Supreme Court to Hear Child Rapist's Death Penalty Appeal

Executions limited to murderers since 1964
By Zach Samalin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2008 5:18 PM CST
Supreme Court to Hear Child Rapist's Death Penalty Appeal
The steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building are shown in this 2000 file photo in Washington. The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether a state can execute someone convicted of raping a child, one of the few remaining crimes that does not require the death of the victim to result in capital...   (Associated Press)

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear the case of a Louisiana man sentenced to death in the brutal rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. His attorneys say Patrick Kennedy is "the only person in the United States who is on death row for a non-homicide offense." A 1977 Court decision put a stop the death penalty for acts short of murder.

If upheld, the sentence would end a 43-year trend of executing only murderers, although before 1963, capital punishment was common for rapists, especially black males, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This court should pause before condoning a practice so heavily tinged with the scourge of racism," said an attorney for Fitzgerald, 43, who is black and has an IQ of 70. (More US Supreme Court stories.)

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