Reaction
The decision was handed down in the run up to a presidential election and both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain criticized the majority opinion.
Barack Obama said at a news conference in Chicago:
| “ | I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes...I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution. | ” |
Obama also argued that the high court had gone too far in restricting the powers of the states. If the court had “said we want to constrain the abilities of states to do this to make sure that it’s done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing. But it basically had a blanket prohibition and I disagree with that decision.”
John McCain responded to the ruling by calling it:
| “ | an assault on law enforcement’s efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime. That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing. | ” |
In January 2009, U.S. Senator for Louisiana David Vitter introduced S. Res. 4, "A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Supreme Court of the United States erroneously decided Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343 (2008), and that the eighth amendment to the Constitution of the United States allows the imposition of the death penalty for the rape of a child." This resolution was never voted upon by the full Senate and died in committee when the 111th Congress adjourned.
Since the Supreme Court decision set aside the death sentence, the Louisiana Supreme Court remanded the case back to the district court for resentencing. After a brief hearing, Kennedy was sentenced to life without parole on January 7, 2009, this being the mandatory sentence for this crime.
Read more about this topic: Kennedy V. Louisiana
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