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Is the editorial board of the Denver Post omniscient or just obtuse?

By Douglas A. Berman

Commenting on a Colorado bill that proposes making a second offense of child rape a capital offense, this Denver Post editorial boldly asserts in its headline that "Death penalty for rape doesn't protect children."  Tellingly, the text of the editorial is a little more nuanced on whether a capital child rape law could protect kids, and it also shows how opposition to the death penalty is a contributing factor to mass incarceration and extremely long prison sentences:A bill pending in the Colorado Senate that would authorize a death sentence on a second conviction of raping a child could backfire by giving some of society's most vicious criminals a perverse incentive to kill their victims. Senate Bill 195 by Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton, would authorize the death penalty for people who sexually assault a child 12 years or younger if DNA evidence links them to the crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).