An Eye for an Eye?

That is the issue many debate when it comes down to our justice system. It still seems to be the issue when dealing with the rape of children. A person can get the death penalty for murdering someone but not for raping a child according to a recent 5-4 decision by Supreme Court justices on June 25, 2008.

The case in question originated in Louisiana. Patrick Kennedy was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Not only was she raped, but the act caused enough injury to require emergency surgery. The Louisana Supreme Court not only upheld the original conviction of the crime, but the punishment as well. The next step natually was the US Supreme Court who just gave its ruling on the case days ago. Their ruling overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana, Georgia, Oklahoma, Montana, South Carolina and Texas.

There is nothing that will get emotions riled faster than deliberate injury to a child. Both Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama went public with statements of dissent towards the Supreme Court ruling. But, realistically, what else could they say? That raping a child isn’t heinous enough to deserve the death penalty?

The question before the Supreme Court was whether or not the death penalty in this case was a violation of the eighth amendment and its cruel and unusual punishment clause. Is death for the rape of a child cruel and unusual punishment?

I’m not sure I have an answer for that. Death, in a way, sometimes seems too easy an escape. The conscience can be a wonderful and terrible thing to behold. I am sure there must be ways to educate such people as to the enormity of the wrong they have committed and then they have to live with that knowledge every day for the rest of their lives. Barring that, what is wrong with some heavy manual labor? I do know that I am not personally comfortable with the death penalty. It’s not so much that I want to live in a world with murderers and child rapists running rampant, but I would never want to be the one to make that decision to take another’s life. Even the most damning of evidence could be wrong. As stated by Justice Kennedy in defense of the decision, there are “special risks of unreliable testimony” by children and the fact that this situation often occurs within the families. He is concerned that families might try to “shield the perpetrator from discovery” with a penalty of death. This could have negative implications of an increase in the non or underreporting of these crimes.

I do not believe there is enough evidence to support claims that the death penalty is a deterrent for those inclined to take the lives or innocence of others. There are some truly sick individuals who will perpetrate a crime whatever the punishment for that crime. John L. Donohue and Justin Wolfers write a compelling study entitled “The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence” that coincides with my feelings that there is no real evidence out there supporting a reduction in heinous crimes in states with the death penalty.

I wish I could say that the threat of death would stop or even reduce these kinds of crimes from happening. But I do not believe they do. I do not support the crimes or feel sorry for the perpetrators. I just feel there has to be other options for punishment other than death.