Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty For Child Rape

[HK4U]

Another insane ruling from the Supreme idiots.


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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.

The 5-4 ruling says the Louisiana law violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, quote, "The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child."

Kennedy's four liberal colleagues joined in his opinio, while the four more conservative justices dissented.


There hasn't been an execution in the United States for a crime that didn't also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.

Texas joined the short list of states that sought the death penalty in some child rape cases in 2007. The Legislature approved the death penalty for offenders twice convicted of raping children under 14, although legal experts predicted then it would be unconstitutional.

The bill was a key initiative of Republican Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, who presides over the Texas Senate.

Victim advocates warned that the death penalty could do more harm than good if it prompted perpetrators to kill victims who may be the only witness to the crime.

 

[kwo51]

The rational is maybe the rapest will not kill the child if he gets away. I still think he it should be concendered. Death by hanging is a good reward.

 

[ishi]

The question is, what is the purpose of criminal justice? Is it to punish and take revenge, or is it to protect society? The two aims have very different applications.

Capital punishment isn't an effective deterrent because criminals don't care about consequences. Capital punishment is truly a revenge killing that is sanctioned by the state as a "consolation prize" to the families of victims. It has no real societal benefit over life imprisonment. It does have real drawbacks though. People are falsely convicted of murder, and there's no chance for exoneration after a death sentence has been carried out.

I don't think it's the job of the state to provide revenge for victims and their families. I totally understand the desire for revenge, but that's an emotional reaction. Government policy should be based on something more substantial than that.

 

[toreskha]

I heard some victims' advocates/experts on child sexual abuse who were opposing the death penalty for this. Statistically, the vast majority of incidents, and 99% of the chronic recurring offenses, are from someone the child knows - usually a family member.

Their reasoning is that if there's the possibility of the death penalty, most families will not turn their own in - not only because it's a family member, but also because they don't want to be seen as a "traitor" by other family, and also because they don't want the media attention, which in the end may be worse for the child and everyone else too. The child may tell a relative, but the relative may not tell authorities; they may simply avoid the offender from then on. Or, the child might not tell anyone, as they may be aware of the possible consequences. Since a long prison sentence is better than just letting them roam free, it follows that it's preferable to do that than have everyone clam up with the threat of the death penalty.

I was previously pro-death penalty on the issue of sexual assault of a child, although I have to admit that I didn't actually know anything about the crime itself. Since it seems that this is actually a fairly complex issue, and I'm not an expert on that type of thing, I now realize I was a bit out of my league, so I'm going to remain neutral on it and defer to other, more qualified people.

 

[HK4U]

The question is, what is the purpose of criminal justice? Is it to punish and take revenge, or is it to protect society? The two aims have very different applications.

Capital punishment isn't an effective deterrent because criminals don't care about consequences. Capital punishment is truly a revenge killing that is sanctioned by the state as a "consolation prize" to the families of victims. It has no real societal benefit over life imprisonment. It does have real drawbacks though. People are falsely convicted of murder, and there's no chance for exoneration after a death sentence has been carried out.

I don't think it's the job of the state to provide revenge for victims and their families. I totally understand the desire for revenge, but that's an emotional reaction. Government policy should be based on something more substantial than that.

Capital punishment isn't an effective deterrent because criminals don't care about consequences.

I disagree. Can you name me one person that was ever put to death that repeated the crime again?
Do like the law says in the Old Testament. Take them outside the city gate and "Rock them to sleep".

By the way the only reason criminals do not fear the death penalty is because in our screwed up court system it takes so song for justice to be served.

 

[HK4U]

For those whose hearts bleed for animals that pray upon innocent people I give you the case of Kenneth the animal McDuff. This piece of sh_ _ raped and murdered a number of people. He was caught, found guilty and given the death sentence. After the death penality was over turned for a while because of the effort of a bunch of bleeding heart liberal do gooders his sentence was changed to life. then wouldn't you know it some idiots on the parole board turned him loose. Guess what happened. Supprise supprise, he began killing and raping again. Well after being caught again this piece of work was finaly put out of our misery. I don't know if any of you that are against the death penality have every spent much time around any of these animals. I have. I have spent a fair amount of time working as a confinement officer. I have seen the worst of the worst. I have delt with criminals that commited crimes that I can not even describe here because this is a family friendly forum. Am I in favor of the death penility? What do you think? Link to follow.

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[tattedupboy]

The question is, what is the purpose of criminal justice? Is it to punish and take revenge, or is it to protect society? The two aims have very different applications.

Capital punishment isn't an effective deterrent because criminals don't care about consequences. Capital punishment is truly a revenge killing that is sanctioned by the state as a "consolation prize" to the families of victims. It has no real societal benefit over life imprisonment. It does have real drawbacks though. People are falsely convicted of murder, and there's no chance for exoneration after a death sentence has been carried out.

I don't think it's the job of the state to provide revenge for victims and their families. I totally understand the desire for revenge, but that's an emotional reaction. Government policy should be based on something more substantial than that.

Let's just examine your argument for a second. Are you saying that anyone who rapes a child should be rewarded with a lifetime in prison, being fed and clothed at taxpayer expense? I would agree that spending life in prison is no fun, but forcing taxpayers to feed, clothe, and house these animals is just wrong.

 

[boris]

hk is right on!!

i remeberthe mc duff story. i remeber that people were genuinely terrified. i hae not spent nearly he time as a confinement officer, but enough to know . and not one executed lowlife has ever come back to commit more atrocitiesagainst innocent people. it seems to me that people who are against the death penalty have never walked on the razor's edge. and thatthey are all for saving the whales, and hugging trees, but think it's ok to kill babies b4 they are born. better not say anymore.

 

[boris]

canis-lupis.....

i am sorry you went thru that, but Real Men of God don't do that. it really ticks me off whe people wrap themselves up in such " garments" in order to commit such acts. they may know Scripture.....but they don' know THE SAVIOR.

 

[ishi]

Canis,

Court costs for Capital Punishment cases, with all of the appeals involved, are massive and wholly absorbed by the taxpayer. If people were denied fair trials and appeals, things would be cheaper, but those are the breaks. If we really want to reduce the money we spend keeping people in prison, and I think we should, there are better ways than executing prisoners.

The real motivation for Capital Punishment, like I said, has nothing to do with these utilitarian arguments. It's a visceral emotional reaction: These People Must Pay. There's an opposite emotional reaction that some anti-death penalty folks derive their assumptions from - the pacifists as you call them, who say: All Life Is Sacred. I don't like either of these emotional arguments, I think they make for bad policy and bad government.

In the way it was derived, the pacifist stance is closer to the pro-death penalty stance than mine is. Since my position is entirely utilitarian, I really could go either way. Show me a way to be 100% sure that every person condemned to die is guilty, and I will withdraw my objection.

--
Okay, I found some actual figures on this... here we go. It turns out it's far far more expensive to execute than to imprison for life.
This is from testimony given to the Judiciary Committee of the Colorado House of Representatives, with appropriate sources.
--

HOW MUCH DOES THE DEATH PENALTY COST?
The major cost studies on the death penalty all indicate that it is much more
expensive than a system where the most severe sentence is life in prison:
⇒ The most comprehensive study conducted in this country found that the death
penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-
death penalty system imposing a maximum sentence of imprisonment for life.9
These findings are sensitive to the number of executions the state carries out.
However, the authors noted that even if the death penalty were 100% efficient, i.e.,
if every death sentence resulted in an execution, the extra costs to the taxpayers
would still be $216,000 per execution.

⇒ Some years ago, the Miami Herald estimated that the costs of the death penalty in
Florida were $3.2 million per execution, based on the rate of executions at that
time.10 Florida's death penalty system bogged down for a number of reasons,
including a controversy over the electric chair. As a result, a more recent estimate of
the costs in Florida by the Palm Beach Post found a much higher cost per execution:

9
. P. Cook, "The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina," Duke University (May 1993).
10
. D. Von Drehle, "Bottom Line: Life in Prison One-sixth as Expensive," The Miami Herald, July 10,
1988, at 12A.




Florida spends $51 million a year above and beyond what it would cost to punish all
first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44
executions Florida had carried out from 1976 to 2000, that amounts to a cost of $24
million for each execution.11

⇒ In Texas, the Dallas Morning News concluded that a death penalty case costs an
average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a
single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.12

⇒ In 1988, the Sacramento Bee found that the death penalty costs California $90 million
annually beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system - $78 million of that total is
incurred at the trial level.13 But the costs have increased much more since then.
According to state and federal records obtained by The Los Angeles Times in 2005,
maintaining the death penalty system now costs taxpayers more than $114 million a
year beyond the cost of simply keeping the convicts locked up for life. This figure
does not count the millions more spent on court costs to prosecute capital cases. The
Times concluded that Californians and federal taxpayers have paid more than $250
million for each execution.14


11
. S. V. Date, "The High Price of Killing Killers," Palm Beach Post, Jan. 4, 2000, at 1A.
12
. C. Hoppe, "Executions Cost Texas Millions," Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992, at 1A.
13
. S. Maganini, "Closing Death Row Would Save State $90 Million a Year," Sacramento Bee, March
28, 1988, at 1.
14
. Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2005 (California has now had 13 executions).


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