The Case of Kennedy Versus Louisiana - Report Example

Kennedy V. Louisiana The case of Kennedy versus Louisiana involved the of Louisiana as the petitioner to the appeal bythe accused rape suspect. The accused have been accused of raping his eight years old stepdaughter. For this reason, the State of Louisiana sentenced him to death sitting the state statute that allow for capital punishment (Supreme Court of the United States). Therefore, for people accused and found guilty of rape of kids below the age of twelve the punishment is the death penalty (Supreme Court of the United States). The accused moved to the State Supreme Court arguing that the Coker v. Georgia disallowed the use of death punishment to cases of rape. Moreover, he argued that the trend of capital punishment has been decreasing across majority States, and it was morally right to punish people accused of rape by another punishment other than death. The court argued that the rape is a heinous crime that is short of first-degree murder (Supreme Court of the United States). Moreover, the judgement stipulated that child need protection as they have a uniqueness of vulnerability. Therefore, the law safeguards their protection so that they can realise their future and make the right decision until they grown up. For this reason, the constitution thus allows for capital punishment for people who harm or inflict pain upon the children when they have the intention to killed or where such harm result to death. Nevertheless, Justice Kennedy held that the accused right have been abused by the lower court because he had no intention to kill his stepdaughter, and she did survive the ordeal. Kennedy, therefore, held that the Louisiana State statute on rape of children under the age of 12 years unconstitutional (Supreme Court of the United States). The Eighth Amendment protects victims from severe penalties such as capital punishment in cases where there is no prove of murder and intention to kill. According to Cater and Burke, the law is what keep the world in harmony (Carter and Burke). Therefore, the judicial impartiality is a core factor in determining the utilization of judicial procedures in determining the dispute among individuals, institution and even among nations. Carter and Burke outline how judicial proceeding and judgment are determined (Carter and Burke). They argue that a lawyer uses the language set out by the law to explain their argument to support the notion in a particular dispute. Carter and Burke set out structures that explain the basis of a legal thinking. These include case facts, social background facts, rule of law, and the shared values, freedom and social facts in a society (Carter and Burke). Because there is no one legal reasoning that give an answer to a particular dispute, the use of Carter and Burke structure reasoning helped determine the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana. The accusation and sentencing of the man accused of raping his stepdaughter show the application of the rule of law. The State of Louisiana statute law has capital punishment as the penalty of those who defiles children of less than twelve years. The judgment was, therefore, the exercise of the rule of laws as stipulated in the States laws. However, Justice Kennedy overturned the state statute arguing that the sentence defied the decency, standards and maturity of modern society. The Court cited the case of Trop v. Dulles as a precedent that has been used to sentence capital punishment to only the most extreme case of cruelty (Supreme Court of the United States). Moreover, in the case of Furman v. Georgia the court argued that in dispensing justice it is importance and wise to graduate the punishment proportioned to the manner of crime (Supreme Court of the United States). This according to the court should be guided and informed by the changing society standards. Moreover, the Court decisions are informed by contemporary customs and norm which include the history of prior death penalties. So, the Court has to analyse capital sentence and non-homicide cases. Moreover, it has to take into account news legislation and the trend of execution in the past year. These are used to decide whether to decree a person to death (Supreme Court of the United States). Therefore, according to history there is consensus among the people against capital punishment. This social fact, therefore, informed the Court in decided to outlaw death sentence in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana. The Court also followed and analysed its precedents and understanding of the law and the constitution of the country. The Court used the constitution to prohibit the use of severe or cruel punishment. The constitution outline that the method of punishments of crime should be limited to the civilized standards (Supreme Court of the United States). The court, therefore, determined that there exist a difference between deliberate first-degree murder and non-homicide crimes such as rape. For this case, the Kennedy v. Louisiana fall short of first-degree murder and thus does not qualify to a capital punishment. The Court judgment was also consistence with the case of Gregg v. Georgia, 438 U.S. (Supreme Court of the United States). Therefore, the Court balanced the punishment that was determined by the lower court with the magnitude of the crime committed, for this case rape of an underage girl. Furthermore, the Court may have considered the risk of unlawful and wrong execution of an induced case. In Cf. Atkins, supra, 321 people have used false witnesses to frame other of rape cases. The Court may have considered dropping the death sentence to avoid executing a wrong man. For instance, the victim, L. H. testified that she was raped by two neighbourhood boys and not his father. She would say that ‘’I am going to tell the same story. They just want me to change it…. They want me to say my Dad did it.... I don’t want to say it… I tell them the same, same story’’ ( Supreme Court (U S) 414). Court decision is also geared up to provide opinion and shared belief and values that people in the society wish to see happening in the future. For this reason, the Court in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana may have invoked it judgment to deter future capital punishments for rape crime. Trop, 356 U.S., 101 expound on the Eighth Amendment about decency that define maturing society (Supreme Court of the United States). The Constitution, therefore, constrains and restrain instances that capital punishment can be used to punish criminal to only the worst of crime. The judicial verdicts are capricious. This phenomenon is referred to as the unpredictability of the law and explains that it is very hard to know the judgment that will be delivered for a particular case in a Court proceeding. For example, the Kennedy v. Louisiana case had the defendant argue using case laws, Court precedents that support death sentences people found guilty of rape. Moreover, according to the defendant they argued that the forensic evidence indicated that the injuries done the cruelty and were the worst to have been done in a rape situation. This was a fact, and the child had to undergo a reconstruction surgery ( Supreme Court (U S) 413). In conclusion, the judicial proceeding and the ultimate judgement is determined by a multiplicity of facts, Court precedence’s, historical development of crime and the society consensus of the necessary punishments. Moreover, justice has to take in mind the moral and society evolving standard when determining a death penalty of any other case. Works Cited Supreme Court (U S). United States Reports, V. 554, Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term, 2007, June 16 Through October 3, 2008, End of Term. Washington D C: Government Printing Office, 2013. Print. Carter, Lief H and Thomas Fredrick Burke. Reason in Law. New York : Longman, 2010. Print. "Kennedy V. Louisiana, 128 S.CT. 2641 (2008)." 1 October 2008. Certiorari to the Supreme court of Louisiana. Web. 21 October 2014. Read More