Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Some first-cut reactions to Justice Kennedy's work in Kennedy

By Douglas A. Berman

I am finally getting a chance to read the Kennedy case in full and general reaction will be coming in future posts.  But, as I work through the ruling, and I cannot help wondering aloud about some head-scratching passages in the majority's opinion prohibiting states for making child rape eligible for the sentence of death.  Specifically, I am especially perplexed by the sentence in bold from this paragraph: Evolving standards of decency must embrace and express respect for the dignity of the person, and the punishment of criminals must conform to that rule. See Trop, supra, at 100 (plurality opinion). As we shall discuss, punishment is justified under one or more of three principal rationales: rehabilitation, deterrence, and retribution...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).