“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child.”–Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists

If Justice Kennedy’s apparent embrace of “proportionalism” sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because such an idea has been around for a millennium. To wit: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

If that is actually what Justice Kennedy advocates perhaps it would be a fitting punishment for the defendant in this case, one Patrick Kennedy. How horrific was his crime? He raped his 8-year-old stepdaughter so brutally that he “separated her cervix from the back of her vagina, causing her rectum to protrude into the vaginal structure.” Emergency surgery was required as a result.

Rather than put him to death, place Mr. Kennedy (the rapist, not the Justice) in the general prison population. In that setting, I suspect “proportional justice” will be meted out–again and again with gusto. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Despite my conservative outlook, I do not favor the death penalty–but I support it whole-heartedly. The apparent contradiction is easy to explain. It arises from my inherent distrust of bleeding-heart liberals and their “interpretation” of life imprisonment without parole. Quite simply, in far too many cases, liberals make cause celebres for paroling some of the most despicable monsters on the planet. The “he’s suffered enough” mentality is far too embedded in their thinking for me to believe that any prison sentence is truly “forever.”

Until I am convinced otherwise, the death penalty is my last line of defense.

atahlert@comcast.net

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