No Death Penalty for Child Rapists

In 1998, Patrick Kennedy called 911 one morning in Louisiana and told authorities that two teenaged boys had raped his step-daughter (The Nation, "A Cruel and Unusual Punishment", Billy Sothern. April 24, 2007). At trial, evidence implicated Kennedy as the actual perpetrator. His godaughter also testified that he had raped her 20 years earlier. Kennedy's step-daughter, just 8 years old, suffered serious internal injuries due to the assault. The state of Louisianna sentenced Kennedy to death in 2003, in part due to a Louisiana statute that allows the death penalty for the rape of a child under the age of 12 (Kennedy v. Louisiana, Death Penalty Information Center).

Kennedy Appeals the Decision

Kennedy's lawyers challenged his sentence, going before the US Supreme Court this past June, 2008. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court voted that Louisiana's statute allowing for the death penalty in non-murder cases is unconstitutional. The court stated that Kennedy (as well as another man on Death Row in Louisiana for a similar crime) were sentenced to death under a statute not embraced by 44 out of the 50 states (Montana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas have similar statutes). Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority decision, stating, "Based both on consensus and our own independent judgment, our holding is that a death sentence for one who raped but did not kill a child,...is unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." (Kennedy v. Louisiana, The Death Penalty Information Center). On October 1st, 2008, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Louisiana lawmakers, holding firm to it's 5-4 decision to rule the death penalty unconstitutional in Kennedy's case.

Reaction to the Ruling

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama publicly blasted the Supreme Court's decision in June of 2008: “I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,” he told a news conference in Chicago. “I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.” (wsws.org, "Obama attacks Supreme Court Decision Barring Death Penalty for Child Rape." Patrick Martin, June 26, 2008) However, victim advocacy groups were the first to speak out against Kennedy's death sentence. In a brief submitted to the US Supreme Court, The National Association of Social Workers, the Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, The Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault, The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault and The National Alliance Against Sexual Assault stated that:

• "Permitting the death penalty for child rape will worsen the problem of under-reporting sexual abuse."
• "Allowing Louisiana to execute child rapists will increase the incentives on child molesters to kill their victims."
• "The Louisiana statute would subject child victims to an increased number of trials and appeals, forcing them to relive painful events repeatedly and disrupting the healing process."

Certainly, most people have a strong emotional reaction to child rape; perpetrators of this kind of sexual assault are considered the worst kind of criminal. Cerainly, seeking justice for this henious act is necessary. The decision to eliminate the death penalty for child rapist will outrage some, while others argue the unintended consequences of such a penalty to. Either way, the epidemic of childhood sexual abuse continues.

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