Effective Monday, July 1, an individual convicted of the rape of a minor in Tennessee is eligible for the death penalty. SB 1663, signed by Gov. Bill Lee in May, requires adults convicted of the rape of a child “or especially aggravated rape of a child” to be sentenced to death or life in prison, or life without the possibility of parole.
Previously, the punishment for child rape called for a sentence of no less than 15 and not more than 60 years.
Tennessee now joins Florida, which passed a similar bill in May 2023, in defying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008). That decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy for the 5-4 majority, found that “a death sentence for one who raped but did not kill a child, and who did not intend to assist another in killing the child, is unconstitutional under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments,” which ban cruel and unusual punishment.
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s bill allowing a person convicted of the rape of a minor to be sentenced to death, with a minimum sentence of life without parole, he made it clear he was betting that the Republican conservative majority on the Supreme Court will overturn Kennedy, a 5-4 decision written for the majority by then-Justice Anthony Kennedy. Three of the four dissenters in Kennedy — Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas — are still on the Court and have been joined by conservative justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch.
However, Newsweek reports that Lee “told reporters . . . that he did not sign the bill hoping it would be ‘tested’ in court.”
In addition to Florida and Tennessee, six other states are also considering legislation that would allow a death sentence for any individual convicted of the rape of a minor. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, they include Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and South Dakota,
