SHOOTING A MAN IN COLD BLOOD AND THEN THIS :
BUT ? :
WHILE AT THE HOUSE IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, AT THE BEGINNING
OF THE HEARINGS DUE LEGISLATION, NEW AND OLD IDEAS FOR BUDGET AND THE STATES
FUTURE AND WELL BEING, A GESTURE IS MADE WITH THE RIGHT HAND AFTER THE PLEDGE
OF ALLEGIANCE. THIS IS FOR THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO.
THE ‘BLASPHEMOUS ‘ IDEAS ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, AND BODILY
FLUIDS. I REMEMBERED.
I WILL ATTEND AGAIN SOON.
WHILE WRITING THE LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, I WENT ‘ THROUGH ‘ SO MANY ‘ REWRITES,’ ‘ NEW BLOGS,’ ALL TRYING TO
KEEP A BALANCED STAND, NOT TO THE ‘ FAR RIGHT,’ THE INSANITY OF ABSOLUTE
RACISM. THOSE PEOPLE WERE VERY ‘ SMART,’ AND I MIGHT ADD NOT ALL ‘ WHITE.’ SOME
WERE BLACK, A FEW ‘ BROWN.’ SOLDIERS AND BUSINESSMEN.
MANY, NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS.
OUTSIDE OF WHAT PATRICK K. WARE STATED OF THE ‘ GAMES ‘ THAT
WERE PER-CURED ( RADIO WAVES ACROSS THE ' RANGE ' ) AGAINST THE IRAQI PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF ‘ ORDERS ‘ WITH ELECTRONIC
PHYSIOLOGICAL WARFARE AND ‘ STATEMENTS ‘ THAT FRANK GARCIA MADE ‘ OUTSIDE ‘ OF
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF HIS SISTER’S EXPERIENCE IN ARMY INTELLIGENCE AND ‘ EVERYTHING ‘
DOWN TO THE DOG, A VARIANCE OF JESUS, ARE ALL INDICATORS OF SOMETHING GONE
HORRIBLY WRONG.
FROM SCANNERS WITH MY NAME ‘ BANNED ‘ AT A UNM LIBRARY, TO
TREATMENT AT HOSPITALS AND WARNINGS FROM THOSE WHO HAVE PROMISED LIFE TO
COUNTRY.
THE FIRST WE PROTECT IS ‘ OUR FAMILIES; CHILDREN.’ THIS IS
PARAMOUNT. THIS IS FIRST, THIS WAS THE SOUL REASON FOR THE DEPARTURE FROM
TYRANNY. ‘ IDEALIZED FREEDOM AND LIKENESS OF MIND.’
THIS WAS NOT POSSIBLE IN BRITAIN; SLAVERY AND SERFDOM. YET
BRITAIN CAME UP WITH THE FIRST CHILD WORK PLACE PROTECTION LAWS AND HAVE LEAD
THE WAY SINCE.
WHO ‘ ARE WE ? ‘
below :
ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLESouth Dakota Law Review
Prohibiting the Death Penalty for the
Rape of a Child While Overlooking Wrongful Execution: Kennedy V. Louisiana
By
Minor, Kelly J.
Article
excerpt
I. INTRODUCTION
When the first colonists arrived on North American soil, they permitted
the death penalty for the rape of an adult or a child. (1) However, as the
colonies developed, each promulgated its own rules to determine an appropriate
punishment for rape. (2) In 1972, Furman v. Georgia (3) nearly halted the use
of the death penalty as a punishment for the rape of an adult or a child. (4)
The Court held that death constituted a cruel and unusual punishment when
applied to the crime of rape, since the crime did not necessarily result in a
death. (5) Though the majority of states do not permit the death penalty for
the rape of an adult or a child, five other states--Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, and Texas--followed Louisiana's lead and enacted statutes allowing
the death penalty for the rape of a child. (6)
In deciding whether the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for the
rape of a child, courts have placed great emphasis on the Eighth Amendment's
guarantee that punishments not be cruel and unusual. (7) The Framers intended
to prevent "tortures" and "barbarous" methods of
punishment. (8) Today, courts look at legislative enactments as well as the
appropriateness of the punishment in relation to the crime committed to
determine whether the death penalty should be permitted as a punishment for a
particular crime. (9) Ideally, this determination requires that the death
penalty succeed in meeting the two goals of punishment: deterrence and
retribution. (10)
In June 2008, in Kennedy v. Louisiana, (11) the United States Supreme
Court overturned the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision to sentence Patrick
Kennedy to death following his conviction for the rape of a child. (12) Kennedy
held that a death sentence as applied to the rape of a child, a crime not resulting
nor intending to result in death, violates the Eighth Amendment. (13) The
significance of this holding remains to be seen; however, the Court's decision
rests firmly on the belief that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death
penalty as applied to the rape of a child, because it constitutes cruel and
unusual punishment. (14) In so holding, the Court recognized the possibility of
wrongful execution, yet placed little emphasis on its significance or the great
probability of its occurrence, especially in cases when child victims testify.
(15)
This casenote will address the impact of relying on child testimony in
applying the death penalty to perpetrators who rape a child. It will begin with
a review of the facts and procedure of Kennedy v. Louisiana, (16) examine the
history of the death penalty as applied to rape, (17) and analyze the effect of
relying on child testimony in applying the death penalty to the rape of a
child. (18) It will also look at the importance of societal opinions and the
national consensus regarding the death penalty when applied to crimes not
resulting in death, specifically rape of a child. (19) This note will then
recognize the possibility of the arbitrary and capricious application of the
death penalty and present necessary steps to avoid it. (20) In addition, it
will analyze the goals of punishment and determine whether these goals are met
when the death penalty is applied to the rape of a child. (21) Finally, this
note will focus on the possibility of wrongful execution and the effects of
relying on child testimony. (22) The Supreme Court in Kennedy was correct in
holding that the death penalty should not be permitted in cases of child rape
not resulting in death; (23) however, the Court should have prohibited the
death penalty as applied to rape of a child not because it would constitute a
cruel and unusual punishment, but because of the fallibility of child testimony
and its effects on convictions. (24)
II. FACTS AND PROCEDURE
On the morning of March 2, 1998, an innocent child became a victim of an
indescribably brutal rape. (25) Justice Kennedy appropriately acknowledged the
impossibility of giving a full account of the crime which occurred, stating
that "[p]etitioner's crime was one that cannot be recounted in these pages
in a way sufficient to capture in full the hurt and horror inflicted on
[petitioner's] victim or to convey the revulsion society, and the jury that
represents it, sought to express" in punishing the offender. …
