Posted on 07/26/2008 11:03:18 AM PDT by areukiddingme1
The Supreme Court ended its term this year by making a mistake in one of its most controversial cases--the case in which it held unconstitutional a Louisiana law authorizing capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12 years of age.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Are you kidding me? I cannot think of a more appropriate punishment for raping a child.
Independent judgment is not the task of the USSC.
The task in the case in question is is the death penalty Cruel and Unusual Punishment for the rape of a child under 12 years of age.
It obviously is not because it has been the legal penalty in a great many states for many years.
to be cut and quartered sounds aptly appropriate.
“This remarkably complete failure to take notice of an obviously relevant federal law quickly became a topic of speculation inside Washington. But more important than why it happened is whether the Court will reconsider the case.”
The court doesn’t revisit a case just because they erred. There is a more heinous failure to recognize federal precedent that has resulted in millions of slaughtered, alive, unborn children. The Roe decision claimed there was no federal ruling where the unborn were recognized as persons, yet just a few months before the Roe decision was supposedly argued, a Federal case was decided in which the unborn were recognized as persons as defined by the Constitution. That precedent is known to the SCOTUS yet they refuse to revisit the Roe decision and subsequent Doe v Bolton decision because it would no doubt embarrass the court which has been the supporter of so many slaughtered alive unborn.
Generally, they kill the victim anyway. So that line of reasoning doesn’t hold water. And they try to hide the evidence no matter.
That presumes the perpetrator thinks he is going to get caught. In this particular case, it was a family member who was doing the raping. Obviously, the death penalty did not deter him from raping the child nor did he kill the child to cover it up.
Incentives or not, people are going to commit crimes and society has the right to mete out justice. In the state of LA, the state decided that the death penalty was the appropriate punishment for this crime. SCOTUS in essence declared it cruel and unusual punishment. So if LA now declares that life imprisonment with no parole is the proper punishment, do you think that this will also act as an "incentive" for the rapist to kill the child? Where do you draw the line on punishment so the rapist no longer has the "incentive" to kill the child? Is this the way we should determine what the punishment should be for this crime and other crimes?
You get the death penalty for murder too.
Now the fact that children lie or can be coerced is a different argument.
I disagree with your reasoning. As I understand it, the perverts who commit this crime look at their actions very differently than healthy people do. At least for most of them, killing the child would spoil the experience, and they don't expect to get caught in any case.
Penalties for state crimes are an issue for state law, so long as they are consistent with the Constitution of the United States: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." The death penalty is unrelated to bail or fines. Since it's constitutional for murderers, a fact so obvious that even the Supreme Court eventually admitted its truth, then it cannot violate the prohibition on cruel punishments. If it's the standard punishment for those who rape children in Louisiana, then it's not unusual in the legal sense. The Court should have stayed out of the issue.
I understand your point, but I think, IMHO, that if they have done it once, they will do it twice...and so on and so on.
I could only imagine the horror that that child and that child’s parents had to endure.
I’m positive, again, IMHO, that most fathers would love to personally carry out the justice required in this particular situation.
You seem like someone that would appreciate this Hank Williams Jr., song (similar subject) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktq7JaXszqo
What is the point of having a court system if judges don’t do anything anyway? All they do is find excuses for letting criminals go.
“All they do is find excuses for letting criminals go.”
That is my fear as a parent - the more liberal the judicial system becomes the concerned I am, seriously, where do honest, hard working, law abiding citizens go for protection and justice if we can’t find in our legal system. Scary.
Is there for congress to overturn this ?
Is there anyway for congress to overturn this ?
“Is there anyway for congress to overturn this?”
Not sure if that is a serious question or not?
Is there anything a Pelosi lead congress will do?
No, Congress does not have the power to overturn decisions made by the Supreme Court.
Given the miserable state of the penal system, which lets criminals out’on good behavior’ and other absurdities, frying a child rapist would act as a certain deterrent in that perps case for sure. I say put them into the dust of the ground ‘for the sake of future at risk children’.
The Bill of Rights are amendments to the Constitution whereby specific rights of the people were deemed to be so important that they ought to be specifically enumerated, Amendment IX pointing out that the people retain rights that have not been enumerated as well.
Congress has not the power to overturn a decision by the Court, only an amendment could do this. Now, this DOES involve Congress, an amendment must be proposed and passed by 2/3 majority in each house, along with approval of 3/4 of the States legislatures in order to ratify it. The approval of Congress can be by-passed by the States, ie. the People, calling for a Constitutional Convention -- this would open up the Constitution to all manner of excises and deletions by those with ill agenda, not recommended.
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