Posted on 04/13/2008 5:57:13 AM PDT by markomalley
WASHINGTON — There are more than 3,300 people on death row in the United States — but only two of them await execution for crimes that didn't involve murder.
This week, the Supreme Court will consider the case of one of them, Patrick Kennedy, a Louisiana man convicted of raping his 8-year-old step-daughter.
The case comes before the nation's highest court at a time when the justices are becoming increasingly skeptical about the death penalty and willing to curb its use.
Texas and eight other states have intervened in Kennedy's case to urge the Supreme Court to allow the death penalty for child rape. Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who leads the group, will appear before the justices Wednesday to press the views for those states.
In court papers, Cruz argues that capital punishment is warranted in these cases because child rape "is an irreparable crime" that permanently damages "the heart, mind and soul of a young child."
(snip)
Public opposition
Kennedy's lead lawyer, Jeffrey Fisher, argues that the public opposes executing convicted child rapists.
In court papers, Fisher said the public "overwhelmingly ... views capital punishment as excessive punishment for child rape" and argued that there is a "national consensus against such punishment" for crimes other than murder.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
In court papers, Fisher said the public "overwhelmingly ... views capital punishment as excessive punishment for child rape" and argued that there is a "national consensus against such punishment" for crimes other than murder.
Don't know what part of the public Fisher talked to, but it sure wasn't anybody around here...
“..Fisher said the public “overwhelmingly ... views capital punishment as excessive punishment for child rape”..”
What public is that?
The half that votes for demonrats
This is a FEDERAL issue.
Does an individual state legislature have the right as mandated by that state’s electorate to choose this punishment for this offense?
YES (should be the answer).
Someone needs to point out to this smartypants lawyer-man that when a child is raped, the adult that child would have become ceases to exist, and thus falls under the common definition of 'murder'.
There is NO WAY a traumatic event like that wouldn't color a child's days for the rest of his/her life.
But remember you're talking about the Supreme Court. The leftists on the court mostly use their reflexes with no need of using higher brain functions.
I believe in the death penalty for murder, but I wouldn’t support this. The punishment should equal the crime, and taking life is more serious than rape.
I say lock them up and throw away the key, but don’t execute them. Apart from anything else, you aren’t giving much motivation for a child-rapist to keep their victim alive after he’s finished with them, so I think it would be counterproductive to the interests of victims....
Murder and child rape (when proven beyond doubt with scientific, forensic evidence and/or confession from the perp) are crimes for which no other penalty is appropriate.
Kill them, and be quick about it. No lethal injections, no sleepy-time tea with a pill to keep ‘em sleeping forever, start building gallows and hang the sumb!tches by the neck until dead and if they suffer? So be it.
It worked before, it will work again.
Does an individual state legislature have the right as mandated by that state’s electorate to choose this punishment for this offense?
If the legislative branch (the legal representatives of the public) says otherwise, then the official position of the public is that it is appropriate punishment, until they elect representatives who change the law. It is the representatives who express the will of the people, not the pollsters.
Child rapers should be executed rapidly.
If the penalty is no different between rape and murder and rape wouldn’t the perpetrator have better odds of getting away with it if there were no witnesses? The unintended consequence of expanding capital punishment beyond murder is that murders will increase. The perpetrator has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Fisher is making this up from whole cloth. Child rapists are particularly dangerous to society — if released they will rape again. Now I have some issues with the death penalty generally (in particularly I don’t think anyone should be executed based solely on eyewitness testimony absent other forensic evidence due to issues with eyewitness testimony) but saying that the public overwhelming opposes the death penalty in this case is ludicrous.
Absolutely not. Only murder merits the death penalty, and not always then.
No, the unintended consequence of expanding capital punishment beyond murder is that murders MIGHT increase.
You can 'maybe' or 'what-if' until the cows come home, but the fact is that, by not making child rape a capital offense, you give a back-handed legitimacy to the crime.
It's like telling the pervert it's okay to indulge his/her perversion....after all, the punishment isn't all that bad.
“Murder and child rape (when proven beyond doubt with scientific, forensic evidence and/or confession from the perp) are crimes for which no other penalty is appropriate.
Kill them, and be quick about it. No lethal injections, no sleepy-time tea with a pill to keep ‘em sleeping forever, start building gallows and hang the sumb!tches by the neck until dead and if they suffer? So be it.
It worked before, it will work again.”
You are right, of course, but I predict the Supreme Court will rule “the other way” - that is, if there has been no murder, there can be no death penalty. Heck, they won’t even allow the death penalty for ruthless killers who happen to be seventeen or sixteen years of age.
The Louisiana conviction and the law that supported it will be invalidated, and a new trial will be ordered for the defendant.
By the way, your statement about hangin’ that “worked before [and] will work again” is EXACTLY what the now-discredited practice of “lynching” was about, and why the Left is so quick to condemn any image of a “noose” and the implications that go with it. But I daresay there was a time in our history when the “fear of the noose” kept certain [more innately dangerous] portions of our population under greater control than they are now. One needs only to look around in places like Baltimore, Newark and Detroit to see what sparin’ the noose has wrought....
- John
A number of federal and state studies say otherwise; this is actually the group lest likely to re-offend. You're either echoing what you've been told or you're making it up. Check out the studies, you now have the link.
If it's done right there can hardly be said to be any suffering at all involved. Go to Youtube and check out the spate of Nazi war criminal hangings. Very quick and efficient.
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