---

• n  mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant

• lenience
• leniency
• mildness

Quotes

---

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Lexology (registration)
  Ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes,Justice Ginsburg explained, quoting a prior Court decision, "should be resolved in favor of lenity."
• Antonin Scalia in FOXNews
  And because of this Justice Scalia wrote "under a long line of our decisions, the tie must go to the defendant. The rule of lenity requires ambiguous criminal laws to be interpreted in favor of the defendants subjected to them."
• Harry Blackmun in CBS News
  His legal reasoning, Blackmun wrote, "is consistent with the relative weights of the respective interests involved, with the lessons and examples of medical and legal history, with the lenity of the common law, and with the demands of the profound...