With the oral argument this Wednesday, most of my blogging this week will focus on the Kennedy case. Here are a few links and articles to get you started:
An Evolving View of Capital Punishment, Washington Post
Child Rape Tests Limits Of Death Penalty, Washington Post
Justices to rule if child rape can merit execution, Houston Chronicle
Court to consider death penalty for child rape, Reuters (HT: How Appealing)
"We have the abiding conviction that the death penalty...", Althouse
Quick look at the week in SCOTUS news, Capital Defense Weekly
And this is an excerpt from an article in the Chicago Tribune (which I admit being partial to because it quoted me):
Kennedy's lawyers argue that the law is a violation of the Constitution's 8th Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
While the law that will guide the court's decision is modern, the justices' inspiration reaches back beyond the Bible. The concept of "an eye for an eye" was written in Exodus and, before that, by the ancient Babylonian ruler Hammurabi. Accordingly, the justices will have to decide whether Kennedy's sentence is "proportionate" to his crime.
For four decades, absent such high crimes against the nation as treason, American law has mostly drawn a line when it comes to the death penalty: Only death warranted death. Any lesser crime, even rape, invited a lesser punishment.
Now the justices may be poised to rewrite that rule, potentially opening a series of questions about what other offenses merit the ultimate, irrevocable penalty, and perhaps inviting states to broaden the class of residents on Death Row.
"I think it would be an enormous move," said Corey Rayburn Yung, a professor at John Marshall Law School in Chicago. "It would open the door for all kinds [of new capital crimes]."
As always, you can check for updates at the Kennedy v. Louisiana Resource Page which I will be updating constantly this week.
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