the conclusions of other courts, the district court determined that, given those statutory construction arguments and the rule of lenity (since the CFAA is also a criminal statute), “authorization” is not exceeded just because the employee breaches her duty of loyalty to an employer.

Archive 2009-02-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

Justice Ginsburg rightly described this as overbroad, and she cited Court precedent that "ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity."

Conrad Black's Revenge 2010

The opposite of secret laws is openly specified, written down laws, and a strong form of that, which subsumes e.g. the rule of lenity and the prohibition on ambiguous criminal laws, is something like: nobody should be convicted of a crime unless it was unambiguously written in a law, which they could at least in theory read, that their behavior was criminal.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Debating Textualism 2010