U.S. Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for child rape
Reuters reports: “The nation’s highest court ruled by a 5-4 vote that the death penalty for the crime of raping a child violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.”
SCOTUS Blog provides this commentary and the opinion is here: Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343 (U.S., June 25, 2008).
Orrin Kerr describes the ruling as “Roper-esque” over at the Volokh Conspiracy.