Earlier this month, the Alabama House of Representatives passed HB 49, a bill that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted of raping or sodomizing those younger than 12 years old instead of sentencing them to life without the possibility of parole, the Alabama Political Reporter stated.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Matt Simpson, passed despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), which 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.”
Simpson told the Alabama Political Reporter that, like Florida and Tennessee, which passed similar bills, he believes Kennedy was decided “Because only six states had the death penalty for these crimes [which meant] that was unusual. We’re trying to change that. . . . and it wouldn’t be unusual.” He may also be betting on the makeup of the Supreme Court now. 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.
The bill now goes to the state Senate.
At least four other states are considering similar bills, including South Dakota, Idaho, and Missouri.
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