YBTJ Kennedy v. Louisiana
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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215
Subject
Law
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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3
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1/28/2024
Assignment 3a- YBTJ Kennedy v. Louisiana (Constitutional Law in real life)
Case:
YBTJ Kennedy v. Louisiana
Issue
Did the Louisiana statue violate the Constitution by permitting the death penalty in a case of child rape? Is it proper for the Supreme Court to decide this issue?
Rule
The Eight amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which includes penalties that are out of proportion to the crime. Capital punishment is permissible under the Louisiana statue that was in place for child rape. Analysis
Kennedy had raped his 8-year-old step-daughter along with another 8-year-old which he was both charged and convicted of. The step- daughter had suffered extremely severe injuries and during the trial the jury voted for death sentence which was permissible through the Louisiana statue. Kennedy appealed to the supreme court using the 8
th
amendment as grounds. At the time, six states had passed laws permitting capital punishment for child rape, rest 44 states didn’t. The interpretation of the 8
th
amendment is very important when deciding if the Louisiana statue violated the Constitution. On one hand, the Louisiana state legislation went through the proper process and voting to implement that stature and the jury during the trial was also consistent with state legislation. The cruel
and unusual punishment section is particular important when dealing with this issue, and again the state of Louisiana found that their statue was just in both those regards. Child rape not only severely damages the victim, but their families and communities get heavily affected as well. Given how grotesque this crime was, Louisiana believed that death sentence was not too cruel a punishment, and also seeing how 6 other states had a similar law already in place, it didn’t seem unusual either. The problem again though is determining what is deemed cruel and unusual. The state of Louisiana certainly had a lot of merits with their decision, but there are strong arguments against it. Regarding the cruelty aspect, not all states have capital punishment as a legal punishment to begin with. In addition, sometimes the victim is a family member, and though the crime is horrendous as a child having to testify to push for the death sentence of your family member can be very problematic. Regarding the unusual aspect, 44 states hadn’t had laws passed permitting capital punishment, meaning that there is a clear divide and hesitation regarding this punishment. There also seems to be a lack of precedent to case like this, all of which adds to the punishment being unusual. It does not make sense for the Supreme Court to deal with cases that are solely dealing with state legislation as that what state courts are for. There was already state legislation in place for this crime stating that capital punishment is permissible for the crime of child rape, but the issue arises when the constitution comes into play. A possible conflict which includes the constitution has more long-lasting implications such as drawing and setting better guidelines for the case and thus future precents. At the time six states had passed laws allowing capital punishment and rest hadn’t. And while there could be more or less states favoring it in the future, at the very least topic is clearly divided, and so having a clearer cut precedent would be very beneficial. The supreme court comes into play here as they would be able to achieve that goal the best.
Conclusion
The appeal is to be affirmed as there is evidence that the punishment is seen as unusual and cruel due to the lack of national consensus as well, lack of precedent, and problems it can cause the victim.
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