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Kennedy v Louisiana 554 U.S. 407

Facts: On June 25th 2008, Patrick Kennedy was found guilty of raping and sodomizing his eight year old stepdaughter. The rape was so brutal that the victim needed invasive surgery. When questioned about the crime, Kennedy claimed that two neighborhood boys committed the crime. But when enough evidence was gathered to prove Kennedy’s guilt, he was offered a deal to spare him his life and he finally admitted to his crime. He was then convicted in 2003 and sentenced under a specific Louisiana Law that allowed the death penalty for the rape of a child under the age of 14. Legal Question: Does the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause permit a State to use the death penalty to punish the crime of rape of a child? Does Louisiana's capital rape statute violate the Eighth Amendment insofar as it fails genuinely to narrow the class of such offenders eligible for the death penalty? Is the sentence for the death penalty too harsh for solely a child rape? Or is the death penalty no harsh enough for such a heinous crime? Do states violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment by imposing the death sentence for the crime of child rape?

Decision: Yes (5-4 Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the opinion of the court)

Court’s Rationale: Kennedy was only one of two men facing death row for a crime other than murder. On June 25, 2008 the court was 5-4 on the death sentence held that. Claiming and holding "[t]he Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death." Also because only 5 states permitted the death penalty.

Dissenting Opinion: "The Eighth Amendment protects the right of an accused. It does not authorize this Court to strike down federal or state criminal laws on the

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