Court rejects death penalty for raping children

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court says the law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in cases of child rape violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.

There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday also cut the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.

The court ruled that victims of the worst oil spill in U.S. history may collect punitive damages from Exxon Mobil Corp., but not as much as a federal appeals court determined.

Justice David Souter wrote for the court that punitive damages may not exceed what the company already paid to compensate victims for economic losses, about $500 million compensation.

Exxon asked the high court to reject the punitive damages judgment, saying it already has spent $3.4 billion in response to the accident that fouled 1,200 miles of Alaska coastline.

A jury decided Exxon should pay $5 billion in punitive damages. A federal appeals court cut that verdict in half.

Comments

[andyboy]

Fry the scum. All of 'em. From any serious assault like rape or violence resulting in bodily injury up to murder.

Animals don't care if they go to prison.

[rcozad]

Odd juxtaposition of decisions, No death penalty as that would be a disproportionate response to rape, but yes to housing a gun to kill some one to protect property! What a country!

[Boris]

Ah, so we are all in favor of the death penalty for a child rapist....here after known as the
'kill the children' law. Man, there are some stupid people out there. This is one of the few recent SCOTUS decision I can live with. It is illogical to think that the death penalty for child rape will save one child from a brutal murder.

[Mort]

They should ask the parents of the victimized child whether or not capital punishment is appropriate.

[jhamm1]

Try asking me, as I've been there, having lost my viriginity at the untimely age of 3, in which case I say under no circumstances do such actions merit the death penalty.

[broilinginhouston]

Or maybe they should ask the victims, twenty years later, once their views on capital punishment have matured. By executing the rapist, you pretty much remove "forgiveness" from the victim's options for psychological progress. While I'd concede this isn't important for most victims, it would be for some, especially when the rapist is a relative.

[bgregs]

No, because they are going to not be in their right minds! I know that I wasn't, and would have asked for the death penalty (or tried to kill the men with my bare hands) and I would have been WRONG to do so!!

[JohnShank]

Your choice bgregs, but it was WRONG of the son of a bitch to do it to you or anyone in the first place. Those who do this should be killed!

[CEDobson]

Wanted to make a point - This is the gist of a story I just read on on CNN today:

"An inmate at the Tomoka Correctional Institution was quickly transferred to the Florida State Prison on Thursday after officials said he raped and killed a prison guard."

This is what happens to rapists who go to prison. Their animalistic instincts as non-human perverts still prevail and we just lost a guard doing his duty. If that man had been put to death for the crime he had committed of sexual battery and kidnapping, that man would be at home with his wife and kids right now enjoying life.

So doing life in prison doesn't stop these animals either.

[rcozad]

If he was a priest they would transfer him to a new parish

[CEDobson]

LOLOLOL - in an absolutely too true for words, sick kinda laugh

[mommamia526]

One could reason in different ways. What is a person? Is it the body, or is it the soul and spirit? After all, body is just matter. So, if a person is not just matter, but soul and spirit what would rape of an innocent child do to the soul and spirit of the child? Would it be death of this child's soul and spirit? In that case would it, indeed, be murder? So, if capital punishment only applies to murder, would we have a case then? Why is this offender allowed more leeway than the victim? Why do we need to protect men sothat they will continue their ugly deeds? We have not one victim, we have now a society where children are being used in trafficking. I think the Supreme Court missed the boat here.

[jhamm1]

Maybe. Unforuntately, until we can establish a tangible criteria for evaluating the effects of one's soul and spirit, it will remain a subjective phenomenon which is no basis for determining the severity of a crime.

[UnknownSoldier]

And McCain and Bush want Drill for Oil off the California, New Jersey, and Florida Coast. Imagine what happens to the economies in those states if a 1200 mile Exxon Oil spill occurs. The people in those states have already spoken they do not want Drilling off their coast, but if Bush and McCain are so sure they want that, then put it on a voter refrendum.

[gonavy]

I live in CA, and I want drilling NOW.

[Redrover666]

What in the hell does this have to do with the story here?

[JohnShank]

Well I guess it means that Bush shouldn't drill in Alaska or Calif. and pedophiles shouldn't drill little kids.

[rzan1]

These people are sadly afflicted. They neede to be chemically castrated and separated from the rest of society permanently,.

[UnknownSoldier]

Children are any societies most defenseless citizens, and it is my opinon that the Rape of Child is a defenseless crime and warrants an extreme punishment. If children grow up in a society where they are not safe from Sexual Predators then that society will not have normal children whom will in turn become abnormal adults fostering in an abnormal society. The best way to deal with SERIOUS problems and this is a SERIOUS problem is to get rid of it, not sweep it under the rug (Life in Prison).

For those who are opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances please come up with an alternative other than Life in Prison. What type of society produces people that have to be imprisoned for LIFE

[Redrover666]

I am a right of center Independent and agree with nearly every single thing you have said. I used to be very anti-death penalty. However after witnessing one story after another on death penalty sentences being carried out, I changed my mind.

The whole system is geared towards ensuring the maximum comfort and ease in death to a piece of crap that committed a crime so heinous, we wanted to kill his ass.

Death is too damned good for them. Going sleepy-by, just isn't punishment enough. They ought to be kept alive as long as possible, eat bread and water and die when they're 95 while making big rocks into little ones 18 hours a day.

[bgregs]

Of course it's easy on the criminal. It MUST be, otherwise we are unable to convince ourselves that it's NOT about revenge, when that's ALL that it's EVER been about!

[bgregs]

There are proper therapies out there, which, when coupled with an actual rehabilitation of criminals (rather than simply putting them in a box with other criminals for several years, then releasing them to the population with new ideas, and no other opportunities) are actually quite successful. Furthermore, most of those who would rape a child are not going to repeat (the numbers are less than 10%) unless they are the type who are serial rapists who will rape anything that moves.....

And for what it's worth, I am a liberal, I am opposed to the death penalty (both because it's not effective at preventing crime, and because I don't like the state saying "You can't do this act, and if you do, we will do it back to you!") and my own 12 year old daughter was raped by two guys who just happened to be around. I would NOT have supported the death penalty for them, though I will admit that I was angry enough at the time that I would have killed them myself if I'd ever seen them!

[CEDobson]

bgregs:

I am truly sorry for your daughter in many ways. I wish her every happiness and well being spiritually.

I hope one day she can articulate to you the fear she has experienced through her youth in thinking these "two guys that just happened to be around" might come back, and what that fear has done to her psyche. I wonder what type of "proper therapy" they have received since this incident. I also wonder what you would do with these people other than "putting them in a box with other criminals."

You see, I have one of those "actual rehabilitation" programs right in my neighborhood, despite years of protest. There are no children playing in their yards anymore. No more going for walks down the street. We have had to change our lives to accommodate these animals. A child went missing, the pedophile captured that lived in that "actual rehabilitation program." He wasn't a "serial rapist." He is a serial pedophile whose crimes will get worse and worse as his addiction continues.

You seem like an intelligent man, and I appreciate your passion for humanity, but there is a time when you need to realize that these people are not human. They are rodents - rats that need to be exterminated.

[JohnShank]

Does prison prevent crime? And killing a scumbag jackass who rapes and murders children isn't the same as the act that the scumbag perpetrated upon a child that has done them no harm.

[JohnShank]

ARE YOU HIGH??? The rate of recidivism for pedophiles is north of 75%!! There are no therapies or rehabilitations that work.

And there sure as hell aren't any therapies or rehabilitation for the children who are killed by one of these scumbags. Nope. No therapies bringing those dead children to life.

So, why does the criminal motherf***er who perpetrated the crime allowed to have a chance at a better life? WHY???????????????????

[gonavy]

You are just wrong. I hope you never have to learn just how wrong you are. I would recommend you read Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker.

[RoloTomassi]

"What type of society produces people that have to be imprisoned for LIFE"

Answer: HUMAN SOCIETY, across the board, in every nation [unless they insist on taking them out back and shooting them].

So, by your logic, all of BushCo [Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, etc.] should be facing the death penalty for the deaths of a multitude of innocent children in Iraq?

If not, then why not?

Is the murder of children by the act of WAR less deserving of a death sentence than raping a child?

[Brooklynindy]

EVERY society produces people that have to be imprisoned for life.

[Boris]

There are only two reasons for extreme penalties for a criminal action.

The first is the belief that the more draconian the punishment, the more likely some people will be deterred from the crime. The second is to extract societal revenge upon the convicted perpetrator.

Ask any criminologist if the severity of punishment deters the criminal and they will say that it doesnt. The only deterrent to crime is the certainty of being caught and certainty of being found guilty.

That being said, I have been reading Huff Post since its beginning and I have come to a really unpleasant conclusion. You people are generally as unsophisticated and stupid as Rush Limbaugh fans. Very few bloggers today have mentioned the victim of the crime of child rape, concentrating, instead, on vengeance on the perpetrator. Assigning a death penalty for child rape is giving a death sentence to the victim. If you cannot see that, your blind desire for revenge has overtaken your logic.

[GeorgeSalt]

"You people are generally as unsophisticated and stupid as Rush Limbaugh fans"

Hear! HEAR!

Then again, what makes you think the two groups are mutually exclusive? I am both amused and bemused by some of the comments I read on this supposedly liberal and progressive blog.

[iranter]

let the kid buy a gun, then shoot the bastard dead. Oh, can't do that, death penalty.

[GeoNorth]

To paraphrase singer song writer Steve Earle, the government works for me. I would not kill anyone for any reason other than self defense. When the government kills someone who is imprisoned and no harm to society, it hurts my spirit. It's not about the criminal, it's about us.

[talldrink]

"I would not kill anyone for any reason other than self defense."

I take it you are a GROWN adult? I don't know that there is such a thing as self defense when you're a child. Are there many 8 year-olds that keep guns under their pillow in case their stepdad decides to rip apart their insides tonight?

An 8 year-old child cannot defend against a 300 lb man. So just because they cannot fight back, their rapist should live? Had the step-father broken into a neighbor's home and raped a full-grown woman who then shot him to death in self-defense, it seems you would have no qualms.

This judgement had nothing to do with adults getting raped, but only helpless children and those who cause internal injuries to them.

[iranter]

i guess you have never met an antisocial human?