High Court: No Death Penalty for Child Rape

In a closely divided opinion today, the Supreme Court found that while the crime of raping a child isa "revulsion" to society, it does not merit the death penalty.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority, found that "a death sentence for one who rapedbut did not kill a child, and who did not intend to assist another in killing the child, isunconstitutional."

Louisiana and five other states have laws imposing the death penalty for that crime. The ruling todayoverturned those laws.

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The decision and a fiery dissent from the conservative justices explored the controversial moralquestions society must face in addressing the topic of child rape.

Kennedy acknowledged as much, writing that such a crime "cannot be recounted in these pages in away sufficient to capture in full the hurt and horror inflicted on the victim."

"We cannot dismiss the years of long anguish that must be endured by the victim of child rape," hewrote. But he said that capital punishment is not a "proportionate" penalty for the crime.

In an emotional dissent, Justice Samuel Alito criticized the majority for finding that the crime of childrape should be penalized differently from that of some murders. He said, "With respect to thequestion of moral depravity, is it really true that every person who is convicted of capital murder andsentenced to death is more morally depraved than every child rapist."

Alito said, "In the eyes of ordinary Americans, the very worst child rapists -- predators who seek outand inflict serious physical and emotional injury on defenseless young children -- are the epitome ofmoral depravity."

While the majority said that only a small number of states had enacted the death penalty for childrape, Alito argued that such efforts could have grown in the upcoming years, but the court's decision"snuffs out" such a possibility.

Advocates for child's rights praised the decision. They condemned Louisiana's law because theywere fearful that the if a child rapist knew he might face the death penalty he would have anincentive to kill his victim.

The case that went before the court dates back to 1998, when Patrick O. Kennedy called 911 toreport that his 8-year-old stepdaughter had just been raped.

Kennedy blamed two boys from his suburban New Orleans neighborhood for the attack and toldpolice that the boys had fled on bicycles, but police soon suspected Kennedy of the crime.

At trial, the girl, who had required surgery after the attack, testified that Kennedy had raped her and

that he had coached her to lie to police.

Testimony at trial also revealed that Kennedy hadcalled a carpet cleaning company about removingbloodstains from his carpet even before dialing 911.

Kennedy's crime was considered so heinous that hewas sentenced to death under Louisiana law, whichimposes the death penalty for the rape of a child.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center,a group opposed to the death penalty, there aremore than 3,300 people on death row in America,

and Kennedy is one of only two who did not commit murder.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/SCOTUS/story?id=5037450