Quote:
Originally Posted by demo3051
I'm glad that this thread is focusing on date rape and statutory rape. What jury is going to give the death penalty to a date rape or statutory rape offender. Obviously none of you are. I certainly wouldn't. That whole argument is bogus. What the law has to be contemplating is forceable rape. As in murder cases, the jury (and the judge) has discretion about sentencing.
Suppose you have evidence that a 30 yr repeat sex offender who just broke out of prison while serving a life sentence violently and brutally raped a 10 year old girl and knifepoint. What are you going to do, give him a life sentence... he already has that. A law like this allows judges and juries discretion. There is a huge gap in the level of violence and degree of culpability between the rape I just described and the ones you guys are describing. You are building straw men.
If you have a serious contention that in the example above the person should not get the death penalty, fine. There are many rational arguments to be made for that. Arguing that people could be given the death penalty for a he said she said rape or statutory rape is absurd.
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The law is not about raising the severity of punishment for a given type of crime to meet or exceed the overtly aggravating incident.
The deterrant effect is not there. Forcible and heinous rape severe enough to warrant killing the person by the state is going to be a rape of extreme sexual deviance that occurred outside of rational decisions or fear of the criminal consequences. Thus these extreme rapists would continue to offend, and you'd see a bunch of overly expensive and time consuming capital punishment cases instead of a bunch of 40-60 year convictions which cost the state much less.