By Sherry Koonce

The News staff writer

The Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling to outlaw executions of people convicted of raping a child brought mixed reactions locally, and across the state.

In a 5-4 vote, the nation’s high court struck down a Louisiana law that allowed the death penalty in cases where the rape victim was a child. The court found that the death penalty when applied to child rape cases violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, according to the Associated Press.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him in voting against the death penalty, while four more conservative justices dissented, the AP reported.

Texas is one of five states that allowed the death penalty for child rapists. Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas allow executions only if the defendant has previously been convicted of raping a child. In Texas, a child rape occurs when a child is younger than 14.

Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness said he was saddened by the ruling, but not surprised.

“When Texas passed its statute on allowing the death penalty on multiple rapes of children, just about everybody in the courthouse was proud of our legislators,” Maness said.

Proud or not, Maness said he knew there would be a constitutional challenge.

“We felt based on the makeup of the court, the Supreme Court would withhold it. Kennedy was the swing vote; he has always been in the middle,” Maness said.

Wednesday’s ruling was considered a victory by some.

Dave Atwood, founder of Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty group in Austin said the ruling would prevent expansion of the death penalty in cases that are not death related, where there has not been a murder.

The Supreme Court’s ruling upheld the 30-year-old ruling, Coker Vs. Georgia. In that case, the court held that capital punishment was an excessive penalty for rape because, while that crime was heinous, it did not take a life.

“If that ruling were struck down, it would open the door to giving the death penalty for crimes beyond the crime of murder,” Atwood said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Today it may be for a child rape, tomorrow for rape of an adult, and so on.”

Atwood said his experience in dealing with death row inmates led him to believe the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

“I have met with many prisoners on death row over the years, they are not thinking of consequences and they don’t think they will get caught,” he said.

Though their reasoning is different, the Texas Association of Sexual Assault issued a statement Wednesday in support of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

According to the statement, victim advocates have long been concerned that the death penalty for child sexual assault cases could backfire and result in fewer convictions on sex offenders.

Because most child sexual abuse victims are abused by a family member or close family friend, the group believed child victims and their families would not want to be responsible for sending a grandparent, cousin or longtime family friend to death row.

Karen Amacker, communications director for Texas Association of Sexual Assault, said there was also a concern that, if the death penalty had been upheld for child rapists, those children’s lives would have been furher endangered.

“When you remove any sort of incentive for the perpetrator to keep the victim alive, they are more likely to kill the victim,” Amacker said.

The court’s decision doesnot affect the imposition of the death penalty for other crimes that do not involve murder, including treason and espionage.

Contact this reporter at skoonce@panews.com