by Viv Corridor

Created on: April 16, 2008   Last Updated: November 12, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the death penalty for child rapists, ruling that death is not a "proportioanl punishment" for raping a child. It is telling, however, that the court's decision was close. Judges split 5-4 on the question.

Their decision effectively overturned laws in five states - Texas, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina and Oklahoma - that allowed courts to sentence convicted child rapists to die. Missouri was also considering a law that would allow convicted child rapists to be sentenced to death. Just two people both in Louisiana currently sit on death row, convicted of raping a child, and no one has been executed in this country for any crime other than murder for the past 31 years, the Associated Press reports.

Some opponents of the death penalty for those who rape children took the argument against the punishment beyond the question of its constitutionality. They claimed that the existence of such laws would make child rapists more likely to murder their victims. The idea, they say, is that the rapist would either believe he has nothing more to lose by killing his victim, or may feel he could better avoid prosecution, conviction and the death penalty if the only witness to his crime is dead. One can only wonder if this arguement was in the minds of the Supreme Court judges when they made their ruling.

This is complex psychology indeed. Death penalty opponents have argued for decades that murderers are undeterred by the death penalty. In essence, they are saying that knowing they may be executed as punishment for killing another has no sway over a murderer's decision to kill. And, statistics say they are right.

How then are we to believe that the threat of the same punishment will affect a child rapist's actions in any way? Are potential child rapists somehow more capable of reasoning than are potential murderers? It seems death penalty opponents are arguing out of both sides of their mouths on this issue. It's not helping their cause, and it disregards the basic nature of the act of rape and the fact that it is a very different crime than murder.

There are many motivations behind murder. Many factors make it difficult to discern an accused murderer's guilt or innocence, or the likelihood he will murder again. These complex factors make it all the more difficult to ensure no innocent person is ever wrongfully convicted of murder and put to death for it.

Rape, by contrast, is a much more simple crime. Rape is motivated by the rapist's craving

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