Making Sex Crimes Against Kids a Capital Offense

March 30, 2006 — -- When two teenage girls were kidnapped from their beds and raped in an underground dungeon, allegedly by a convicted sex offender, it provided a new impetus to South Carolina legislators to make one of the most terrible crimes imaginable punishable by the death penalty.

A bill that would allow the death penalty for people convicted twice of raping children under age 11 progressed to the South Carolina House on Wednesday after the State Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure on Tuesday. The State Senate in Oklahoma approved a similar measure earlier this month.

State Sen. Kevin Bryant, a Republican who is the sponsor of the South Carolina bill, said he expected the House to take up the legislation as early as next week.

Bryant said there was a sense of urgency in the South Carolina legislature to toughen penalties for child molesters. His bill, which he originally proposed in December, languished until the recent arrest of Kenneth Hinson. Hinson, a convicted sex offender, is charged with kidnapping and raping two 17-year-old girls at a South Carolina home earlier this month.

The news caused lawmakers to fast-track legislation toughening penalties for sex offenders.

"The incident heightened public awareness of the issue. I hope the two young ladies are recovering. Their case really caused people to pay attention," Bryant said.

Ten miles from Bryant's home in Pendleton, authorities are searching for a man who attacked a 10-year-old girl last week with a metal dog leash. The girl escaped, but Bryant used the example to explain why he felt compelled to propose the amendment.

"Raping a child is as horrific as taking life. And I would like South Carolina to make a statement to the nation that we take these crimes extremely seriously," he said.

If the House approves Bryant's bill, South Carolina will become the second state, after Louisiana, to allow the death penalty for raping a child.

The last time the death penalty was imposed for a sex crime was in 1964 in Missouri. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution for rape constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Kay Levine, an assistant law professor at Emory University, said she believed proponents of Bryant's legislation faced an uphill battle to convince the Supreme Court that capital punishment for sex crimes was constitutional.