USA - Louisiana. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the Louisiana statute that allowed the death penalty for the rape of a child where the victim did not die

In the case of Patrick Kennedy, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the Louisiana statute that allowed the death penalty for the rape of a child where the victim did not die. The Court held that all such laws, where the crime against an individual involved no murder or intent to murder, were not in keeping with the national consensus restricting the death penalty to the worst offenses. As a result, the only two people sentenced to death for this crime in the modern capital punishment era, Kennedy and Richard Davis, no longer face execution. Both were sentenced under the Louisiana statute that was found unconstitutional. The Court noted that the defendant, Patrick Kennedy, had been sentenced to death under a law that was not embraced by 44 out of the 50 states. The Court pointed to the danger in laws such as Louisiana's, which allowed the death penalty where no murder was committed: "When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint." Florida, Montana, Oklahoma Texas and South Carolina have death-penalty laws for rape but have not applied them. The Louisiana Supreme Court, instead, had ruled on May 22 that the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision barring capital punishment for rape (Coker v. Georgia) does not apply when the victim is a child under age 12. (See also Aug. 23, 2003; Sept. 11, 2007;  Dec. 12, 2007; Jan. 4, 2008; April 9, 2008)