Craft & Sheppard's Supreme Court Review
Eighth Ammendment, Death Penalty
In Kennedy v. Louisiana, a 5-4 decision, the Court held that the Constitution forbids imposing a death sentence for the perpetrator of aggravated rape of a child, here eight years old. The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel or unusual punishment” is informed by society’s “evolving standards of decency", articulated in Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (1958). While acknowledging the horror and societal revulsion to child rape, the death penalty is reserved for those who murder and have the capacity to understand the import of their actions. Separately, by plurality, in Baze v. Rees, the Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” did not prohibit states from using lethal injection as a means of execution.
