Supreme Court to decide on capital punishment for those who rape children

Missouri legislators should take notice of a case that will be heard before the U. S. Supreme Court Wednesday.
The Court will hear a challenge to a Louisiana law that permits capital punishment for those who rape children. A similar law is under consideration in Missouri:

But on Wednesday the court will consider whether a person who rapes a child is different. Louisiana prosecutors will argue that the same societal mores that have persuaded justices to spare certain categories of criminals lead in the opposite direction when it comes to child rapists, demanding an expansion of capital punishment, not a retrenchment.

Proponents say society demands retribution for those who harm its most vulnerable members. But some child advocacy experts say the unintended consequences of the death penalty might be a decline in the reporting of sexual assaults by family members, or even an incentive for the rapist to kill the victim.

The argument comes as the court has imposed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment while justices decide in a separate case whether the current methods of lethal injection are constitutional.