Supreme Court messes with death penalty for child rape

Houston Chronicle:

The U.S. Supreme Court's review of whether the death penalty can be imposed against a Louisiana man convicted of raping a child will reverberate in Texas, which just last year passed its own law targeting those who prey on children.

How the court rules may determine whether Texas can implement the death-penalty portion of Jessica's Law, named after Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and buried alive.

A convicted sex offender was found guilty in Jessica's murder, spurring some states, including Texas, to examine their laws punishing sex offenders.

Texas' law adds the death penalty as an option in cases in which someone for a second time has been convicted of aggravated sexual assault against a child under 14. The other possible penalty would be life without parole.

The Texas law also strengthens other sections of the law against aggravated sexual assault of children, including by providing for minimum sentences of 25 years.

Some worried whether imposing the death penalty against an offender who hasn't committed murder would pass constitutional muster. A clause in the law provides that the rest of it will stand if the death penalty portion is found unconstitutional.

"We believed then, and we believe now, that that bill, which is now a law, is absolutely constitutional and should withstand the scrutiny of anyone, including the Supreme Court," said Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, who pushed the bill in the House.

"However, ... we did put a firewall in there so that it would not affect the punishment in the rest of the bill" or the death penalty as it applies to other crimes in Texas, Riddle said.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who worked on the Texas legislation, considers child rape to be a crime so heinous that the argument can be made that it is more damaging than murder.

At the same time, he didn't support putting the death penalty in the law because he said that could work against successful prosecution. Children most often are victimized by friends or family members, he said, and they may feel intense pressure against coming forward if their testimony might result in the death penalty.

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I think the Supreme Court is being cruel and unusual with the victims of crime and the potential victims of crime, by continually reviewing the constitutionality of the death penalty. It was clearly constitutional when the constitution was written. It is an issue that should be left to the legislatures of the states as to whether to impose it and not to justices of the Supreme Court. If they try top abolish it again they will be making the same mistake they did in Roe v. Wade and it will lead to less respect for the courts and the system of justice.