Posted on 06/04/2007 4:36:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
On the morning of March 2, 1998, a loser named Patrick Kennedy brutally raped his wife’s eight-year-old daughter.
Afterward, Kennedy called 911 and told the dispatcher that two black boys had raped the girl in the yard. Likely under threat by the rapist, she confirmed Kennedy’s story.
The child’s injuries were extensive. According to the opinion, the victim’s “predominate injury was vaginal with profuse bleeding. Her entire perineum was torn and her rectum protruded into her vagina.” Dr. Scott Benton, who testified at the trial, said the girl’s injuries “were the most serious he had seen, within his four years of practice, that resulted from a sexual assault.”
Police suspected Kennedy was lying from the beginning. Their suspicions were confirmed after learning that he’d called his employer before calling 911, said he wouldn’t be able to come to work, and asked how to get blood out of white carpet. His wife’s daughter had “just become a young lady,” he reportedly said.
Kennedy was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to death. He asked for a new trial on the grounds that a death sentence for rape in which the victim survives was unconstitutional, but the motion was denied. Kennedy appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Last month, the court upheld Kennedy’s death sentence. Download the 128-page opinion and appendix in PDF, State of Louisiana v. Patrick Kennedy.
Before 1977, aggravated rape was punishable by death in Louisiana. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that capital punishment for raping an adult woman was cruel and unusual. In 1995, Louisiana brought back the death penalty for rape but limited it to the rape of a child under 12.
Allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for child rapists seems to be gaining ground. At least four other states – Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina – have added the death option to their versions of “Jessica’s Law,” named for Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old child raped and buried alive in Florida by a man with prior sex crime convictions.
Under the Florida law, a defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and lifetime electronic monitoring for “lewd or lascivious acts” committed against a child under 12. Committing sexual battery or raping a child under 12 is a capital offense in that state. If convicted, a pedophile faces only two possibilities: death or life in prison with no chance of parole. The governor of Texas has promised to sign a similar bill with a death penalty option into law.
Will sentencing child rapists to death deter future child rapes? Of course not, but deterrence isn’t the only reason to mete out the death penalty.
The concept of retributive justice underpins our nation’s criminal laws. In our pampered, politically correct, psycho-babbling society, we’ve forgotten that criminals must be punished – not merely removed from society or rehabilitated – and punishing criminals is just, whether or not punishment deters future crimes.
Our government is charged with protecting citizens and punishing lawbreakers, and perverts who hurt the most vulnerable citizens should receive harsh punishment. Man’s idea of harsh punishment, however, pales in comparison to God’s. One day each of us will face the ultimate Judge. I hope Kennedy and other child rapists suffer for all eternity in the deepest bowels of hell.
But then again, I harbor a politically incorrect bias against child rapists.
La Shawn Barber is a freelance writer and Townhall.com book reviewer who blogs at www.lashawnbarber.com.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
With that said though, in a case like the one mentioned here I think death is probably a little too generous. If it were left up to me the guy would take six months to die. I don't think it's possible for him to suffer too much.... I say .. whatever you've got, he should get a dose of it.
I am with you 100 percent
Will sentencing child rapists to death deter future child rapes?
It may not deter first time offenders but it will certainly deter second time offenders.
Excellent!
The author is right. The death penalty will not necessarily prevent others from doing the same, but considering the number of repeat offenders out there, it will certainly reduce the number of victims of this kind of crime because the guy will not ever have the opportunity to do it again.
If they can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the rapist is guilty (DNA), then I totally agree with you. Plus it should be carried out quickly, no appeals and years of putting it off.
And death should be the SECOND thing that happens to him.
Where/how would we stop the slide - jay walking?
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Traditionally there are three crimes that earned the death penalty.
1st degree murder
Rape
Kidnapping
Of course this was back in the old days when true men had stones and the lawyers hadn’t taken over the world.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
“Man’s idea of harsh punishment, however, pales in comparison to God’s. One day each of us will face the ultimate Judge.”
This is an excellent point. You really made me think here.
Mankind sees execution, torture, or lifelong imprisonment as the ultmate punishments we can imagine. But Hell is far, far worse. It is, in fact, a long, drawn-out form of execution, torure and lifelong imprisonment that never ends, but only grows worse and worse.
The threat of certain death is a huge behavior motivator. And if these rapists knew that today’s forensic science and a certain death penalty gave them little chance to get away with rape, they would not only think twice, they would also seek help.
Thanks for this great point.
To me, a death sentence for a child rapist is not as much punishment as it is prevention.
True, God will administer the ultimate punishment.
The death penalty is the ultimate ‘one strike’ policy. If this person is indeed executed, it will be interesting to see the number of child rapes committed in Louisiana, as compared to other states. I am so sick of hearing the lie, repeated as fact, that “the death penalty is not a deterrent.”
Not only is retribution a factor, but I don’t want my taxes paying to keep this scum fed and housed, it’s as bad as being forced to pay for other’s abortions. A short surge of electricity is a more legitimate use of taxes. I wish I knew the chapter and verse, but Jesus once said it would be better for someone that a stone is tied around his neck and thrown into the sea, than he should harm a child. So when liberals inevitably say “What would Jesus do? He’d forgiveâ€, they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
“Will sentencing child rapists to death deter future child rapes?”
YES. The rapist being executed will never commit another rape.
Death to ALL rapists. And since rape should be a death penalty, death to all false acusers of rape, ie Duke!
Traditionally speaking, in 1700s Britain, there were 222 crimes which were punishable by death, including crimes such as cutting down a tree or stealing an animal.
Similar laws applied in colonial America. In Boston, a 12 year old was hanged for stealing a pair of shoes with silver buckles.
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