The US Supreme Court May Hear the Case of Patrick Kennedy.
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Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty in Child Rape Case
Patrick Kennedy Would Be First Man Executed for Rape Since 1964
The Associated Press reports that the Louisiana Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Patrick Kennedy, a convicted child rapist from Harvey, Louisiana, according to Louisiana news station KATC. Harvey was convicted of aggravated rape of an eight year old girl in 2003 and was sentenced to death. According to CNN, Kennedy raped his young relative as she was in the garage sorting Girl Scout Cookies. The victim required surgery due to the brutal nature of the attack. Deputies claim that Kennedy later bragged of the crime.According to CNN, Kennedy's lawyers claimed that tests on blood evidence were inconclusive, and that the victim changed her story, not naming Kennedy as her attacker until almost two years after the rape.
Kennedy's lawyers have argued that the death penalty in non-homicide cases is in violation of the U.S. Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that the death penalty in cases of adult rape is unconstitutional, but the Louisiana Supreme Court says that the impact of the U.S. Court's ruling on child rape cases is unclear. In Louisiana, aggravated rape of a person under 12 years old is punishable by death. If Kennedy is put to death for his crime, he will be the first person executed for rape since 1964, reported the New York Times and the only person executed for rape since the the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. Before the 1972 death penalty suspension, the United States government and 16 states had approved the death penalty for rapes.
"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 a first-degree murderer, we can think of no other non-homicide crime more deserving," said Justice Jeffery Victory, as reported by CNN. The law permitting the death penalty for child rape cases was passed by the Louisiana Legislature in 1995.
- Patrick Kennedy was convicted in 2003 child rape.
- Louisiana law permits the death penalty in the rape of persons under 12.
- Kennedy would be the first person executed for rape since 1964
Comments
D M
(Guest)
(Guest)
04/19/2008
I say let this SICK ASS LIVE ON AND BE TORTURED AS LONG AS POSSIBLE....LET HIM GET RAPED IN THE ASS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE IN JAIL!!!
Shorty
(Guest)
(Guest)
12/18/2007
I too am a mother, of two beautiful girls. Anyone that says this (scum of the earth) should be allowed to live
is no better than he is. Especially from a parents point of view. Maybe some of you softies should move in next to these people and invite them into your house to have dinner with your children. Wake up people! We aren't living on Little House on the Prairie anymore.
Amy. Mother of two.
(Guest)
(Guest)
12/13/2007
I totally agree with Heather. I am all for the death penalty in a child rape!!! Being a mother of two young children. I promise you that if something happened to my children. The person responsible would die either by me or the state. I have two sisters who were raped in their teenage years. One in the state of Michigan who was given the date rape drug on a campus by a stranger. The other in the state of Ohio by a friends older brother. They will live with nightmares, relationship and trust issues for the rest of their lives.
Jamie, your exactly right. This will open the door for more murders, and other problems.
If a man rapes an 8-year-old child, put him to death...but not before leaving him to the general prison population for the duration of his death sentence, so he can be in the place of his victim. If people can be put to death for treason, the death penalty for the rape of a child is a no-brainer.
I don't think there is anything worse you can do than rape a child. It ruins them. It kills a part of them. It changes them forever. It would have been far more merciful for him to have simply killed her. Raping a child tortures them physically during the attack and then mentally for the rest of their lives. He should die. Anyone who tortures someone like that should die.
I am all for the death penalty, but only when you actually kill someone or contribute materially to the killing. This one makes me very uncomfortable. He may be human feces, but he could have done worse. With this, the in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound mentality can take over -- why not kill the kid since you can be executed for raping her anyway?
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