Louisiana Supreme Court upholds death penalty for rape of an 8-year-old girl

[A18]

Or did, yesterday, in State v. Kennedy. On the issue of Corker v. Georgia: "while Coker clearly bars the use of the death penalty as punishment for the rape of an adult woman, it left open the question of which, if any, non-homicide crimes can be constitutionally punished by death."

Discuss.

I expect the Supreme Court to grant review.

[A18]

Cert. granted; see here. "The brief of petitioner is to be filed on or before Thursday, February 14, 2008. The brief of respondent is to be filed on or before Wednesday, March 12, 2008."

My prediction is that we'll be looking at a 6-3 or 7-2 reversal.

[A18]

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-343.pdf

Reversed, 5-4. The court's holding is categorical: "The Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death."

[A18]

As I point out here, the Court's decision raises the question, "What about treason?"

The Court says that it "do[es] not address" "offenses against the State." But so far as I can tell, it makes no attempt to explain why its reasoning might not reach those offenses, while it necessarily does reach any "crime[] against [an] individual person[]" other than murder. The answer does not strike me as obvious.

[A18]

Many of the calls for rehearing are puzzling; they seem to be based on the impression that the "evolving standards of decency" test has some actual effect on outcomes. There is no basis for that assumption.