June 25, 2008

From the records of the US Supreme Court http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-343.pdf

Louisiana charged petitioner Patrick Kennedy, 43, in 2003 for the aggravated rape of his then-8 year-old stepdaughter. He was convicted and sentenced to death under a state statute authorizing capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12. The State Supreme Court affirmed. Reasoning that children are a class in need of special protection, the state court held child rape to be unique in terms of the harm it inflicts upon the victim and society and concluded that, short of first-degree murder, there is no crime more deserving of death.
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The US Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment, bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death.
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A review of the authorities informed by contemporary norms, including the history of the death penalty for this and other non-homicide crimes, current state statutes and new enactments, and the number of executions since 1964, demonstrates a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape.

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Is this what the people want? Kennedy (the rapist, not Justice Kennedy), destroyed the soul of an eight-year old child who now has a life-sentence of her own. Do we really care more about the monsters among us than the victims of horrific crimes? Are we, thereby, becoming monsters ourselves?

Please consider and comment, if you will.