Kennedy v. Louisiana
| Kennedy v. Louisiana | ||||||
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| Decided June 25th, 2008 |
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The 8th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits Louisiana from using the death penalty for rape of a child unless the crime intentionally resulted in the child's death. |
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Kennedy v. Louisiana was a lawsuit resolved by the United States Supreme Court in June 2008. The focus was on the question of whether the death penalty can be imposed for rape of a child in which the death of the victim was not the result or aim of the act . The background was a death sentence based on a corresponding law of the state of Louisiana . This was overturned by the Supreme Court with a majority of five to four because the penalty violated the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Act and investigation
The then eight-year-old stepdaughter of Patrick O. Kennedy from Louisiana was raped on the morning of March 2, 1998. Kennedy reported the crime via 911, claiming the perpetrators were two young black people who fled on bicycles after the crime. The girl, who was seriously injured and had to undergo an operation, confirmed these statements to the police and later to a psychologist, but got caught up in contradictions. The initial suspicion of a boy in the neighborhood, to whom the description was roughly correct, was not confirmed; instead, the investigation soon turned against the stepfather.
Police found that Kennedy had called a work colleague the morning of the crime to seek advice on how to remove blood stains from a carpet because his stepdaughter had "just become a young woman." Kennedy also called a carpet cleaner about the blood stains, which the number transmission proved. Kennedy was arrested on March 10, 1998 after the two calls made several hours before the 911 call became known.
No DNA traces could be found on the victim, who was bathed by his stepfather after the crime . The investigation of the crime scene revealed that the statements of the girl about the course of events were not true. The child said it had been dragged across the lawn by the men in the yard; however, no traces of grass could be found on the clothing. Likewise, no blood from the victim was found on the lawn.
The mother's custody of the girl has since been withdrawn because she allowed him to talk to the stepfather on the phone while he was in custody. After the child was back with his mother in June 1998, he confided in her and reported that the perpetrator was Patrick Kennedy.
Procedure
The State of Louisiana v. Patrick Kennedy took place before the 24th Judicial District Court for the State of Louisiana. A grand jury charged him on May 7, 1998 with aggravated rape under the Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:42 . The regulation said at the time:
" A. Serious rape is rape [...] in which the victim's legitimate consent to anal or vaginal intercourse is not considered to have been given because it was committed under one [...] of the following circumstances:
- [...]
- (4) If the victim has not yet reached the age of twelve.
- [...]
D.
- (1) [threat of punishment]
- (2) If, on the other hand, the victim has not yet reached the age of twelve under the conditions of Section A (4):
- (a) And if the public prosecutor calls for the death penalty, the perpetrator is to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment with forced labor without the possibility of parole or parole [...]
- (b) And if the public prosecutor does not demand the death penalty, the perpetrator is sentenced to life imprisonment with forced labor without the possibility of parole or parole [...] "
Since the defendant could not afford a lawyer, a public defender was appointed in June 1998 . The preliminary investigations dragged on; Among other things, the defense submitted around 50 applications to the court. The process finally began in August 2003 after a jury had been selected from August 8th to 15th. On the 25th of the month, the jury found Kennedy guilty of rape and called for the death penalty the following day. The defense requested a new trial because the rule applied (La. RS 14:42) was unconstitutional. However, the court dismissed this motion and sentenced Kennedy to death on October 2, 2003, as requested by the jury.
The defense appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court . It was of the opinion that the procedure was flawed on 69 points. Once again, the focus was on the constitutionality of the penal norm. However, the court did not obey the request and upheld the judgment on May 22, 2007.
Kennedy then called the United States Supreme Court, which decided on January 4, 2008 to hear the case. The following two questions were put to the court:
" 1. Whether concerning the cruel of the eighth Amendment's clause and unusual punishment allows a state to punish the rape of a child with death.
2. If so, whether Louisiana State law violates the Eighth Amendment by not sufficiently restricting the group of perpetrators who may be eligible for the death penalty. "
Texas and other states with similar laws filed briefs as Amici Curiae . The hearing took place on April 16, 2008. The law professor Jeffrey L. Fisher stood on behalf of the applicant , the prosecution was represented by the deputy district attorney Juliet L. Clark, and the Texas solicitor General Ted Cruz spoke for the aforementioned Amici Curiae .
The Supreme Court ruled on June 25, 2008 that the 8th Amendment to the Constitution forbids Louisiana from using the death penalty for rape of a child unless the crime intentionally resulted in the death of the child. The majority opinion written by Anthony Kennedy was supported by the judges Stevens , Souter , Ginsburg and Breyer . According to her, there would be no “national consensus” for the sentence imposed, since only very few states provided for the execution of child rapists. Samuel Alito , who was joined by the judges Roberts , Scalia and Thomas , took a lesser opinion .
Importance of the case
At the time of the trial, Patrick Kennedy was the only person on death row in the United States, alongside Richard Davis (also Louisiana), for an act that did not kill a person . Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, death sentences have been carried out solely for homicides. The last execution for a non-homicide was in 1964.
In addition to Louisiana, four other states introduced the death penalty for child rape: Montana (1997), South Carolina , Oklahoma (2006 each), and Texas (2007).
The Supreme Court ruled in 1977 in the Coker v. To preoccupy Georgia with the question of whether the death penalty may be pronounced for a non-homicide offense. It ruled that the death penalty for raping an adult woman was a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Amendment 8 . The question of whether this also applies to child rape, however, was only dealt with in the present case.
Both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama , candidates in the 2008 presidential election , criticized the verdict.
Web links
- Judgment: Kennedy v. Louisiana (PDF file; 498 kB)
- Joanna H. D'Avella: Death Row For Child Rape? (Cornell Law Review; PDF; 147 kB)
- ScotusWiki: Kennedy v. Louisiana
supporting documents
- ↑ In the meantime also oral sex ( Law No. 301 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. From 2001)
- ↑ Age of consent is now 13 years ( Law No. 795 ( Memento des original dated November 23, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from 2003)
- ↑ Age of consent is now 13 years ( Law No. 178 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. From 2006)
- ^ Supreme Court of Louisiana, May 22, 2007, Case No. 05-KA-1981 (PDF; 696 kB)
- ↑ Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (PDF; 114 kB)
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, Docket No. 07-343 ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Questions Presented (Supreme Court of the United States, Docket No. 07-343)
- ↑ Linda Greenhouse: Justices to Decide if Rape of a Child Merits Death. In: The New York Times. January 5, 2008
- ↑ SCOTUSblog: Death penalty for child rape challenged . September 11, 2007.
- ↑ DPIC: Death Penalty for Offenses Other Than Murder ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Linda Greenhouse, Justices Bar Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child , The New York Times, June 26, 2008
