08-27-2003, 08:20 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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Insane
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Wait, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean Louisiana is going against the 1977 Supreme Court case... Did they decide that they don't need the federal government telling them what to do, or did the supreme court reverse that 1977 ruling sometime between '77 and now?
EDIT: Found this, I guess I didn't read it wrong.
Quote:
from www.nola.com http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisi...9943139852.xml
Defense lawyers predict man's death sentence will be overturned
The Associated Press
8/27/2003, 4:57 p.m. CT
GRETNA, La. (AP) — Legal experts predicted that a death sentence would be overturned for the first man in the nation in 25 years sentenced to death row for a crime other than murder.
Patrick O'Neal Kennedy, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to die after he was convicted of aggravated rape of an 8-year-old female relative.
Louisiana's 1995 law allows capital punishment for those convicted of raping a child younger than 12. However, the law conflicts with a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling saying it would be unconstitutional to sentence someone to death who had not committed a murder.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the state law in 1996, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling emphasized only that rape of an adult should not lead to a death sentence. The state Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's law is constitutional because child rape victims are in a different category than adults.
"Since children cannot protect themselves, the state is given the responsibility to protect them," the court found. "Children are a class of people that need special protection; they are particularly vulnerable since they are not mature enough nor capable of defending themselves."
Georgia's Legislature passed a similar law in 1999, apparently the only other in the country.
All death penalty cases go through a lengthy appeals process, and a number of experienced defense lawyers said in interviews that Kennedy's sentence would not stand.
"There is no doubt in my mind this man's conviction will be overturned," said Nick Trenticosta, a New Orleans lawyer who's handled many death row cases.
The U.S. Supreme Court has given no clear indication whether it would overturn Louisiana's law. In 1997, the high court declined to hear a challenge of the law, but three justices included an unusual note emphasizing that the court's decision not to hear the case did not indicate they thought the law was constitutional.
Pam Metzger, a Tulane University law professor, said she thought that note was an indication that the three justices — John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer — "believe there are serious issues about the constitutionality of the Louisiana law."
Kennedy was accused of attacking the girl on March 2, 1998. At first the girl told police that she was raped by a young man as she sorted Girl Scout cookies in the open garage of her suburban New Orleans home. But 21 months later, she told her mother that Kennedy had raped her.
Because of her age, the girl's name was not made public.
Louisiana's death row has seven people who have raped children, but they were also convicted of first degree murder, said Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary
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Last edited by Raw Kuts; 08-27-2003 at 08:25 PM..
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