Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), Case Study Example

Part 1: The Action

A court in the State of Louisiana found Patrick Kennedy guilty on a charge of raping his 8 year old stepdaughter. The District Attorney sought the death penalty (Criminal prosecution) for the rape of a child under the age of 12. The jury awarded the sentence and at a later date Kennedy appealed.  The Louisiana Supreme court upheld the decision, stating that previous cases applicable to adults did not apply in the case of a child – Coker v. Georgia (Kennedy)

Part 2: The Facts of the Case

Kennedy’s defence argued ” In seeking certiorari, Kennedy argued that five states do not constitute a “national consensus” for the purposes of Eighth Amendment analysis, that Coker v. Georgia should apply to all rapes regardless of the age of the victim, and that the law was unfair in its application, singling out black child rapists for death at a significantly higher rate than whites ” (Kennedy). The Louisiana upheld the application of the death sentence and cited a balanced view from Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons.  The court considered how this  was applied in 5 other States for similar crimes against young Children and subsequently upheld the view of the death sentence being applicable for this crime. The fact of Kennedy raping a young girl under the age of 12

Part 3: The Issues

The Central issue is whether the Court should permit the death penalty for Child rape or whether the act should be commuted to that of imprisonment.  The death penalties acceptability is brought into consideration under the eighth amendment. It is considered that the permanent and devastating psychological impact, left on the child, is no less severe than homicide.

Part 4: Court Verdict

Hence ” The Court’s decision is consistent with the justifications offered for the death penalty, retribution and deterrence, see, e.g., Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153 . ”  (J. Kennedy)

Statistics

• Nine States have permitted capital punishment for adult or child rape for some length of time between the Court’s 1972 Furman decision and today;
• No individual has been executed for the rape of an adult or child since 1964,
• No  execution for any other nonhomicide offense has been conducted since 1963.
• Louisiana is the only State since 1964 that has sentenced an individual to death for child rape, and petitioner and another man so sentenced are the only individuals now on death row in the United States for nonhomicide offenses.

Source:  (J. Kennedy)

Works Cited

Kennedy, J. Cornell University Law School. 2008. 27 10 2009 <http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-343.ZS.html>.

Kennedy, Justice Anthony M. Oyez Supreme Court Media. 2008. 28 10 2009 <http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2007/2007_07_343/>.