News

New Supreme Court Death Penalty Decision

The Supreme Court held in Kennedy v. Louisiana (No. 07-343, slip op. (Jun. 25, 2008)) that the death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional if the defendants' acts did not cause the death of the victim. Writing for the Court, Justice Kennedy reasoned,

"The same distinction between homicide and other serious
violent offenses against the individual informed the
Court's analysis in Enmund, 458 U. S. 782, where the
Court held that the death penalty for the crime of vicarious
felony murder is disproportionate to the offense. The
Court repeated there the fundamental, moral distinction
between a "murderer" and a "robber," noting that while
"robbery is a serious crime deserving serious punishment,"
it is not like death in its "severity and irrevocability." Id.,
at 797 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Consistent with evolving standards of decency and the
teachings of our precedents we conclude that, in determining
whether the death penalty is excessive, there is a
distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the
one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual
persons, even including child rape, on the other. The
latter crimes may be devastating in their harm, as here,
but "in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the
person and to the public," Coker, 433 U. S., at 598 (plurality
opinion), they cannot be compared to murder in their
"severity and irrevocability." Ibid."

Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343, slip op. at 27 (Jun. 25, 2008).

To read the full opinion of the Court, follow the link above.

Topics:
  • Other Death Penalty