Obama attacks US Supreme Court decision barring death penalty for child rape

The 5-4 majority, comprised of the four court liberals and conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the decision, held that the death penalty could only be applied for crimes in which the victim was killed. The court noted that only 6 states out of 50 permitted capital punishment for child rape, and held that this demonstrated a social consensus against such executions.

Commenting on the decision, Obama declared his support for the death penalty, both in principle and in the specific cases under consideration by the high court. I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes, he told a news conference in Chicago. I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.

The Democratic presidential candidate argued that the high court had gone too far in restricting the powers of the states. If the court had said we want to constrain the abilities of states to do this to make sure that its done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing. But it basically had a blanket prohibition and I disagree with that decision.

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