Proposals to execute pedophiles make headway in US
UNITED STATES: The idea of executing child rapists, even when there
in no loss of life, is making headway in the United States.
The Louisiana Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentence for a
pedophile, and the governor of Texas is soon to sign into law
legislation to that effect.
In 1995, Louisiana was the first state to adopt legislation
authorizing the death penalty for child rapists.
Ten years later, the movement to make pedophilia punishable by death
really picked up steam after nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was raped
and buried alive in Florida by a man with a prior conviction for sex
crimes. Various versions of the "Jessica Law" sprang up all over in the
country, imposing in most cases a minimum 25 year jail sentence and the
wearing of an ankle bracelet for life for raping a child aged 12 or
younger.
But in some states, elected officials amended their versions of the
"Jessica Law" by adding the possibility of condemning a pedophile to
death. They include Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Georgia and
Montana.
An overwhelming majority of lawmakers in Texas chose to join the
list. Texas is responsible for a third of all executions carried out in
the United States in the past 30 years and for two-thirds of those
conducted so far this year.
The draft law is now on the desk of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who
has promised to sign it.
The idea seems to go against the grain in the rest of the country,
where the death penalty is losing ground because of grave judicial
errors and botched executions.
Organizations defending the rights of crime victims have differing
views on the proposals.
"We are very concerned that this may reduce reporting of sexual
assault, since most child abuse is made by someone close to the child,"
said Karen Rugaard, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association Against
Sexual Assault. "It is already difficult to report about a father, an
uncle, a family friend ... It will be worse when the child knows they
can spend a very long time in jail or be sentenced to death," she said.
"We are worried that legislators did nothing to help prevent the
violence," Rugaard added, expressing regret that the draft law does not
call for any preventive measures. Moreover, it is uncertain that
executing non-murderers will comply with the US constitutional mandate
barring "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The only man among more than 3,300 prisoners on death row who stands
to lose his life under the new law is 42-year-old Patrick Kennedy, who
was sentenced to death in Louisiana in 2003 for raping his companion's
eight-year-old daughter. In 1977, the US Supreme Court invalidated the
death sentence of a rapist, arguing the punishment was disproportionate
to the crime.
Later, evoking "evolving standards of decency," the court also
rejected the death penalty for criminals who were minors or mentally
retarded at the time they committed their crimes.
But on Tuesday, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the death penalty
for Kennedy.
Washington, Monday, AFP |
