State Supreme Court orders resentencing of child rapist
Print
Email
Save
Reprints
Twitter
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
NEW ORLEANS — Citing a recent United States Supreme Court ruling that found Louisiana’s death penalty for child rape “unconstitutional,” the Louisiana Supreme Court late Friday reluctantly ordered a Jefferson Parish judge to re-sentence the convicted rapist in the case.
“We are constrained to grant the defendant’s present motion” (for re-sentencing), the state’s justices said in Friday’s order.
The court directed Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court at Gretna to re-sentence Patrick Kennedy to “life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence,” the order states. His victim, a child under 12, survived but required surgery.
In 2007, the state justices voted 6-1 to uphold the lower court’s conviction of Kennedy for aggravated rape of a child under 12, and the death sentence that followed.
Kennedy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in April.In a 5-2 ruling issued in June, the high court declared “(a)s it relates to crimes against individuals … the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim’s life is not taken.”
The court’s decision struck down Louisiana’s child rape law, effectively setting aside Kennedy’s death sentence.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has expressed outrage over the precedent-setting case.
He has vowed to amend Louisiana law to restore capital punishment for child rape.
Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, the lone dissenter in the high-profile case last year, argued that but for the possible exception of “crimes against state involving espionage or treason, the Eighth Amendment precludes capital punishment that does not involve the death of the victim.”
Calogero, a moderate Democrat of New Orleans, retires Dec. 31. He will be replaced by Greg Guidry, a conservative Republican and former federal prosecutor.
“We are constrained to grant the defendant’s present motion” (for re-sentencing), the state’s justices said in Friday’s order.
The court directed Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court at Gretna to re-sentence Patrick Kennedy to “life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence,” the order states. His victim, a child under 12, survived but required surgery.
In 2007, the state justices voted 6-1 to uphold the lower court’s conviction of Kennedy for aggravated rape of a child under 12, and the death sentence that followed.
Kennedy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in April.In a 5-2 ruling issued in June, the high court declared “(a)s it relates to crimes against individuals … the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim’s life is not taken.”
The court’s decision struck down Louisiana’s child rape law, effectively setting aside Kennedy’s death sentence.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has expressed outrage over the precedent-setting case.
He has vowed to amend Louisiana law to restore capital punishment for child rape.
Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, the lone dissenter in the high-profile case last year, argued that but for the possible exception of “crimes against state involving espionage or treason, the Eighth Amendment precludes capital punishment that does not involve the death of the victim.”
Calogero, a moderate Democrat of New Orleans, retires Dec. 31. He will be replaced by Greg Guidry, a conservative Republican and former federal prosecutor.
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
