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Louisiana's brief in Kennedy arguing for capital child rape

By Douglas A. Berman

Thanks to Sex Crimes, I now see that Louisiana's merits brief in the Kennedy SCOTUS capital child rape is now available at this link.  Here are excerpts from the brief's "summary of argument":The death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment for the rape of a child.  It is evident that societal awareness of the prevalence of child sexual abuse has increased tremendously in the last few decades.  Moreover, public outrage over the sexual violation of immature young children by predatory adults is extremely great due to the recognition that these offenders target and harm the most vulnerable members of our society. While this Court in Coker found that the death penalty was excessive for the rape of an adult woman, it has not found the death penalty to be excessive for all non-homicide crimes, or for all rapes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).