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Helping Karl
Bloomberg
April 2008
Child-Rape Case
In the child-rape case, Patrick Kennedy is appealing his death sentence in Louisiana for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. He would be the first person executed in the U.S. for rape, or any crime besides murder, since 1964. Louisiana and four other states explicitly permit execution of people convicted of raping a child.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that the Constitution bars executing a man convicted of raping a 16-year-old. Roberts and Scalia questioned whether that ruling has prevented a debate that might have led to a national consensus in favor of executing rapists of children.
When prosecutor Juliet Clark said Kennedy's crime was a "very savage'' one, Breyer suggested that by allowing capital punishment for child-rapists, the court would open the door for states to "categorize horrible by horrible'' and impose death on many crimes short of murder.
"Just the way they used to,'' Scalia interjected.
"Perhaps at the time, 200 years ago, that's true,'' Breyer responded.
Justice Kennedy asked lawyers on both sides whether Louisiana's law could be narrowed, perhaps by allowing it to be imposed only on repeat child-rapists.
Executions Questioned
In the lethal-injection case, lawyers for the Kentucky inmates pointed to executions in Ohio, Florida, California and Missouri in which condemned men allegedly didn't receive an adequate dosage of pentothal and showed signs of consciousness and pain. The lawyers said the risk could be reduced by using only a single, larger dose of a barbiturate.
Roberts said Kentucky wasn't required to adopt "untested alternative procedures.''
Kentucky officials said they have adequate safeguards to ensure an inmate receives the proper dosage.
Among other requirements, the execution team participates in 10 annual practice sessions that include insertion of an intravenous needle into a volunteer. In addition, the person who places the IV is a phlebotomist, a specialist who typically places 30 needles a day in prisoners, the state argued.
Death-row inmates Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling challenged Kentucky's method. Baze was convicted of murdering a Kentucky sheriff and his deputy when they were trying to serve warrants on him in 1992. Bowling was convicted of shooting a couple to death and wounding their 2-year-old son after a 1990 automobile accident.
Baze and Bowling weren't challenging their death sentences at the Supreme Court, although each is separately contesting his conviction.
The lethal-injection case is Baze v. Rees, 07-5439, and the child-rape case is Kennedy v. Louisiana, 07-343.
Greg Stohr
Bloomberg
16th April 2008
