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Kennedy v. Louisiana: no death penalty for child rape

As noted in a post below, the US Supreme Court issued a decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In the 5-4 decision, with the majority opinion authored by Justice Kennedy, the Court holds that a Louisiana statute which permitted the death penalty for the rape of a child, including cases in which the child did not die. Nevada law does not permit the death penalty for offenses other than first degree murder, so Kennedy is of little direct consequence except insofar as it clearly informs the Legislature that it may not expand th death penalty for crimes other than murder, as had Louisiana and five other states (Georgia, Montanta, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas). The Court limits its decision to offenses occuring against individual persons and notes that it is not considering statutes which allow for the death penalty in cases of treason, espionage, terrorism and drug kingpin activity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Harmful Error on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).