CruzLines
A legal blog offering excursions into the Constitution, equality law, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Supreme Court Reaffirms Ban on Death Penalty for Child Rape
Military context matters less to constitutionality of state criminal laws
01 October 2008
Today the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition for rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana (blogged here), its decision from June 2008 holding that the death penalty for raping a child is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Reserving the question whether unique considerations might allow the military to impose punishments that would be unconstitutional in the civilian context, the majority's Statement respecting the denial of rehearing reiterated the Court's emphasis on the non-military criminal rape laws of the states and the federal government as reflecting a consensus on the impermissibility of executing someone for a crime (such as raping a child) not resulting in death.Posted by Cruz at 8:40 AM | Link | 0 comments
Categories: U.S. Supreme Court Eighth Amendment rape
Death Penalty for Raping Child Unconstitutional
"When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint."
25 June 2008
The Supreme Court of the United States has held in Kennedy v. Louisiana, by a 5-4 vote, that the state violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments by prescribing the death penalty for rape of a child under the age of 12, where the perpetrator did not kill the child and did not intend to kill the child. Justice Kennedy (no relation to the convicted) wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, Breyer, and Ginsburg. Justice Alito dissented, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Thomas. Despite the recognized brutality of the crime against the child victim, Justice Kennedy's opinion for the Court insisted on the Constitution's commitment to respecting the dignity of all individuals. "As it related to crimes against individuals," he wrote, "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken." (Note though the interesting conflict between the Court's framing of its principles -- is the death penalty unconstitutional whenever "life [i]s not taken," or could it be imposed if the perpetrator intended to take life even if the crime did not result in the victim's death? This could become a point of future litigation about the reach of the Eighth Amendment.)Posted by Cruz at 8:17 AM | Link | 0 comments
Categories: U.S. Supreme Court Eighth Amendment rape
Professor David Cruz is a constitutional law expert focusing on civil rights and equality issues, including equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Categories
- California Marriage Equality Act (1)
- California Supreme Court (12)
- European Convention on Human Rights (2)
- free speech (1)
- gender identity (3)
- human rights (4)
- India (1)
- intersex (1)
- LGBT right (1)
- LGBTI rights (2)
- products liability (1)
- public forum (1)
- Section 5 (1)
- sexual orientation (6)
- sovereign immunity (1)
- strip search (1)
- substantive due process (1)
- Ten Commandments (1)
- United Nations (1)
- Williams Institute (1)
- Yogyakarta Principles (1)
- age discrimination (1)
- Barack Obama (1)
- boycotts (1)
- California Constitution (3)
- California Supreme Court (5)
- conferences (1)
- Connecticut Supreme Court (1)
- Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (4)
- District of Columbia (3)
- domestic partnership (4)
- Don't Ask Don't Tell (1)
- Eighth Amendment (2)
- employment discrimination (2)
- equal protection (9)
- First Amendment (1)
- Fourteenth Amendment (1)
- Fourth Amendment (1)
- House of Lords (1)
- Iowa Supreme Court (1)
- Japan (1)
- Maine (3)
- marriage (38)
- marriage recognition (10)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New York (1)
- Portugal (1)
- preemption (1)
- Prop 8 (24)
- public opinion (3)
- race discrimination (1)
- rape (2)
- respect for private life (2)
- sex (2)
- sexual orientation discrimination (3)
- sodomy (1)
- statutory rape (1)
- Sweden (1)
- U.S. Supreme Court (7)
- Vermont (1)
Archives
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (2)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (1)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (1)
- May 2009 (5)
- April 2009 (5)
- March 2009 (6)
- February 2009 (3)
- January 2009 (1)
- December 2008 (3)
- November 2008 (3)
- October 2008 (5)
- August 2008 (2)
- July 2008 (3)
- June 2008 (5)
- May 2008 (7)
- March 2008 (1)
- February 2008 (1)
