Supreme Court Ruling Case Study

Supreme Court Ruling The Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that the Eighth Amendment prohibits states from implementing the death penalty for the rape of a child when the rape did not lead to the murder of the child, or was not intended to result in the child’s demise. The court ruled that asking for the death penalty other then those circumstances would be an implementation of “cruel and unusual punishment” which violates the Eighth amendment. In making this ruling, the Court overturned the law in Louisiana plus five other states: Montana, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Two men on death row for child rape, both in Louisiana, would now receive a sentence of life without parole (Kennedy v. Louisiana 554 U.S. 4072008). Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the majority ruling of the Court on Kennedy v. Louisiana; Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, and John Paul Stevens joined him. Justice Kennedy explained the majority believed that “constitutional exclusion against excessive or cruel and unusual

Justice Alito wrote for the dissent and argued that because of what the rape victim experiences (physical, psychological and emotional trauma) in addition to the damage to society as a whole, is the base for the opinion that the death penalty is not out of proportion for child rapists. The dissenting Justices also disagreed with the Supremes’ Court view of the national consensus. The Justices argued that more states would have permitted the death penalty for child rape if the states knew the death penalty was allowed. The Justices wrote they support the idea that many state legislatures read the ruling in Coker v. Georgia as disallowing the death penalty for all rape crimes, not only when the victim is an adult. Justice Alito explained this is the reason only six states have laws that permit the death penalty for child rapist (Kennedy v. Louisiana 554 U.S.