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Thread: Bring Back The Death Penalty For Child Rape?

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  1. #1
    joerodney
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    Bring Back The Death Penalty For Child Rape?

    In Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could not be imposed for rape of a child, no matter how brutal or aggravated the rape or the age of the victim. The majority dredged up the "evolving standards of decency" doctrine to rule that imposing a sentence of death on a child rapist would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment, and would thus be unconstitutional.

    I, for one, think that the only thing indecent here is the Court's ruling. To my way of thinking, few crimes are more despicable, more atrocious, and more outrageous than the rape of a child.

    Perhaps the publication of these atrocities will encourage State lawmakers to defy the Supreme Court, enact new death penalty laws for child rape, and defend those laws as not comporting with the will of the people. Perhaps a new "evolving standard of decency" as evidenced by new laws, vigorously defended, will emerge and will show the Court that their ruling in Kennedy was wrong. Doubtful, I know. But remember the civil rights struggle that took place over decades. Eventually, Plessy v. Ferguson was revisited, and overturned.

    We made a serious mistake in our country when we allowed nine "men in black," unelected and unaccountable to the people, to get away with imposing their "judgment" on our citizens under the guise of interpreting the Constitution. Is it not time to let our will be known?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Frequent Poster elsie's Avatar
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    I am sick that this decision could even be thought about. The rape of a child, no matter what age is a death penalty crime for me. That they say no matter the age or how brutal is about the most outrageous decision. I totally agree. I always say if one of their children or loved one was raped, then maybe they would think differently.

  3. #3
    Member Member Gooch33's Avatar
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    you're going to have a very blurry line on this one. should someone then be executed if they are 18 and their gf is 16 and her parents catch them having sex and they push to bring rape charges? at what point do you draw that line? at the same time, i don't believe people should be executed for more crimes. in doing so, i think it becomes more bloodlust and not justice. i read some of the articles on here for men in texas and florida sitting on death row for what i even feel to be reaches for capital punishment. while rape is the most disgraceful of all crimes, i don't agree that a person who commits the act, even on a child, deserves to die for it.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Frequent Poster elsie's Avatar
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    Well, I guess I should have been more specific for some people. Would a child 12 and under be ok. You see child rapists can not be cured. I beg to differ about bloodlust also, as I am a firm believer in Justice.

  5. #5
    joerodney
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    Father of Richmond High gang rape victim: 'It was a horror.'

    By Malaika Fraley

    Contra Costa Times

    MARTINEZ -- The father of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped on the Richmond High School campus in 2009 told a jury Tuesday that the first hint something was wrong the night of the attack came when he received a call from his daughter's cellphone. But it wasn't his daughter on the phone; it was a young man boasting, in vulgar terms, that the sophomore girl was great at sex.

    The father hoped it was a high school prank, but about an hour later, he found his daughter at death's door following a homecoming dance she had eagerly anticipated.

    "I'm envisioning it, and it was a horror," the father said at the trial for two men charged in the gang-rape case that shocked the community and nation.


    The father said his daughter was excited about the school dance, for which he bought her a sparkly lavender dress that she was "very proud" to wear. Before running inside the dance with her girlfriends, she agreed to have her dad pick her up when the dance ended at 11 p.m., or earlier, if she got bored.After receiving the vulgar call at 10:52 p.m., he recalled frantically calling and texting his daughter's phone in vain. After a janitor alerted him that everyone from the dance had left, the father saw the first of several police cars whiz by.

    He followed them around the corner and approached a Richmond police sergeant about his missing daughter. He told them she was wearing a lavender dress. Minutes later, another officer approached and called him by name.


    "When he addressed me (by my name), I started to buckle because I had not given my name," the father said.
    As his daughter was rolled by on a gurney, he could see her face swollen to the point of distortion, and there was vomit in her hair.


    "I told her that we loved her very much and to hold on," he said. "I could see she was not conscious enough to respond back."


    The father was the first witness to take the stand at the dual jury trial for 22-year-old Richmond resident Jose Montano and 20-year-old Pinole resident Marcelles Peter, who each face life in prison if convicted of gang-rape, forcible oral copulation in concert, penetration with a foreign object in concert, and a special allegation that they inflicted great bodily injury.

    Trials with dual juries are rare but considered necessary when there is evidence inadmissible to one defendant but not the other. Peter's and Montano's juries heard opening statements separately but were in the same courtroom when the first witnesses took the stand Tuesday afternoon.

    In her opening statement Tuesday, attorney Jane Elliot said there are too many conflicting statements regarding Montano's involvement to convict him in the Oct. 24, 2009, attack in which the 100-pound girl was beaten, raped and otherwise sexually abused for up to 2― hours after she left the dance and got sick drinking with young men in a dark campus courtyard.

    Prosecutor John Cope said Tuesday that Montano was described "over and over again" putting on a condom and mounting the victim, moving up and down in what appeared to be an act of rape. Later, he was seen running around the area saying, "Where's that condom?"

    Cope said Montano's DNA was on one of two condom wrappers found at the crime scene, as well as a can of Four Loko, an alcoholic energy drink.

    According to Montano's attorney, other witnesses said Montano got on top of the girl for a couple of seconds, but he never unzipped his pants and he didn't have sex with the girl.
    "The evidence will show you (that) whether it was two seconds or 10 minutes, rape is rape," Cope said.

    By some accounts, as many as 20 perpetrators participated in the attack, some of whom have never been identified. Two men have already been convicted by way of plea deals. Manuel Ortega, 22, of Richmond, is serving a 32-year prison sentence, and Ari Morales, 19, of San Pablo, is serving 27 years.


    Two other Richmond residents, 46-year-old John Crane and 25-year-old Elvis Torrentes, are awaiting trial.

    Also testifying Tuesday was a 22-year-old Richmond man who had his sister-in-law call 911, which finally brought an end to the attack, after some young men in the neighborhood yelled out that there was a naked, drunk girl on campus that he could have sex with if he wanted.

    Richmond fire Capt. Luis Padilla took the stand to describe finding the victim hunched over the support beam of a picnic table. She was nude, except for her lavender dress bunched above her waist. Her face and head injuries were so substantial that Padilla said he ordered a helicopter ambulance, which landed a half-mile from the crime scene.


    "So the helicopter didn't blow trash around while landing?" the prosecutor asked, referring to the opening statement by Peter's attorney on Monday in which he said wind from the helicopter could have transferreed Peter's DNA on to a used condom found at the crime scene.

    "No," Padilla said.

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_2...costatimes.com

  6. #6
    joerodney
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    But for the fact that this poor child was killed, there could have been no death penalty imposed... thanks to the Supreme Court.

    Animals. Plain & simple.

    It should have been nearest tree time, not prison time.

    Death sentence upheld against man who watched son rape, strangle 6-year-old boy


    A man was sentenced to death after he and his wife watched their son rape and strangle a 6-year-old boy in Glynn County.

    Mr. David Homer Edenfield appealed to the state’s highest court to overturn his conviction and death sentence, claiming the evidence against him was insufficient.
    But on Monday, the Supreme Court of Georgia rejected his argument.

    “There was more than enough evidence to sustain the finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved torture and depravity of mind," Justice Mr. Keith Blackwell wrote in Monday’s opinion.



    The following details were revealed at trial:



    Glynn County Police Department were dispatched to the Horseshoe Trailer Park outside Brunswick on March 8, 2007 in response to a missing child report.


    Six-year-old Christopher Barrios had been picked up from the school bus stop by his stepmother. After school, he had walked to his grandmother’s house nearby, using a path he often traveled.

    Christopher’s dad and stepmother lived across the road from Mr. Edenfield, 59, his wife Mrs. Peggy Edenfield, and their adult son, 34-year-old George Edenfield, who was mentally disabled and had the cognitive ability of a 5-year-old.



    The Edenfields had recently moved to the trailer park after their son, a convicted child molester, was forced to move because their previous home was close to a park where children congregated.



    Around 5:30 p.m., a neighbor saw Christopher playing with his toys in front of the Edenfield’s single-wide trailer. Another neighbor saw the child around 6 p.m. skipping toward his home, holding a sippy cup and a toy sword.



    But the boy never made it home and Christopher’s dad called police to report his son missing.


    An investigator found a Star Wars light saber toy in the Edenfields’ yard. He also noticed people peeking from the windows of the Edenfields’ trailer.
    He questioned the family including the son who told police he had seen the little boy drop the light saber in their yard.
    "He told the officer he then heard voices and the devil had told him to kill Christopher," according to the court report.
    About a week later, on March 15, Department of Natural Resource officers found Christopher's decomposing body wrapped in black plastic trash bags along the edge of the woods on Old Canal Road in Glynn County.

    At trial, the GBI medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that Christopher had been raped.


    "Bruising on his upper back was most likely from a human bite mark," the court report showed. "Hemorrhaging in the child’s voice box and neck suggested the child had been strangled."

    Following discovery of the body, police interviewed Mr. David Edenfield several times.


    “During that interview, he told police he had entered George’s bedroom and observed his son undressing Christopher," according to the court report.
    He said he sat on the bed and watched as his son raped the child and that he had helped hold the boy down.

    "He said Christopher was crying and begged for them to stop, saying he was going to tell his father and grandmother what had happened, the report continued. "David admitted that when George put his hands around the child’s neck, he placed his hands on top of his son’s because he wanted 'to see what it felt like to kill someone.'"


    The taped interview, which was played for the jury, also included him saying he was aroused, and that he and his son choked the little boy together for about two or three minutes.

    "He said his wife, who watched the rape and murder, then cleaned the victim’s body with soap and water while her husband and son cleaned off their semen with a t-shirt," the report continued.



    After another friend arrived, all four of them put the boy’s body in garbage bags dumped him near the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.


    In March 2007, all four were indicted for malice murder, aggravated child molestation and other crimes. George Edenfield was deemed incompetent to stand trial.
    The friend, Mr. Donald Dale pleaded guilty to minor charges and played no role in Mr. David Edenfield’s trial. Mrs. Peggy Edenfield agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for the state’s agreement not to seek the death penalty.

    In 2009, the jury found David Edenfield guilty and recommended he be sentenced to death, based on the jury’s finding of two aggravating circumstances.


    http://www.examiner.com/article/deat...6-year-old-boy

  7. #7
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    I opose the idea to expand the DP. Executions arenīt carried out quick enough for murderers. i donīt see why it would be helpful to add more work into the system. Also I see a huge difference between a murder (itīs final) and a rape (victims life is saved).

    It would be better to castrate (not chemical) the moldesters after their first crime. That would cure a lot of them.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

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