Supreme Court Grants Cert in Kennedy v. Louisiana

The Supreme Court this afternoon announced that it will examine the constitutionality of a Louisiana law that allows the death penalty in non-homicidal child rape.  Though the Louisiana law pre-dates Jessica's Law, four states -- Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and South Carolina have passed versions of Jessica's Law with a death penalty provision even when the victim is not murdered.  The case is Kennedy v. Louisiana, 07-343.

The SCOTUS Wiki page, already loaded with briefs, is here.

Information on Coker v. Georgia, the 1977 Supreme Court ruling that held the death penalty to be unconstitutional in the case of the non-homicidal rape of an adult woman, is here via Oyez.

Linda Greenhouse at the New York Times reports, "Justices to Decide if Rape of a Child Merits Death."

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Constitution allows the death penalty for the rape of a child.

The justices acted only three days before a scheduled argument in another important death penalty case, on the standard for judging whether chemicals used to administer lethal injections make that method of execution unconstitutionally cruel.

The new case, from Louisiana, is likely to be argued in April, meaning that during the course of its current term, the Supreme Court will be examining both the most common method of execution and a categorical question about which crimes are appropriate for the death penalty.

No one has been executed in the United States for a crime other than murder since 1964. Of some 3,300 inmates of death row today, only two are facing execution for an offense that did not involve a killing. Both are on Louisiana’s death row. The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from one of them, Patrick Kennedy, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

In the Washington Post, Robert Barnes has, "Justices to Consider Death Penalty Issue."

On SCOTUS Blog, Lyle Denniston has, "Court to rule on death penalty for child rape."

"Court Mulls Death Penalty for Child Rape," is AP's dispatch by Mark Sherman.

David Savage reports, "Death penalty for child rapist goes to Supreme Court," in the Los Angeles Times.

Mark Anderson has, "Court Takes Death-Penalty Case Involving Rape of Young Girl," in the Wall Street Journal.

Bloomberg has, "Death Penalty for Child Rape Gets High Court Review," by Greg Stohr

The Jessica's Law index is here.  As I've noted before, even though the Louisiana law pre-dates the Jessica's Law proposals, for convenience, I'm using that tag for the Kennedy case.