Does Jaycee Dugard’s Stolen Life Raise Questions About SCOTUS Death Penalty Decision?
The U.S. Supreme Court decision barring the death penalty for child rape was issued in 2008, before authorities discovered that a parolee had kidnapped, raped and confined Jaycee Dugard to the backyard of his home.
Dugard, who was only 11 at the time of her abduction, wrote about her 18-year ordeal in A Stolen Life. Reading the book has caused Washington Post columnist Charles Lane to raise questions about the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana.
Lane didn’t like the opinion when it was issued, he writes at the newspaper’s Post Partisan blog. “Post-Dugard,” Lane writes, the opinion “is even less persuasive.”
Lane believes dissenting Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was proven right when he complained that that the death-penalty ban applies “no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be.”
Lane wonders if history might have been different if the Supreme Court ruled after the case came to light. The Sentencing Law and Policy blog noted the column in a post entitled: “Might horrific Jaycee Lee Dugard case have led SCOTUS to permit death penalty for child rape?”
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Couple Plead Guilty in 1991 Kidnap of Jaycee Dugard, 11, Held Captive for 18 Years at Home”
ABAJournal.com: “Authorities Tipped in ‘06 Didn’t Find 1991 Child Kidnap Victim Until Now”
ABAJournal.com: “Authorities Reel Over Parolees’ Stunning Alleged Crimes in 2 States”
ABAJournal.com: “Child Kidnap Victim Held 18 Years Seeks Damages re Delayed ID of Suspect Parolee”
