June 26, 2008
SCOTUS Doesn’t Want To Kill Convicted Rapists
Child rape isn’t enough, says the Supreme Court of the United States. If you’re a fan of the death penalty, child rape just doesn’t justify terminating the rapist’s life. To the Court, child rape is like being too short to go under the height bar to ride the roller coaster, too slow to make the Olympic Team, or too Caucasian to qualify for affirmative action.
Some people are uncomfortable with the death penalty anyway, and even fewer even want to try out for the Olympics and there are always community colleges for the pigmently depleted. And eventually, we all get to ride the roller coaster.
The death penalty is like having a jones for Cheetos, but there’s none left in the bag, only a nostalgic orange mist. It’s like really, desperately, achingly needing a cigarette, but you’re in lockdown at a vegan restaurant with environmentalists. Like getting “the shakes” wanting a Jack Daniels, but the bars are closed.
All that is nothing compared to death, the final frontier. Once someone’s dead, he can’t be brought back, unless you’re George Romero, in which case the guy is better off dead anyway. Brains, anyone?
Naturally the Big Court wants to be careful about wielding the death penalty, limiting it only to someone who has murdered. (No one seems to care anymore about the death penalty for high treason, the little activity that got the Rosenbergs excuted. Hell, if we did, we’d have to think seriously about shooting the New York Times.)
No, if you want to invoke the death penalty, the bad guy will just have to go to the trouble to commit a murder. That’s a crime worthy of the death penalty in the U.S., but not in countries who consider themselves civilized — France, England, Italy, Germany, all of Europe. These countries like to keep their murderous scum around to die a natural death, or maybe — sacre bleu — become rehabilitated. Then they’ll be returned to walk among us, where their behavior might merit a movie or at least a Law And Order episode.
Our Supreme Court, however, has determined that raping a child isn’t a serious enough crime to merit the death penalty. See, rape unfortunately doesn’t kill the child, which is a bummer for the Court. Penetrating an eight year old’s still unformed vagina and/or anus by a grown-up penis or foreign object just doesn’t kill that child. But that’s what the stats show.
Whew! That’s good. I’m glad the Supreme Court pointed that out.
I would have been worried if a psychologically numbed and ruined nine year old with a ripped anus and a diseased vagina, who can’t bear to touch a man for the rest of her life without shivering in fear, whose damaged psyche might make her suspicious of any human encounter and could make her unable to function for the rest of her life, was dead.
Because then we might have to kill the person who did it. But, “The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion.
Damn! He’s right. Why didn’t I realize that!?
This is good to know in case I’m ever holding the limp, frightened, weeping body of my own raped child in my arms. My first, uncivilized, non-European thought would be to kill the guy who did this to her.
Thanks God for SCOTUS. Because of evolving standards of decency that Justice Kennedy invoked in making his decision, I’ll spend the rest of my life and limited resources trying to repair my child’s mind and spirit, living daily with the damage the rape has caused her, me, my wife and other children, daily negotiating the tripwire of feelings and emotions, hoping each morning that the raped child will eventually be able to live a normal life with a decent job or a husband and children, or both, but knowing sub-consciously that this may never be.
Because my guess is there won’t be a day when everyone wakes up and “Voila!”, everything’s back to normal. Just years of therapy, medications, lonliness and a horrible memory that will never die, until the victim dies.
The big argument against the death penalty is that once it’s been discharged it can’t be undone. I agree.
Now, will someone explain to me how a rape is “undone.”
The effects you describe could flow from virtually ANY crime. A child who is severely beaten could have long lingering psychological damage as well. Should THAT make it a death penalty crime? No one is suggesting they can’t be punished; and punished severely (life in prison is certainly okay). The standards for death, however, are stringent.
I — for one — agree with the decision.
Dickadr,
A legitimate POV. But I think that the loss of the life of a child rapist doesn’t begin to compensate for the lifelong damage his crime might inflict on his victim. If it’s proportionality the court wants, maybe they could tally up the stakes in that regard.
No question this is an issue where powerful emotions are in play and emotions are notoriously irrational. I grant you that. The lingering emotion is the one that will witness day after day the shock waves of the crime for the victim and her (his) family, whereas the rapist lives and makes do with his lifelong imprisonment — assuming he gets life.
I think this is a decision that needs to be made state by state and not federally mandated.
Thanks for your comment