[WCADP-list] US Supreme Court Says No to Death Penalty for Child Rape

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Court rejects death penalty for raping children


Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of
people convicted of raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty
to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.

"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a
child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four
liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices
dissented.

There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did
not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.

Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old
stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States,
both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not
also accompanied by a killing.

The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the
victim was an adult woman.

Forty-five states ban the death penalty for any kind of rape, and the other
five states allow it for child rapists. Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina
and Texas allow executions in such cases if the defendant had previously
been convicted of raping a child.

The court struggled over how to apply standards laid out in decisions
barring executions for the mentally retarded and people younger than 18 when
they committed murder. In those cases, the court cited trends in the states
away from capital punishment.

In this case, proponents of the Louisiana law said the trend was toward the
death penalty, a point mentioned by Justice Samuel Alito in his dissent.

"The harm that is caused to the victims and to society at large by the worst
child rapists is grave," Alito wrote. "It is the judgment of the Louisiana
lawmakers and those in an increasing number of other states that these harms
justify the death penalty."

But Kennedy said the absence of any executions for rape and the small number
of states that allow it demonstrate "there is a national consensus against
capital punishment for the crime of child rape."

Kennedy also acknowledged that the decision had to come to terms with "the
years of long anguish that must be endured by the victim of child rape."

Still, Kennedy concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals - as
opposed to treason, for example - "the death penalty should not be expanded
to instances where the victim's life was not taken."

The decision does not affect the imposition of the death penalty for other
crimes that do not involve murder, including treason and espionage, he said.



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It's easy to support the death penalty when you don't have all the facts.
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