Prison Justice
One other state approves dying penalty for baby rape
Republican Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee speaks throughout a information convention on the finish of the 2024 legislative session on April 25 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photograph by George Walker IV/The Related Press)
Republican Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee signed a invoice final week that authorizes the dying penalty for aggravated rape of a kid by an grownup.
The brand new legislation takes impact July 1, the Associated Press experiences. Individuals convicted of the crime may be sentenced to dying or to life imprisonment, with or with out the opportunity of parole.
A Florida invoice signed a couple of 12 months in the past by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis additionally permits the dying penalty for baby rape, in accordance with USA Today.
Supporters of the legal guidelines hope that they are going to lead the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to overturn a 5-4 resolution in 2008 that stated the dying penalty for baby rape is unconstitutional in instances that don’t lead to dying.
Then-Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority decision within the 2008 case, Kennedy v. Louisiana.
Citing “evolving requirements of decency,” Kennedy said the dying penalty for baby rapists violates the Eighth Modification’s ban on merciless and weird punishment.
Three of the dissenters stay on the Supreme Courtroom, whereas no justice within the majority stays, in accordance with an op-ed by one of many sponsors of the Tennessee invoice, Republican Tennessee State Sen. Jack Johnson.
