Wednesday, June 25, 2008

JUSTICE - On Child Rape

"Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape" by AP, New York Times

The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases 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.

This is just the opening of the article.

My gut feeling is to slow-roast such monsters, on a spit, alive, and in public. But that is my very emotional response. I'll defer to the Supreme Court on this one.

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