Off the table...

Well, the Supreme Court has now decided that it, and not state legislatures, was fit to decide if a child rapist should get the death penalty.

Was the Louisiana law too broad? Arguably. But it had been rarely used in any case - they had no real grounds to determine whether or not that penalty was being misused.

The real losers, though, are voters. The Supreme Court has made its decision, for good or for ill, and it is very unlikely to be changed. If it is the wrong call, we the people have no viable recourse to change this or to hold those who have made that change accountable in any way, shape or form.

It makes you wonder just how much your vote matters, doesn't it?

An important case...

Yesterday, oral arguments in Kennedy v. Louisiana were held at the Supreme Court. A summary of the case is here.

I admit to some bias here. I have three nephews... and will become an uncle twice more later this year (I don't know if it's two more nephews, two nieces, or one apiece yet). So, yeah, to a degree, I have an emotional dog in this fight.

Folks, if there is any crime short of murder that warrants the death penalty, then raping a child under 12 fits the bill. The perp here pulled of a very vicious and horrific rape, and then tried to put the blame on someone else. Thankfully, the cops got to the truth of the matter. I think the Louisiana Supreme Court has laid out a strong opinion on this case that should be read.

Hopefully, the Louisiana Supreme Court will be upheld.

This should be a no-brainer...

The Supreme Court is going to hear the case of one Patrick Kennedy (NOT the Congressman, just to make it clear), on appeal from the Louisiana Supreme Court. If the nine justices have two neurons to rub together among them, they will uphold the lower court's ruling.

Mr. Kennedy, you see, raped his eight-year-old stepdaughter. And, after he was tried and convicted by a jury of twelve good citizens, he was given the death penalty, in accordance with the laws passed by the elected representatives of the people of the state of Louisiana. A second person, Richard Davis, was given the death sentence for a similar crime involving a 5-year-old girl.

The stakes are high, as is the matter with any Supreme Court case. I think that prosecutors should have the option to seek the death penalty in these cases.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will see things this way, so that Louisiana can carry out the sentences passed down by its courts. Might I suggest they call the GRU and ask to borrow their blast furnace?

Why Louisiana is right...

Louisiana's law allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for child rapists is facing a possible Supreme Court challenge.

Hopefully, the justices will note this Nevada incident when they deliberate the case. These are folks who really cannot be rehabilitated. You either lock `em up for life (which is expensive) or you can make sure they will never hurt a child again (there is no recidivism after capital punishment is imposed on an offender).

This is ugly...

The state of Nebraska has a problem. Ordinarily, making a video of sexual assults on two 5-year-olds and a 3-year-old is a pretty easy call. You call the GRU and ask if you can borrow their blast furnace.

Perps in this case, though, are juveniles. But juveniles who have done some very adult crimes. I hope those two drop the soap a lot while they're inside.

Justice in a Maryland prison...

Richard Spicknall killed his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. That despicable crime caught up to him in a shower in the Jessup Correctional Institution this past Saturday.

The good news is that the taxpayers no longer have to provide this piece of trash three hots and a cot for life. The bad news is that it took a fellow prisoner to take care of Spicknall - as opposed to the state via the gas chamber. What is aggravating is that the State of Maryland is going to spend a lot of money (not to mention time for investigators and crime-scene technicians) to go after someone who made the world a better place.

What a messed-up world.