The Supreme Court Rules

[packinpatland]

Personally, I feel that anyone who rapes a child is better served, serving a life sentence rather being put to death. Having said that tho, this rational doesn't work for me........

"Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that "evolving standards of decency" in the United States forbid capital punishment for any crime other than murder.

"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," wrote Anthony Kennedy, who is of no relation to the convicted rapist.

Execution of Patrick Kennedy, the justice also wrote, would be unconstitutional on the grounds of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. "

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/25/scotus.child.rape/index.html

[Freak Out]

I also heard a comment that if it was punishable by death the rapist would be forced to murder his victim to hide his identity. Were a sick species.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Personally, I'm with Anthony Kennedy on this one. It's really tough to be against capital punishment at times though. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

[Deputy Nutz]

Personally, I'm with Anthony Kennedy on this one. It's really tough to be against capital punishment at times though. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

The problem with capital punishment is that we don't do it with enough brutality. We would have to do it far less if we ripped these bastards apart piece by piece.

Instead of killing child rapist maybe we just castrate them instead?

[BallHawk]

If we only we kicked it old school like this dude....



Hammurabi had it down.

[Freak Out]

Personally, I'm with Anthony Kennedy on this one. It's really tough to be against capital punishment at times though. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

The problem with capital punishment is that we don't do it with enough brutality. We would have to do it far less if we ripped these bastards apart piece by piece.

Instead of killing child rapist maybe we just castrate them instead?

I thought this was done in some cases?

[the_idle_threat]

Life in prison is a sentence to die in prison. Might as well do it sooner rather than later. The eighth amendment argument is troubling for those of us who believe there is a place for capital punishment, because why is it less "cruel and unusual" to use it on a murderer than on a child rapist? Capital punishment, generally, is not cruel and unusual in the mind of the drafters of the bill of rights, because it was practiced then. We can keep expanding the definition of this phrase until it is meaningless. Warehousing people for decades until they die is pretty cruel and unusual when you think about it. So maybe we should slap them on the hand and let them go free.

And I don't buy the idea that capital punishment would increase the murder of child victims. Even without the possibility capital punishment, a child rapist is gonna get put away for a long time, and the time they do is extra harsh because of how child rapists are viewed by other prisoners. If they had it in them to kill the child, they would probably do so to avoid getting caught. I don't think the level of punishment has much to do with it.

[Deputy Nutz]

Personally, I'm with Anthony Kennedy on this one. It's really tough to be against capital punishment at times though. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

The problem with capital punishment is that we don't do it with enough brutality. We would have to do it far less if we ripped these bastards apart piece by piece.

Instead of killing child rapist maybe we just castrate them instead?

I thought this was done in some cases?

Chemical castration, which wasn't worked in some cases.

[Zool]

I dont think serving a sentence where you will never be out of prison makes any sense at all. Its a strain on everything. Prisons are over populated, money is tight and there aren't enough guards as it is. Plus inmates file frivolous lawsuits all the time. Jail time is just not a strong enough deterrent obviously.

[Gunakor]

It doesn't make any sense from the taxpayer's perspective to house a criminal for life either. How is it fair to the taxpayer to fund the housing and nourishment of a criminal who will never ever become a productive member of society? Then there's the salaries of the guards who have to keep an eye on them... I'd imagine decades of imprisonment comes at an extremely high cost. If the crime committed were so horrendous that life without the possibility of release is the only just sentence, they really don't deserve to live on the taxes paid by good, descent, law abiding citizens.

[Harlan Huckleby]

my problem with capital punishment is I don't trust the justice system to figure out who done it. And it's a lot easier to convict a poor person.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Jail time is just not a strong enough deterrent obviously.

The death penalty is not a deterent at all.

[Zool]

Maybe not, but repeat offenders would be cut drastically.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Warehousing people for decades until they die is pretty cruel and unusual when you think about it. So maybe we should slap them on the hand and let them go free.

I agree that a life in prison is not much different from a death penalty. Not sure where the "slap on the hand" argument comes from. Are you saying anybody who is against the death penalty must be a panty waist sissy?

[the_idle_threat]

Warehousing people for decades until they die is pretty cruel and unusual when you think about it. So maybe we should slap them on the hand and let them go free.

I agree that a life in prison is not much different from a death penalty. Not sure where the "slap on the hand" argument comes from. Are you saying anybody who is against the death penalty must be a panty waist sissy?

No, and sorry if I touched upon a sore spot or something. :P

It's reductio ad absurdum. If we keep moving the bar of what qualifies as "cruel and unusual," then we will rule out more and more punishments until a slap on the hand is all that's left. And it had better not be a hard slap, because that would be cruel.