Knickerbocker News: Justice Kennedy Screws the Children

Courtesy of Big Dog's Weblog. Thanks BD for the excellent article.

June
25

Justice Kennedy Screws the Children

Posted by Big Dog in General

Ronald Reagan’s second mistake, Justice Anthony Kennedy (the first was Sandra Day O’Connor), put the screws to children who are victims of rape. Kennedy, who is the swing vote in many close decisions, decided that the crime of raping a child is not worthy of the death penalty thereby ensuring that those who rape children will live their lives cared for in jails at taxpayer expense (and possibly be released) while the victims will live their lives with emotional and psychological damage.

To Kennedy and the other liberals on the court (he might as well be one, he acts like it) there are no crimes that warrant the death penalty except murder and many of them oppose it in that case as well. To them, raping a child is something that should be punished with jail time which means anything short of life without parole would allow the offender to gain freedom and rape again. Justice Alito wrote the dissenting opinion. Here is part of it and it makes the most sense:

“The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to the Court, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. The Court provides two reasons for this sweeping conclusion: First, the Court claims to have identified “a national consensus” that the death penalty is never acceptable for the rape of a child;second, the Court concludes, based on its “independent judgment,” that imposing the death penalty for child rape is inconsistent with “‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’” Ante, at 8, 15, 16 (citation omitted). Because neither of these justifications is sound, I respectfully dissent.”

If a person who rapes a child is released and rapes again I assume that the flawed opinion of Kennedy and the others will be little consolation to the victim and his parents. I think if a person who rapes a child (in a state that had the death penalty for the offense) is released and rapes another child, the members of the court who allowed it should be hanged in front of the Supreme Court building. The idea is for laws to protect the public and this ruling does nothing to accomplish that. If it were my child they might not make it to the hanging.

While I am disgusted with the ruling in this case I actually have no feeling one way or the other about putting a criminal to death for raping a child because that can be accomplished anywhere regardless of what the court says. When the animal is sent to jail put him in the general population and let them know what he is in for. He will be killed in jail and the problem will be solved and with no appeals.

I cannot imagine what children must go through after they are raped and it is just as hard on the families. It makes it even harder when the courts rule that the criminal somehow has more rights than the victim. The criminal must be afforded a stretch of the VIIIth Amendment to stay alive while a child, who was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of the attacker, must go through life bearing the scars. If some person who raped a child were released I would not blame any victim’s father who decided to remove the trash from this Earth. If I were on that jury he would walk away a free man.

Kennedy and the others are worried about cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is too good for these scumbags. They should be hanged, drawn and quartered (the criminals, not the justices, though that might not be a bad idea).

America, these justices are no where as liberal as those Barack Obama will appoint if he becomes president. There will likely be a few openings in the next president’s term. It is important that those positions are filled with justices who will not use public sentiment and personal feelings when interpreting the Constitution. We need more like those who were in the minority on this vote.

Be careful how you vote. Your vote has many more consequences than just putting someone in office.

Hugh Hewitt
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