Final Paper
Christina Call
CJA 204/Intro. To Criminal Procedures
09/01/2013
Sabra Janko

In March 1998 in the state of Louisiana, a young girl was brutally raped by her stepfather. The injuries to this young girl were so horrific that she had to undergo immediate surgery to repair what had been done. At the initial time of the crime, both the stepfather, Patrick Kennedy, and the little girl, had stated that teenage boys in the neighborhood had raped her in her yard. After further investigation, the detectives determined that stories were not adding up and arrested Patrick Kennedy charging him with aggravated rape of the young girl. At his trial, the jury convicted Patrick Kennedy of raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter and sentenced him to the worst possible sentence, death. The jury determined that there were aggravating factors, because of the extremely heinous crime and severity of the child’s injuries, and sentenced him to death under Louisiana’s aggravated rape statute. This statute stated that a sentence of death could be imposed for a conviction of rape of a child under the age of 12 (Cornell University Law School, 2008).
Upon receiving his sentence of death, Kennedy appealed his case first to the Louisiana Supreme Court on the grounds that the death penalty was “cruel and unusual punishment” for a crime where the victim did not die (Cornell University Law School, 2008). The Louisiana Supreme Court noted two cases, Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons. These cases were used to determine whether there was a national consensus on the punishment of death and then they were applied to determine whether the court would find the punishment excessive (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2013). The Louisiana Supreme Court felt that the adoption of similar laws in five other states, coupled with the unique vulnerability of children, justified imposing the death penalty (Louisiana Supreme Court, 2007). The Coker v. Georgia case was noted in Patrick Kennedy’s appeal. This case was a 1977 case in which it outlawed the sentence of the death penalty for the crime of rape when the victim was over 16. Because Mr. Kennedy’s victim was only eight, The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the imposition of the death sentence noting that although the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down capital punishment for rape of an adult woman in Coker v. Georgia, that ruling did not apply when the victim was a child (Louisiana Supreme Court, 2007). After the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his appeal for a new trial, Mr. Kennedy appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court again on the grounds that the death sentence for a rape conviction was “cruel and unusual punishment.” During his appeal process, Kennedy argued that Coker v. Georgia should apply to all victims regardless of age (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2013). He also argued that five states does not make for a “national consensus” as applied in the Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons cases. Although the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence of death, the United States Supreme Court overruled the sentence on the basis that the national consensus was that the Eighth Amendment bans states from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child “where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the child's death.” By imposing a sentence of death in such a case would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment right to avoid being subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" (Supreme Court of the United States, 2008)

References * Cornell University Law School. (n.d.). Kennedy v. Louisiana. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-343.ZO.html * Cornell University Law School. (2008). Kennedy v. Louisiana. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/07-343 * Louisiana Supreme Court. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.lasc.org/opinions/2007/05ka1981.opn.pdf * Supreme Court of the United States. (2008). Kennedy v. Louisiana. Retrieved from http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-343kennedy.pdf * The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. (2013). Kennedy v. Louisiana. Retrieved from http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2007/2007_07_343