What. The. Hell.

[xtremeroswellia]

Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape.

You know what I have to say to that?

What BULLSHIT.

"Still, Kennedy concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals — as opposed to treason, for example — "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken.""

So raping a child, or in MOST cases, MULTIPLE children, ruining their lives and destroying their ability to trust themselves or other people, and shattering their capability of EVER feeling TRULY safe is less of a crime than treason?

You know what, Supreme Court?

Go fuck yourselves.

Comments

[abandonedworld.livejournal.com]

Whenever I think this country's politics and justice system couldn't sink any lower, this happens.

You're right.

Absolute fucking bullshit.

You wait until it happens to one of THEIR children. Suddenly everything will change. Unfortunate for that child, and all the others in our homeland.

/rant.

[xtremeroswellia.livejournal.com]

*seethes* Stupid crappy "justice" system.

[tazsguineas.livejournal.com]

I think that keeping any of these lower then dirt asshats that are locked up for life alive is stupid! they get three meals a day good health care and a roof over their heads for life while we pay for them. mean while there are people out there that truly cannot make it on their own. bullshit! kill them i don't want to pay for them! they killed so they need the same done. they say not humane but look what they did was that humane? hell no! I see child rapists in the same light. why should the average american pay for them to live. send them over to fight not the youth that is over there getting killed. where would they run americans are not liked over there so they have no where to go. maybe most will not make it back here anyway. thats my opinion.

[xtremeroswellia.livejournal.com]

I don't want to pay for them either. Send 'em over to fight or use them for testing new vaccines and medicines on humans. At least then they'd be doing something useful.

[tazsguineas.livejournal.com]

i would rather them test on humans then guinea pigs and rabbits any way. why be cruel to fuzzy animals! lets test inmates! yeah thats a good one now why can we think of this and the gov.'t cannot? you must have to pass a stupid test to be in the gov.'t if you ask me. either that or you take a stupid pill when you get there. lol

HELL FUCKING YEAH.

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

I had my own RANT OF RANTINESS over this just this morning. I am so beyond words.

I even heard that a police officer was in favor of this because "if a person knows that raping a child will result in the death penalty, then they'll be more likely to kill the child to keep her/him from identifying them."

Yeah.

I think we need to have a new supreme court; this one SUCKS.

Re: HELL FUCKING YEAH.

[xtremeroswellia.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it just make you want to repeatedly bang your head on a desk? Ugh.

No, it actually makes me want to fire the Supreme Court

[katelennon.livejournal.com]

Or at least look at their over-reaching and what checks and balances THAT particular branch of the government has- because quite honestly, it's re-fucking-diculous what they've done.

I am horrified and I just don't understand how they can find THAT not worthy of the death penalty.

I am just boggled and hurt and disappointed once again in the system.

[unstableharpy.livejournal.com]

Shit. You can get death penalty for treason? But not for child rape?

[xtremeroswellia.livejournal.com]

How messed up is that? Ugh.

[tigger-01.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in the death penalty personally (because to me it's an easy way for the offender to not "pay" for the crime. you have to believe in hell to think they will be punished) - but at least they probably get life in America. There was a case in an Aboriginal community where an 11 YEAR OLD girl was gang-raped, repeatedly, and the offenders only got 6 months in jail, maximum. *fumes*

Their defence was a) she consented - which supposedly she only did once. and even then an 11 year old girl cannot consent to sex and b) it was "culturally acceptable" in their community.

Be grateful at least the majority of offenders in America get a punishment they deserve.

[xtremeroswellia.livejournal.com]

Well, the death penalty issue is personal for everyone. I'm a strong believer in it. And I don't know whether or not I believe in hell. Personally I think there's no way to be sure if it exists or not and that uncertainty is actually scarier to me.

That's a horrible thing. People are sick.

Be grateful at least the majority of offenders in America get a punishment they deserve.

That, sadly, couldn't be farther from the truth. Most rapes, instances of child abuse, domestic violence and other violent crimes get very little if any punishment. And that's only if the victim(s) come forward in the first place--most of them remain silent due to shame, embarrassment, lack of belief in the US justice system, etc, keeps them from coming forward. :/

[tazsguineas.livejournal.com]

why should they live in america send them to some poverty stricken country then. they live life good in jail compared to some of these countries. you know i read or heard somewhere that their are those out there that try to go to jail so they can have food and heat and what not.

[sethimothy.livejournal.com]

So I suppose the next time I commit treason, I should rape plenty of children afterwords as to avoid the death penalty. MY PLAN SHALL NOT FAIL!

(Seriously, if the Surpreme Court can have retarded logic, so can I. Only it will be my awesome logic. >.>)

I'm a sound proponent of sending individuals who are sentenced to life in prison to third world countries and letting them survive on their own merits, but apparently that's "cruel and inhumane." Plus, we wouldn't want another Australia, ho hum.

Speaking of "Go Fuck Yourself, Supreme Court..."

[sethimothy.livejournal.com]

... it seems you're not the only one to say such. :D

[xjennifahx.livejournal.com]

*sigh*. There's a certain level of flexibility here - in Australia we have NO death penalty, and I don't really want one, for anything - yes, it's justice, but once it's done, there's no going back, if new evidence arises at some point in the future (as has been known to happen at VARIOUS times for various crimes). There was one recently where a guy who'd served about ten years of a sentence for murder was then acquitted due to new evidence/lack of evidence - if we'd had the death penalty, he might well have been DEAD by that point... as it is now, he's walked free. Google 'Graeme Stafford' if you're interested.

On the other hand, i want equal sentences for murder and child-rape - in both, you're taking something incredibly enormous and precious away from someone - life and innocence are not that far apart. Life sentences for life-ruining crimes of any sort.

I don't believe in the death penalty

[tapati.livejournal.com]

I used to be all for the death penalty when I was younger. Over the years I gradually changed my opinion of it, both as a deterrent and as a vehicle for closure or revenge. It is painfully obvious that it hasn't stopped people from committing crimes and I could no longer justify the state--as a representative of all of us--carrying out a violent act to somehow pay for another violent act. Then DNA evidence under review has shown that a number of people who were convicted of crimes, people who LOOKED quite guilty given the other facts of the case, were innocent. If the wrongly convicted person is alive, it's sad but you can let them go and they can try to get their life back together. If they were killed by the state...oops! Too bad.

I realize that on an emotional level we all would love to lynch anyone caught raping a child. Maybe with some torture thrown in. But how would we feel if afterward we learned that they were innocent? For that matter, how are we to feel afterward even if they were undeniably guilty? If it actually served to heal the child involved, I'd be holding the noose myself. But I maintain that no one is healed by such acts, that we are all in fact diminished and harmed when we perpetrate violence, even if we choose to call it justice.

Incarceration allows for the possibility of redemption. In some cases, redemption has led to criminals making amends to their victims and this has brought greater healing than any amount of executions ever could. To have your abuser or rapist take responsibility for their act, to admit that it had nothing to do with anything you said or did, to see their genuine remorse, all of this is far more powerful an aid to recovery than a death could ever be. The accounts I've read of reconciliations between victims and criminals have been very powerful for both parties and a tremendous source of solace to the victims.

Re: I don't believe in the death penalty

[thalestral.livejournal.com]

Everything you've said is pretty much how I feel on the matter, but written far more eloquently than I'm capable of :)

Re: I don't believe in the death penalty

[tapati.livejournal.com]

(blushes) Thanks!

Re: I don't believe in the death penalty

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, my initial gut reaction when they first reported that this was going to the courts was, YES!! No doubt! Then I heard back from a few survivor friends and they pointed out somethings I hadn't thought about. I realize now that wow, I can't imagine how scary things could get if a relative was reported and convicted. The child already holds guilt and fear of family reaction, fear of telling. I don't know, my brain goes in all sorts of directions with it now.

Re: I don't believe in the death penalty

[anabananamonkey.livejournal.com]

oops, that was me btw lol.

Re: I don't believe in the death penalty

[tapati.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't imagine the mixed feelings of coming forward to reveal being raped by your...grandfather, uncle, cousin, stepfather, father, brother, even mother or grandmother (happens)--only to have them sentenced to death and feel responsible somehow for that. Victims already take on way too much guilt and responsibility for what happened to them, a child would be all too likely to take this on too.