Patrick Kennedy, 43, was convicted in 2003 of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter and sentenced to death, under a Louisiana statute in Louisiana which allows capital punishment for the rape of anyone under the age of 13. Capital punishment for rape has roots in the antebellum South, when even the attempted rape of a white woman by a slave mandated a death sentence. This led to a rise in the frequency of lynchings and death sentences for rape. The American Civil Liberties Union, one of 11 groups filing Amicus briefs in support of Kennedy, argues “between 1930 and 1972, 455 people were executed for rape … 89.1 percent were black, and 443 were executed in former Confederate states … Louisiana has executed only fourteen defendants for rape since 1941, and all fourteen were black.” The Supreme Court banned capital punishment in 1977 for the rape of an adult in Coker v. Georgia, ruling, “The murderer kills; the rapist, if no more than that, does not. Life is over for the victim of the murderer; for the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over and normally is not beyond all repair.” It became illegal to execute mentally retarded citizens six years ago, as the Court cited a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment.” Kennedy, with an IQ of 70, is just above the threshold, but this case raises an important point about capital punishment for non-homicide cases. Only two of the more than 3,000 death row inmates in the country have never committed homicide. Judy Benitez, executive director of the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault and supporter of Kennedy, said the majority of victims know their attackers as family or friends, “which could lead to ambivalence on the part of the victim and her family about reporting the abuse … If the specter of the death penalty is out there, it will lead to more underreporting. “Allowing Louisiana to execute child rapists,” Benitez said, “will increase the incentives on child molesters to kill their victims.” A May 2006 Gallup Poll found not only less of a majority of Americans supporting the death penalty – 65 percent, down from 80 percent in 1994 – but also, given the choice of life without parole, slightly prefer the latter to capital punishment. Financially, it’s also more expensive to execute someone than to keeping convicts locked up for life. The Supreme Court should strike down Louisiana’s statute, as the death penalty does not fit the crime. Justices will be looking at historical precedent and a sense of national consensus when making their ruling. So far, Louisiana is one of five states permitting capital punishment for child rape, falling far short of any idea of consensus. It would be much more prudent, economical and responsible – especially for the children – to simply remove this man permanently from society, in the form of life without parole, than to take his life.
—-Contact Eric Freeman Jr. at [email protected]