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Louisiana vows to nullify child-rape ruling

Justices deem death penalty too harsh for crime

By Tom Ramstack | Thursday, June 26, 2008

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he will seek to enact laws that would invalidate Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the death penalty for raping a child.

"One thing is clear," said Mr. Jindal, a Republican. "The five members of the court who issued the opinion do not share the same standards of decency as the people of Louisiana."

In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled as unconstitutional a Louisiana law that permits the death penalty for people convicted of raping children younger than 12. Louisiana had the only two inmates in the country facing death for raping a child.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Louisiana's law violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The Eighth Amendment "requires that resort to capital punishment be restrained, limited in its instances of application and reserved for the worst of crimes, those that, in the case of crimes against individuals, take the victim's life," wrote Justice Kennedy.

He was joined by Justices Steven G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens.

Writing for the dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that child-rape death penalty laws should be allowed if they reflect society's "evolving" standards of decency.

"The harm that is caused to the victims and to society at large by the worst child rapists is grave. ... It is the judgment of the Louisiana lawmakers and those in an increasing number of other states that these harms justify the death penalty," wrote Justice Alito, who was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The Louisiana law at issue in Kennedy v. Louisiana authorized the death penalty for Patrick Kennedy, who was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

A jury chose the death penalty, in part, because of the gruesome nature of the crime: The child required emergency surgery for her injuries.