Child rapists to get death penalty?

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Scott Stein

The headline is “Death penalty for child rapists among bills OK’d.”

People obviously have different opinions about the death penalty, about whether or not it deters crime, whether or not it is acceptable to have it in a “civilized society,” whether or not anyone deserves to die for heinous crimes, whether or not it can be applied fairly and without bias, whether or not it is worth the risk of executing an innocent person, and on and on.

But Oklahoma has a death penalty. It has already decided that some crimes are so terrible, death is the appropriate punishment. This week a bill has added child rape to the crimes for which a person might receive the death penalty. At least, that’s what the headline of the article would have you believe. The details, well, not so much:

Among the bills approved was a measure that would allow the death penalty for convicted felons who rape a child age 6 or younger. Despite concerns from some members that the U.S. Supreme Court already struck down a similar Louisiana law just two years ago, Senate author Anthony Sykes says there are some notable differences. Sykes says he plans to amend the bill to require a previous conviction for child rape and require the offender to have the intent to kill the child.

I have not read the bill itself — it is still being amended, so we don’t know what it will look like in the end. If it requires actual rape with penetration, rather than other types of molestation, before the death penalty becomes a possibility, that would seem to minimize the chances of executing an innocent person on the basis of a child’s testimony, since we would expect that a rape would usually leave more physical evidence.

But that aside, as noted in the excerpt, in order for the death penalty to apply, the rapist must have been previously convicted of raping a child and must have had the intent to kill the child in the current case. In other words, raping a five-year-old is not going to get anyone the death penalty. Raping another five-year-old and intending to kill him or her (however that is proved) might get someone the death penalty. Child rapists who get out of prison and then rape a bunch of 4-year-olds would not face the death penalty unless they are also attempted murderers. The bill is controversial in Oklahoma:

Those two provisions, Sykes said, could be enough for the nation’s highest court to reconsider its narrow 5-4 decision.

“Combine the predicate of a previous offense against a child, and the gate might be open if this assault was also intended to kill the victim,” said Sykes, R-Moore.

Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, called the bill “campaign rhetoric,” while Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, expressed concern about the costs to the state of pursuing more death penalty cases.

“Our state spends between $8.6 million and $11 million each year on the death penalty, and we get nothing for it but vengeance,” Wilson said. “This is going to be contested and end up costing us a whole bunch of money we don’t have.”

The Oklahoma politicians can argue this one out for themselves, but I’m stuck on the part where someone is convicted of the rape of a child and then has the opportunity to rape again. Um, if someone rapes a child and is ever released and is able to rape a second child, it’s too late. What good is a convoluted bill that executes someone who rapes a child after serving time for raping a child (if and only if they intended to kill)?

I have an idea. How about a bill that keeps child rapists from raping again? If the way to achieve this is the death penalty, then it’s the death penalty. If that is going to be overturned by the Supreme Court or people are not going to allow it to be effective, then maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop letting child rapists out of jail. If someone rapes a 6-year-old, give them a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole. Do it the first time. Don’t wait for them to be released and rape another 6-year-old and then decide to get tough on child rapists. The rape of one child is far more than enough.