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Merits brief of defendant in Kennedy, the SCOTUS capital child rape case

By Douglas A. Berman

As noted in posts in this Kennedy case archive, the Supreme Court later this term will hear Kennedy v. Louisiana, a case allowing it to review the constitutionality of state laws that make the death penalty a punishment for the crime of child rape.  (Over at his great blog Sex Crimes, Corey Yung now has this new resource page with on-line materials related to Kennedy v. Louisiana).  This week the petitioner filed his merits brief, which can be downloaded below.  Here are snippets from the argument summary:The death sentence imposed on petitioner constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. I. Punishing the crime of child rape with the death penalty cannot be squared with this Court?s decision in Coker v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).