No Death Penalty For Child Rape

"However devastating the crime to children, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion, 'the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child.'" Very true. It's nowhere near punishment enough. However, since our country refuses to burn, flay, disembowel, impale, or stone child rapists, modern forms of execution are the closest thing to justice we can obtain in this life.

While the dissenting justices, especially Alito, had some eloquent objections, I think the one that captures this injustice the best was the response given by the little girl's mother. "The girl's mother was reached by The Associated Press following the court's decision Wednesday. 'We don't talk about that,' she said and hung up."

P.S. Kudos to Obama for having the courage to denounce the verdict in the strongest language available to a gutless Dem. Ok, that was unnecessary, but seriously, he didn't need to comment and I'm glad he did. I haven't heard anything from McCain yet.

P.P.S. Ok, McCain did release a statement saying he found the ruling, "profoundly disturbing". Am I the only one who thinks that, while temperance is often a good thing, society would benefit by a little bit of apoplectic language from time to time? Couldn't Obama or McCain have mustered harsher words?

In case you're not with me yet, here's some context. This is a decision that stays the execution of a man who, after previously having sexually abused an 8 year-old on 3 occasions (including one actual rape), then raped another 8 year-old. According to the prosecutor's brief she suffered "a vaginal injury which had resulted in profuse bleeding. A laceration to the left wall of her vagina had separated her cervix from the back of her vagina, causing her rectum to protrude into her vagina. Additionally, L.H.’s perineum was torn all the way from the posterior fourchette, where the vagina normally ends, to the anus." He then forced her to lie to the police, whom he only bothered to call after he called in to work to tell them he wouldn't be in because his daughter had, "become a woman" and arranging for the bloody carpet to be cleaned? How about showing a little bit of outrage?