Miscellaneous

Supreme Court Gets It Right, But I Don't Like It

I'm not a death penalty advocate whatsoever; in fact, I'm pretty set against it, so long as I'm not actually privy to the facts of a particular case (throw in the gruesome details, and my conservative "give 'em the chair" streak runs wild). So today's Supreme Court ruling gives me mixed emotions.

By a 5-4 margin, in an opinion written by Justice Kennedy (as of this writing, I don't know all of the details, but it's safe to say that Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and the new guy are in the minority), the Supreme Court ruled that it is not constitutional to impose the death penalty on those who have been convicted of raping a child.

It makes sense, and I suppose that the punishment is not proportional, since it's less of an "eye for an eye" thing and more of an "eye for the loss of your childhood and likely life debilitating trauma" thing. So, bully for the Sups.

But on the other hand: If you had to give out the death penalty, wouldn't it feel good to fry the bastards who raped children? I'm just sayin', you know?

Full post as published by Quiz Law on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).