Washington - Sentencing a child rapist to death is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment.
In a major ruling sharply restricting crimes carrying potential death sentences, the US Supreme Court on Wednesday invalidated part of a Louisiana statute that made aggravated sexual assault against a child under 12 a capital offense.
The majority justices ruled 5 to 4 that capital punishment is constitutionally impermissible for person-on-person violent crime that does not result in the death of the victim. The case is Kennedy v. Louisiana.
"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. - Christian Science Monitor
Did the rapist also murder somebody? Even then he or (far less likely) she shouldn't be given the "death" treatment.
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