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Does 18 U.S.C. 242 Permit the Death Penalty for Rape?

By Corey Rayburnyung

That was the question that Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy asked and then answered. Before I even read the post, Kent Scheidegger at Crime & Consequences had already pointed the error that Kerr made in his analysis. And so now the post is much ado about nothing. Nonetheless, it is an interesting exercise in statutory interpretation (maybe I should assign it to my Criminal Law students):After reading about the Supreme Court's order seeking briefing on rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana, a reader e-mails in with a question: Is 18 U.S.C. § 242 another federal law that also permits the death penalty for child rape? I did some quick research into the matter. To my surprise, my tentative answer is "yes."   [UPDATE: Ah, the beauty of tentative answers is how easy they are to change! In the comment thread, Kent Scheidegger points out 18 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on September 11, 2008 (boomark / email).