- A Supreme Oops
Forget the dozen or more briefs filed in the case, the oral arguments and the deliberations by the justices. It took a blogger to find a mistake – possibly a big one – in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling last week that the death penalty for child rape was unconstitutional. Justice Kennedy’s majority decision said that the death penalty for a child rapist was contrary to evolving standards of decency, in part because most states and the federal government do not apply the penalty in such cases.
But the New York Times reports that military lawyer Dwight Sullivan, who works for the Air Force handling death penalty appeals, noted in his blog last week that the Uniform Code of Military Justice was amended in 2006 to make child rape a military death penalty offense. Sullivan writes: “That is a congressional statute expressly authorizing the death penalty for the rape of a child. How come neither side in the Kennedy case even mentioned it?” The federal government didn’t even participate in the case.
The state of Louisiana, which lost the case, can file for a reconsideration of the decision. Sullivan previously served as the lead defense counsel for the Office of Military Commissions, and has made the Lawdragon 500 all three years.
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| 08:51 AM Jul 2, 2008 | Email the Daily Dragon | Email this Article | Post Comments |
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