Tuesday, July 1: Good riddance.
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A little over a year ago, I wrote a Townhall column about a child rapist named Patrick Kennedy. He brutally raped his wife’s eight-year-old daughter. If you’re squeamish, don’t read about the physical damage he caused.
In Louisiana, the rape of a child under 12 is (or was) a capital crime. Kennedy was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to death. His appeal reached the Louisiana Supreme Court, which upheld his death sentence.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that imposing the death penalty for child rape violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. (Source)
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the opinion, “The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child.”
Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “The harm that is caused to the victims and to society at large by the worst child rapists is grave. It is the judgment of the Louisiana lawmakers and those in an increasing number of other states that these harms justify the death penalty.”
Needless to say, I do not agree with the court’s ruling. I believe child rapists should be subject to the death penalty. I’ll have more to say once I track down and read the opinion.
Do you believe child rapists should get the death penalty, whether or not they’ve killed the child?
Update: Commenting on Justice Kennedy’s “proportional punishment” remark, the Independent Conservative writes on his blog (emphasis in original):
“I don’t find this talk of ‘proportional punishment’ in the Constitution and death for a child rapist is not ‘cruel’ or ‘unusual’. Proportional punishment for a rapist would be to have them raped as many times as they had raped someone else. It would have to be done in a manner that knowingly disturbed the rapist’s sensibilities, so they actually felt they were ‘raped’ as they did to their victim.”
Update II (6/26): I found the 65-page opinion (PDF). Check it out.
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