Posted on 03/29/2006 8:38:04 AM PST by Abathar
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The South Carolina Senate has given preliminary approval to a bill that authorizes the death penalty for twice-convicted child rapists.
The proposal approved Tuesday still needs a final reading before going on to the House.
It would authorize prosecutors to seek capital punishment for any sex offender convicted twice of raping children younger than 11.
The plan is part of a larger bill that would set minimum sentences for sex offenders and require lifetime electronic monitoring for some of them.
Opponents said the measure would be unconstitutional. But the U. S. Supreme Court declined to review a Louisiana law that allows the death penalty for people who rape children younger than 12. Currently, murder is the only crime in South Carolina eligible for the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1977 Georgia case involving an adult victim that sentencing someone to death for rape was unconstitutional.
State Sen. Jake Knotts, chief backer of the South Carolina bill, said criminals who rape children don't belong on earth.
A bad idea. This will provide every reason to kill the child.
An excellent point.
Exactly.
What, in 25 to 30 years? Yeah, I've seen how the death penalty is enforced in this nation. Repeat child rapists much be shaking in their boots. Or perhaps laughing their arses off.
Thsi would be great if I thought the perp would be fried within three years of the sentence being handed down.
I agree with you. Why limit it to repeat offenders?
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN.
I just bet the problem goes down real fast in SC if this is passed.
I fully expect the ACLU to pick the wrong side of this one.
Don't execute them. We can just relocate them in an address near you.
Most child rapists I have known and that numbers in the hundreds would be terrified if they thought they would be put to death. Believe me, they do it because it's so easy and there is such a small penalty to pay in most cases.
A child kept alive could identify the rapist. Then he would get the death penalty. We need to deal with this horrific cancer by keeping these people in jail with no chance of parole, or whatever sentence more intelligent people than I deem appropriate.
won't pass the "cruel and unsual" constitutional test...
There.
"A bad idea. This will provide every reason to kill the child."
What part of REPEAT do the knee kerk Leftist not understand? That is beyond a doubt one of the dumbest rationalizations I have ever heard. A person raping children is all ready escalated their violence beyond anything we can tolerate as a society. Dead criminals never repeat offend. That is a 100% surety unlike your fantasy "but maybe it will cause the to kill the child" line. Maybe it will, Maybe it will not. Your claim is a statment of opinion, not fact. Please have the decency to not to state you emotional opinons as if they were facts. They are not facts. Your rational for opposing this is just a emotionally hysteric effort to manufacture a rational, based on preconcived "moral" or emotional grounds to oppose an obvious, morally just and intelligence solution
What a smart alec response. I care very much about this problem and went to great pains to protect my child as she grew up. But I don't think that this is a solution that would protect children. It can help project society's anger at what child rapists are doing, but it doesn't protect children IMHO. And that's what we need to do.
You don't get it.
If they're going to go to death row for raping a child, then they might as well just kill the child then. This is a bad decision by SC.
"This will provide every reason to kill the child".
If not the death penalty, at LEAST life in prison with no possibility of parole. We've been trying to "rehabilitate" these vermin for too long. Once the punishment for this abominable crime becomes swift and severe, there will be less of it.
Most child rapists I have known and that numbers in the hundreds ....
You must have a job that breaks your heart on a weekly if not daily basis.
The death penalty hasn't been a deterrent for many years, because the appeal delays often take up to 30 years to play out.
If it were applied with one year (and televised on CATV during primetime), it might have some pronounced effect. Personally, I think they should be head-shot immediately after conviction; no appeals.
Sigh. I know, I know; I'm preaching to the choir.
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