Capital Punishment by Billy Wayne Sinclair

Author:Billy Wayne Sinclair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

10

Child Rape

In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for child rape in Kennedy v. Louisiana. The decision caught the attention of then presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, who went on record as disagreeing with it.

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is an assault on law enforcement efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime,” McCain said.

“I think that the rape of a small child … is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable … that does not violate our Constitution,” said Obama.

The statements of both men are troubling. McCain failed to mention murder when he called child rape the most despicable crime. And during his campaign, Obama frequently touted his efforts as a state senator to reform the Illinois death penalty system, presumably to attract voters opposed to capital punishment. But the statements by both men — which reflect the views of many Americans — casually asserted that child rape should rank alongside first-degree murder in deserving the death penalty.

The taking of a human life — by capital murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide — is a heinous crime. Whether the victim dies during an armed robbery, in a car accident caused by a drunk driver, or in a barroom fight, a life has been extinguished. Yes, raping a child is despicable, but killing someone is far worse.

More than three decades ago, the Supreme Court held that the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman was cruel and unusual punishment. Those who supported the death penalty for child rape tried to distinguish child rape from adult rape by arguing that the child’s suffering is as horrific as the consequences of murder.

Obama’s view — advocating the death penalty for child rapists under certain circumstances — opens a Pandora’s box of legal questions that could paralyze the courts with countless appeals arguing about the degree of horror inflicted on a young rape victim. How can a society decide which child rape deserves the death penalty?

There are more than half a million registered sex offenders in this country, many of whom were convicted of child rape and many of whom were raped themselves as children. How many of them should have received the death penalty? When is the rape of a child just another rape, and when is it a death penalty rape? What if the victim is too young to talk or remember? If we can try children as adults, can they be raped as adults, too?

The reality, of course, is that sentencing would come down to the discretion of juries, as it does in murder cases. We could expect to see racial bias in these verdicts as we have seen in capital cases, particularly in the South, where blacks convicted of murder more frequently find themselves sentenced to death than other racial groups.

Taking these historical lessons into account, a black defendant charged with the rape of a white child would likely get the death penalty.

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