Kennedy v. Louisiana

SCOTUSCase
Litigants=Kennedy v. Louisiana
ArgueDate=April 16
ArgueYear=2008
DecideDate=June 25
DecideYear=2008
FullName=Patrick O. Kennedy v. State of Louisiana
USVol=
USPage=
CitationNew=554 U.S. ___; 128 S.Ct. 2641; 2008 U.S. LEXIS 5262; 2008 WL 2511282; 08 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7920; 76 U.S.L.W. 4584; 2008 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9470; 21 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 472
Oral Argument=
Procedural=Writ of Certiorari to the Louisiana Supreme Court
Prior=Defendant convicted, sentenced, La. Dist. Ct., Aug. 26, 2003; aff'd, "State v. Kennedy", 957 So.2d 757 (La. 2007); cert. granted, 552 U.S. ___, 128 S. Ct. 829 (2008)
Subsequent=
Holding=It is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty for the crime of raping a child, when the victim does not die and death was not intended. Louisiana Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
Docket=07-343
SCOTUS=2008
Majority=Kennedy
JoinMajority=Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent=Alito
JoinDissent=Roberts, Scalia, Thomas
LawsApplied=U.S. Const. amend. VIII; La. Stat. Ann. §14:42

"Kennedy v. Louisiana", 554 U.S. ___ (2008) was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause did not permit a State to punish the crime of rape of a child with the death penalty; more broadly, a State may not impose the death penalty against an individual for committing a crime that did not result in the death of the victim.

Background

Patrick O. Kennedy, a man from suburban New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced to death after being convicted of raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter. He has contended since the assault occurred in March 1998 that it was committed by two neighborhood boys. His attorneys have said he refused to plead guilty when a deal was offered to spare him from a death sentence. He was sentenced under a 1995 Louisiana law that allows the death penalty for the rape of a child under the age of 13. [ [http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78529 Louisiana Revised Statutes §§ 14:42(A)(4), (D)(2)(a).] ]

Kennedy's lawyers challenged the constitutionality of executing a person solely for child rape before the Louisiana Supreme Court which rejected the challenge on the grounds that the death penalty was not too harsh for such a heinous offense. The court noted that, although the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down capital punishment for rape of an adult woman in "Coker v. Georgia", that ruling did not apply when the victim was a child. Rather, the Louisiana Supreme Court applied a balancing test set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in "Atkins v. Virginia" and "Roper v. Simmons", first examining whether there is a national consensus on the punishment and then considering whether the court would find the punishment excessive. In this case, the Louisiana Supreme Court felt that the adoption of similar laws in five other states, coupled with the unique vulnerability of children, justified imposing the death penalty.Cite web|url=http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1179901645314480.xml&coll=1&thispage=1|title=Death penalty in rape case upheld|accessyear=2008|accessmonthday=July 18|publisher=New Orleans Times-Picayune|year=2007|monthday=May 23|author=Susan Finch] [ [http://www.lasc.org/opinions/2007/05KA1981.opn.pdf The full text of the opinion from the Louisiana Supreme Court.] ]

His lawyers then challenged the constitutionality of executing a person solely for child rape in federal courts eventually making it to the Supreme Court which agreed to hear his case in January 2008.Cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus5jan05,1,2048054.story|title=Justices to rule on child rapist's death sentence|accessyear=2008|accessmonthday=February 20|publisher=Los Angeles Times|year=2008|author=David G. Savage] At the time Kennedy was one of two men in the country under sentence of death for a non-capital crime; the other, Richard L. Davis, had been sentenced under the same Louisiana law. [Cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/NEWS03/712130320/1062/NEWS03|title=Death for rapist: Jury says man should die for assaulting 5-year-old|accessyear=2008|accessmonthday=January 4|publisher=Shreveport Times, Shreveport, LA|year=2007|monthday=December 13|author=Loresha Wilson]

U.S. Supreme Court

In seeking certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, Jeffrey L. Fisher, a Stanford Law School professor appealing on behalf of Mr. Kennedy, argued that five states do not constitute a "national consensus" for the purposes of Eighth Amendment analysis, that "Coker v. Georgia" should apply to all rapes regardless of the age of the victim, and that the law was unfair in its application, singling out black child rapists for death at a significantly higher rate than whites. Certiorari to the defendant was granted on January 4, 2008. [ [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/07-343.htm U.S Supreme Court Docket 07-343] - Retrieved April 27, 2008]

The case posed a direct test of whether states may constitutionally impose the death penalty for any crime other than murder, and, in particular, whether a death sentence is a disproportionate penalty, under the Eighth Amendment, for raping a child. No person has been executed in the United States for rape since 1964. [ [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiEniqpAKUX1RKGGD9edZH_WHkYwD901QN0O1 Associated Press: Death Penalty for Child Rape Is Fought] - (" [I] n 1964... a man in Missouri went to the gas chamber in what was the last time someone in this country was put to death for rape.") - Retrieved April 27, 2008]

Louisiana Assistant District Attorney Juliet L. Clark argued for the State of Louisiana and Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz argued for the State of Texas and other amicus curiae states. [ [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/07-343.htm U.S Supreme Court Docket 07-343] - Retrieved April 27, 2008]

Questions presented

#Does the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause permit a State to use the death penalty to punish the crime of rape of a child?
#If so, does Louisiana's capital rape statute violate the Eighth Amendment insofar as it fails genuinely to narrow the class of such offenders eligible for the death penalty? [ [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/qp/07-00343qp.pdf U.S Supreme Court Docket 07-343 - Questions Presented] - Retrieved April 27 2008]

Opinion of the Supreme Court

Majority

On June 25, 2008, the Supreme Court, splitting 5-4, held that " [t] he Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death." In its majority opinion authored by Justice Kennedy, the Court explained that the application of the death penalty had to rest on national consensus, and that as only six States permitted the death penalty for child rape, no such consensus existed. In formulating the idea of "national consensus" the Court relied on the previous cases "Roper v. Simmons" (2005), which outlawed the execution of minors, and "Coker v. Georgia" (1977), which outlawed the application of the death penalty for the crime of rape. According to the Court, " [t] he death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child." The opinion, which was joined by the court's four more liberal judges, went on to state, "The court concludes that there is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder, on the one hand, and non-homicide crimes against individuals, even including child rape, on the other. The latter crimes may be devastating in their harm, as here, but in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public, they cannot compare to murder in their severity and irrevocability." The opinion concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals, "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken." ["Kennedy v. Louisiana", slip op., at 35.]

Factual error

In writing for the majority, a central point of Justice Kennedy's analysis was his observation that child rape was a capital offense in just six states and that neither the 30 other states with the death penalty nor any federal jurisdiction characterized it as such. On July 2, 2008, Linda Greenhouse of "The New York Times" reported that the majority's assertion was incorrect, as Congress had revised the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 2006 to add child rape to the list of offenses punishable in the military by death. [cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/washington/02scotus.html |title=In Court Ruling on Executions, a Factual Flaw |accessdate=2008-07-02 |publisher=The New York Times |author=Linda Greenhouse |date=2008-07-02] None of the 10 briefs filed with the Court mentioned the provision.

Since the error was discovered proponents of the law have sought to have the court meet to address the error and possibly hear the case again. They include the governors of Missouri and Louisiana, 85 members of Congress and even the US Department of Justice. [cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/washington/11brfs-JUSTICESAREA_BRF.html |title=Justices Are Asked to Reconsider |accessdate=2008-07-11 |publisher=The New York Times |author=David Stout |date=2008-07-11]

The court requested briefs from both the state and the defense on the matter with the possibility of amending the ruling. On October 1, 2008, however, the Supreme Court declined to revisit its decision that imposing the death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional.

Dissent

In his dissent Justice Alito sharply criticized the majority for usurping the role of the legislature. Alito argued that Kennedy's rationale for divining national consensus was flawed, because the previous "Coker" decision had "stunted legislative consideration of the question whether the death penalty for the targeted offense of raping a young child is consistent with prevailing standards of decency." In this Alito followed former Chief Justice Warren Burger, who had dissented from "Coker" because it, in his view, prevented a full debate over the uses of the recently-reinstated death penalty. In this vein, Alito also argued that "The Eighth Amendment protects the right of an accused. It does not authorize this Court to strike down federal or state criminal laws on the ground that they are not in the best interests of crime victims or the broader society." ["Kennedy v. Louisiana", Alito, J., dissenting, slip op., at 15.]

ee also

* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 554

References

External links

* [http://sexcrimes.typepad.com/sex_crimes/kennedy-v-louisiana.html Sex Crimes: Patrick Kennedy v. Louisiana Resource Page] : Contains Merits/Amicus Briefs & Media Links
* [http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Kennedy_v._Louisiana SCOTUSWiki Page]
* [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-343.pdf U.S. Supreme Court Argument Transcript]
* [http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2007/2007_07_343/ Oyez: Kennedy v. Louisiana]
* [http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/07-343.html Legal Information Institute Bulletin: Cornell University Law School - Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343)]
* [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-343.pdf Text Opinion]