Change In Direction

Petitioner Patrick Kennedy was convicted (2004) and sentenced to death in Louisiana for the aggravated rape of his then 8 year-old stepdaughter. Lousiana State is very strict on the consequences of raping a child under twelve and will result in state punishment.Kennedy refused to confess or plead guilty and blamed the rape on two neighborhood little boys. He then appeal on the defense that in the death is extremely harsh for such an offense. The state rejected Petitionaer reliance on the Coker v. Georigia case (1977), which did not allow the use of capital punishment for raping an woman because it was a child. In the end the Supreme Court bannedth use of the Eigth Amendment  in the case where a child was raped if it does not result in the child's death.

I feel that this case is tricky because I do not believe the eigth amendment should have been lifted since the child did not die. If a person rapes a kid who has not even hit puberty yet, they deserve to get the consequence of capital punushment hands down. Its is completely unfair that they change up the law and capital punishment will only abide in the case of death.

This case in particular is very disturbing seeing that a grown man with no sympathy at all went along and raped his not even ten year old step daughter, tearing various body parts.. Kennedy did receive lethal injection and was kill for the aggraveted rape of this little girl.

References:
http://www.google.com/images
Major death penalty cases in the us supreme court:kennedy v. lousiana. (2008 , October 6). Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001769