WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2008
Court To Rule On Executing Child Rapists
Supreme Court Will Review La. Law Allowing Death Sentence For Child Rapists
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(AP)
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Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is the only person on death row in the United States for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.
The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman.
Kennedy's lawyers say the death penalty for child rape violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The justices will hear arguments in the case in April.
The last executions for rape or any other crime that did not also include the victims' death were in 1964.
Forty-five states already ban the death penalty for any kind of rape and among the other five states that in theory allow it for child rapists. Kennedy's case is the only time a state has sought to execute someone. Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas allow executions in such cases.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence. "Our state legislature and this court have determined this category of aggravated rapist to be among those deserving of the death penalty, and short of first-degree murder, we can think of no other non-homicide crime more deserving," Justice Jeffrey Victory wrote.
Chief Justice Pascal Calogero dissented, saying that with the possible exception of espionage or treason, "the Eighth Amendment precludes capital punishment for any offense that does not involve the death of the victim."
The child rape case is the second capital punishment case from Louisiana this term at the Supreme Court. The justices already are considering whether a prosecutor improperly excluded blacks from a jury and then inflamed the all-white panel with references to the O.J. Simpson case.
In addition, the court is weighing whether the way Kentucky executes prisoners by lethal injection - procedures similar to those used in three dozen states - violates the Constitution.
Kennedy was convicted in 2003 of raping his stepdaughter at their home in suburban New Orleans. The girl initially told police she was sorting Girl Scout cookies in the garage when she was assaulted by two boys.
Police arrested Kennedy a couple of weeks after the March 1998 rape, but more than 20 months passed before the girl identified him as her attacker.
His defense attorney at the time argued that blood testing was inconclusive and that the victim was pressured to change her story.
Kennedy's Supreme Court lawyers also called pointed out that Kennedy is black and that nearly 90 percent of people executed for rape in the United States were black. "This court should pause before condoning a practice so heavily tinged with the scourge of racism," Stanford University law professor Jeffrey Fisher, Kennedy's lead lawyer, said.
The state said the court should turn down the case because Louisiana law is narrowly tailored to apply only to people convicted of raping children younger than 12.
The case is Kennedy v. Louisiana, 07-343.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 188 CommentsWhile this tool is not technically considered lethal, some international authorities and non-governmental organisations question both the degree of safety presented by the weapon and the ethical implications of using a weapon that they allege to be inhumane. The history of the Taser gun is one that spans back to 1969 when an Arizona inventor Jack Cover designed the Taser based on the weapon of a science fiction character Thomas A. Swift: an electric rifle. The Tasers design was one that depicted that of a gun, upon shooting the weapon, initially it would mark a red laser on the person it is aimed at, and then would deploy two metal harpoons connected to the gun through wire filaments that penetrate the skin, and then charge is administered through.
For your information...you''ll find more on this in Wikipedia! JACKASS!
Police Taser Use Out Of Control
Not A Lawyer | November 29th 2007 by Gerri
"I really don%u2019t know when the Taser gun started being a standard issue item for police officers. I know that the Taser was invented in 1969. According to Wikipedia, they were introduced in police work as a less lethal alternative to guns."
Now you can crawl back under that rock!
You kind of sound like child rape is not beneath you!
I said taser. It may have been a stun gun. I have lived with my daughter for the past 14-years. I''ve seen a bright, beautiful, happy, productive person become reclusive. I''ve spoken with her stepfather often over the past several months. Since the Statute of Limitations has run out for her... I have been attempting to goad him into charging me with harrasment. It may be the only way to drag him into court. He refuses to ''bite.'' He has placed numerous ''crank-calls'' to my daughter, that are designed to intimidate her. Her mother won''t address the issue. As I post this explanation to you, I wonder why I bother. What does "feminists routinely lie" mean? Comments like that are the true "cancer
on society!"
You sound like an utter jackass. Email me sometime. Perhaps we can discuss it further. You need to be educated. I won''t post me email addy here though.
In the meantime, get back under your rock!
herbpaul
Posted by beachroses at 12:04 PM : Jan 05, 2008
Well beachroses;
first, what degree, crystal ball or other diving device do you possess that gives you sole knowledge of what any part of the constitution is about. It is about freedom, the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion...etc. As for prostitutes, at last check with the exception of Nevada and some American territories, prostitution is illegal. Those caught either being one or going to one are punished. As for pornographers, like prostitutes, merely follow the rule of supply and demand. If there is a demand for something, somebody will supply it. If men AND women did not want pornography and demand it and prostitution (there are male prostitutes as well) it would not exist. However, people do demand it so someobdy is supplying it.
Michelle: the Kennedy they are talking about is the one in this article...not Ted...but Ted Kennedy is just as sickening.
I don''t know how seriously anyone can take you. In the sticks????? What country? Saudi Arabia? In the "sticks" in the US, a mother is more likely to "cut a switch" and go after her sassy 6 year old son.
Yer gender was a help as ye learnt a trade,college,yer was the head of household. Yer had to. I don''t agree that the states and DC should have done away with the death penalty. Years ago I was against. Only because I did not understand the whys. I will say this and I believe this if the crimmal''s peers give him/her death then by God it better be carried out then or soon after. I feel that way. Them rapists caserate them. That I have alaway felt.
her stepfather, committed physical and sexual abuse against her. The
sexual abuse included aggravated sexual assault. Along with these acts, he used a Taser.
As a result she, spent her mid-teenage years in a variety institutions for the mentally-troubled.
At age 16, she ran away from home.
While she had recollections that dealt with the non-sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of
her stepfather, she had no memories whatsoever, of the sexual assaults he committed against her.
Until December of 2004.
She went to New Jersey, to spend the holidays with her mother and stepfather that year, at their home.
She began to experience disturbing images and thoughts during that visit. Later, that week, she
went to St. Vincent%u2019s Hospital in New York City. There, she was diagnosed with %u201CPost-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder.%u201D
She became fearful of everyone. Trusting no one. Unable to work, she was declared %u2018permanently-disabled%u2019 by her doctor in 2005.
She has been unable to sleep without nightmares. She has expressed suicidal thoughts on numerous occasions.
Her bottom-feeding stepfather, went on to become a pillar-of-his-community!
Her stepfather, took away from her, her childhood and now, he has in effect taken away her adulthood.
What has Mr. Kennedy stolen from his victim?
Ye be owned by a man his solely.
Ye be in the home to be his slave.
He would tell yer this is his way or else.
Yer may not work out side the home.
Ye would not vote.
Yer raise his children as yer told.
Ye have no life.
Be grateful ye can
have yer say,work out side yer home,vote,etc.
When ye say yer prayers thank God for those women.
I do like ye and I will say that I hope yer boy is safe. I don''t agree ladies should be in combat, they alway wanted to and did.
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