Articles labeled: patrick kennedy

The Supreme Court is reviewing the case of Patrick Kennedy, a Louisiana man sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Kennedy’s lawyer argues that executing him violates the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Do you agree? While people like Kennedy are indeed the scum of the earth, should we as a society really dole out capital punishment for cases other than murder? Of course, we’re a bit hypocritical because if he did this to our kid we wouldn’t need the death penalty as we would kill him with our own bare hands…

While the law that will guide the court’s decision is modern, the justices’ inspiration reaches back beyond the Bible. The concept of “an eye for an eye” was written in Exodus and, before that, by the ancient Babylonian ruler Hammurabi. Accordingly, the justices will have to decide whether Kennedy’s sentence is “proportionate” to his crime.

For four decades, absent such high crimes against the nation as treason, American law has mostly drawn a line when it comes to the death penalty: Only death warranted death. Any lesser crime, even rape, invited a lesser punishment.

Now the justices may be poised to rewrite that rule, potentially opening a series of questions about what other offenses merit the ultimate, irrevocable penalty, and perhaps inviting states to broaden the class of residents on Death Row.

On a side note, besides the abhorrent notion that judges would use the Bible as “inspiration” for their rulings, we thought Jesus denounced that whole “eye for an eye” thing in the New Testament. You know, the whole “turn the other cheek” stuff?