The Forensic Nurse

This week is a historic week for the american judicial system.  The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case about Kennedy vs Louisiana , in an attempt to determine whether it is “cruel and unusual punishment” to execute someone who is convicted of child rape. The last execution of a rapist whose offense did not include murder was in 1964.

Patrick Kennedy, age 43,  is on Louisianas’ death row for the 2003 rape of his 8 year old stepdaughter,who initially lied to the police and said she had been assaulted by two boys in her garage and later recanted. Currently the only person in the United States on death row for a rape that did not include murder.

There are currently five states with laws on the books that allow the capital punishment of an individual for the rape of a child under the age of 12; Lousiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas and South Carolina.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Forensic Nursing Events, Forensic Nursing Terms, Laws, Sexual Assaults. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.