Not so fast

My initial reaction to the Supreme Court's decision to ban the death penalty for child rape was exactly this guy's:

 

To me, there are certain criminal acts that have to send the perpetrator(s) to the other side quick, fast, and in a hurry. And child rape is one of them. I'm terribly disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision. Terribly and completely disappointed.

 

But after that gut reaction moment passed, I started to recall all the difficulties of child-rape trials.  If you take out the obvious instances such as the Austrian monster who fathered multiple children by his daughter, it's extremely hard to prove child rape.  Children lie.  Children can be manipulated into making false accusations. The trials are often conducted years after the fact. The crime is so heinous that many jury members will go with their gut reaction, rather than consider the evidence. Now consider all the problems that the death penalty has.  It's irrevocable.  The system is stacked against minority defendants.  There have been numerous scandals involving child abuse prosecutions and death penalty cases.  Combining the error rates of both would have been disaster.

 

The Supreme Court made the right decision here. It's a pity that neither Obama nor McCain could muster the courage to do the right thing and explain it to the country.