U.S. Courts Draw Lines on Child Rape
American Public left to Debate Intent of Law in Child Crimes
Aug 19, 2008
In June the Supreme Court ended, by a 5 to 4 margin, the practice of executing those convicted of raping a child. This ruling forced six states, including Louisiana where the deciding case originated, to change state laws. This, however, is hardly the end of the debate. Just moments after the decision was made, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama denounced the ruling stating: “I think the death penalty should be applied...for the most egregious of crimes...I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision under narrow limited well defined circumstance the death penalty is at least potentially applicable." This statement effectively opening up the question as to what constitutes our most "egregious" crimes.
The Debate - The Purpose of Law
The philosophy behind capital punishment is that it is reserved for criminals who cannot be rehabilitated and whose actions are so viciously antisocial that only by removing them from the world can our society be justly preserved. The Supreme Court ruling took this philosophy into more specific terms ruling out death penalty, excepting treason and espionage, for crimes where the accused has not taken the life of another.
The Ruling and Criticism of its Legal Precedent
The logic behind this ruling is that having rape carry the same punishment as homicide will encourage rapists to kill their victims in a game of decreasing the odds of their getting caught as the punishment is no longer variable. However, the question for many is the intention of the law: to create incentives for criminals to commit lesser crimes or to punish according to crime severity.
The severity of a crime is often decided by aggravating circumstances such as prior convictions, the number of crimes committed in a single act, and so on. For many, the court’s ruling seemed to take a child’s age off the list of these circumstances despite the fact that the deciding factor in the severity of a rape case is the age of the victim. The intent of the law seemed to pull away from using crime severity to decide the fitting punishment in crimes committed against children.
Capital Punishment Rulings in the Past and Future
The Supreme Court rulings on capital punishment have always been hotly contested and very seldom any actions passed is done by a voting result of 5 to 4 judges. Even after a ruling has been passed, oftentimes new legal contradictions are discovered and lead to the Supreme Court halting executions so that a new ruling can be made. This leads many following the evolution of capital punishment to wonder if the recent ruling may be seen back in the high court.
For many people, the sole intent of the law should be the preservation of society and punishments should reflect this. As society’s future rests on the generations behind it, crimes committed against children are the most damaging and deserving of this country’s strictest sentence.
