Comment by Nathan K. Bays
The Louisiana Supreme Court recently affirmed Patrick Kennedy's death sentence for the aggravated rape of a child. Kennedy is currently the only prisoner in America who is on death row for a crime other than murder, and, if his sentence is carried out, he will likely be the first person in this nation executed for a nonhomicide offense in more than forty years. Applying the United States Supreme Court's modern Eighth Amendment analysis as defined in Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons, this Comment examines the constitutionality of the death penalty as a punishment for the crime of nonhomicide child rape.
About the Author
Nathan K. Bays. J.D. candidate 2008, Tulane University School of Law; B.A. 2002, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Citation
82 Tul. L. Rev. 339 (2007)