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Texas News Coverage of Kennedy v. Louisiana

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"Court ruling weakens child-rape law in Texas," is Jason Embrey's report in the Austin American-Statesman.The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said states cannot use the death penalty to punish child rapists if the victim is not killed, erasing a key plank in the so-called Jessica's Law that Texas lawmakers passed last year. The Texas law permitted the death penalty, or life in prison without parole, for the second conviction of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14. The life-in-prison punishment will remain available to prosecutors.And:Although several state leaders criticized the Supreme Court's decision, it was especially a setback for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who put Jessica's Law at the top of his 2007 agenda."Supreme Court rejects death penalty for child rapists," by Diane Jennings in the Dallas Morning News...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).