South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined a coalition of 20 state attorneys general supporting efforts to challenge a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred states from imposing the death penalty in child rape cases where the victim did not die.
The coalition sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the White House, arguing that the decision in v. Louisiana was wrongly decided and that the Constitution allows for capital punishment for the most severe crimes against children.
The multi-state letter contended that the decision removed a vital deterrent and tool for states to punish and deter sexual assaults against children. The attorneys general asserted that the ruling disregarded the profound, lifelong trauma inflicted on victims and minimized the severity of these monstrous crimes. They stressed that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty for child rape, arguing that it is a constitutionally appropriate punishment just as it is for murder.
Since the 2008 ruling, several states have continued to enact legislation authorizing capital punishment for aggravated child rape. The attorneys general noted that this action demonstrates a lack of national consensus against the decision and shows an effort by states to create statutes distinguishable from the one struck down.
The coalition’s position is that those who commit the most extreme sexual assaults against children should face the most severe punishment the law allows, asserting the right of states to protect their most vulnerable citizens.
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