High Court: No Death Penalty for Child Rape

Advocates for child's rights praised the decision. They condemned Louisiana's law because they were fearful that the if a child rapist knew he might face the death penalty he would have an incentive to kill his victim.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Louisiana death row inmate Patrick O. Kennedy cannot be put to death for the rape of his then-8-year-old stepdaughter.

(ABC/AP Photo)

The case that went before the court dates back to 1998, when Patrick O. Kennedy called 911 to report that his 8-year-old stepdaughter had just been raped.

Kennedy blamed two boys from his suburban New Orleans neighborhood for the attack and told police that the boys had fled on bicycles, but police soon suspected Kennedy of the crime.

At trial, the girl, who had required surgery after the attack, testified that Kennedy had raped her and that he had coached her to lie to police.

Testimony at trial also revealed that Kennedy had called a carpet cleaning company about removing bloodstains from his carpet even before dialing 911.

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Kennedy's crime was considered so heinous that he was sentenced to death under Louisiana law, which imposes the death penalty for the rape of a child.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group opposed to the death penalty, there are more than 3,300 people on death row in America, and Kennedy is one of only two who did not commit murder.

Kennedy had argued that laws in Louisiana and five other states that impose the death penalty for child rape violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Kennedy's lawyers praised today's decision.

"The Court makes clear that Louisiana's experiment with the death penalty for rape ran afoul of the United States Constitution," Ben Cohen, of the New Orleans-based Capital Appeals Project, said.

The organization has represented Kennedy for the past four years.

"Given the Court's decision, we can only hope that the money that Louisiana has been spending drafting and defending this anomalous and unconstitutional statute will be reallocated to efforts at treatment for victims of sexual abuse and for measures that actually reduce the risk of such abuse in our communities," Cohen said.