Washington - The execution of child rapists was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, in a split decision Wednesday that bars the death penalty from applying to any crimes in the United States other than murder and treason. In a 5-4 decision, the court struck down a Louisiana state law that allowed capital punishment for defendants convicted of raping a child under the age of 13. The Supreme Court said that the death penalty could only be applied if the criminal's acts were intended to cause death to the child.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court's majority, made clear that capital punishment should only be applied to crimes that take the life of the victim.
"The rule of evolving standards of decency ... means that resort to the penalty must be reserved for the worst of crimes and limited in its instances of application," Kennedy wrote.
"In most cases, justice is not better served by terminating the life of the perpetrator rather than confining him and preserving the possibility that he and the system will find ways to allow him to understand the enormity of his offense."
An exception was implied for cases that affect more than one victim. Federal crimes of treason or espionage, which threaten the country's national security, also carry a possible death penalty, though capital punishment has not been applied in such a case for several decades.
Patrick Kennedy, 43, had been convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter and was sentenced to death in Louisiana. His conviction and sentence had been upheld by the state's highest court.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said that he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling, telling reporters that states should be allowed to make their own decisions on a particularly "heinous" crime like child rape.
