When I learned of the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest academic bomb that was dropped on Americans just before their summer hiatus, I was completely stunned. Few times have I found myself speechless and horrified. I read briefs of the ruling and finally had read the ruling and dissents to confirm for myself that this was indeed what had been sent down by the Court. In essence, here is an amalgamated brief of the details taken from the Court’s Syllabus:
Louisiana charged the petitioner [the perpetrator] with the aggravated rape of his then-8year-old stepdaughter. He was convicted and sentenced to death under a state statute authorizing capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12. [Another side note: this despicable man has been charged previously with the same type of crime against children.] Justices cited pros and cons of previous rulings that dealt with rape of adults, but not with that of children.
Even after hearing the horrific, brutal details of this child’s injuries which required immediate surgery, the learned (and I use that description with all the restraint I can muster) majority members of our Supreme Court [Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer] issued the following ruling:
The concern that the Court’s holding will effectively block further development of a consensus favoring the death penalty for child rape overlooks the principle that the Eighth Amendment is defined by “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,”Trop, 356 U. S., at 101.
Why It Matters 