Oklahoma: Senate panel OKs death penalty for child rapists

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March 17, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Wed Mar 17, 2010, 10:38 PM CDT

The Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — Convicted felons who rape young children could be sentenced to death under a bill approved Wednesday by a Senate committee, despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restricts the death penalty to murder and crimes against the state.

The bill approved by an appropriations subcommittee allows for punishment of life in prison without parole or death for anyone convicted of raping a child 6 or younger if they were already convicted of a crime that carried a prison sentence of 10 years or more.

“It is something that we want to send a clear message to these type of perpetrators that there is really no place in society for them, even in prison,” said Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.

The measure — House Bill 2965 — already has passed the full House and is next scheduled for a hearing in the full Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee.

If the bill becomes law, it’s likely to be challenged in court. Sykes said he hopes the law might be upheld since the makeup of the nation’s highest court has changed since it declared a similar law in Louisiana unconstitutional in 2008.

In that case involving a man convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter, the court ruled 5-4 that the death penalty is restricted to murder and crimes against the state, such as espionage and treason.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

Sen. Richard Lerblance, who voted against the measure in committee, said that while such crimes against children are heinous, it makes little sense to pass a measure that is clearly unconstitutional.

“I think it’s absurd to bring a bill out here that is in direct conflict and contradiction of what the Supreme Court says the law of the land is, and to ask us to vote on a bill that we know is against the law,” said Lerblance, D-Hartshorne.

Sykes’ hope that the replacement of Justice David Souter by Justice Sonia Sotomayer might lead to a different result is “unfounded if not uninformed,” said University of Oklahoma law professor Joseph Thai, who specializes in constitutional law.

“In political parlance, she’s just as liberal if not more,” Thai wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “In any case, it is highly unlikely and unrealistic that the Court will revisit the ruling so soon.”

The bill is one of several winding through the Oklahoma Legislature that seem to be in direct conflict with either existing case law or the U.S. Constitution, Thai said.

Lawmakers have already agreed to send voters a question asking whether the state should opt out of federal health care mandates and passed a separate measure exempting firearms manufactured in Oklahoma from federal oversight.

“The proposed bill may win votes at the ballot box, but will lose to federal law in court,” Thai said about the firearms bill. “Once again, the state legislature seems more bent on passing bills that raise its political capital than on saving taxpayers money on expensive litigation in defense of constitutionally questionable legislation.”

Montana, Wyoming, Tennessee, South Dakota and Utah have passed similar legislation to exempt firearms made in their states from federal regulations, and Idaho and Alaska have been considering it.

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2.6 magnitude earthquake recorded in Oklahoma
The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded a 2.6 magnitude earthquake near Wellston in central Oklahoma.
No injuries or damage is reported.

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Oklahoma: Senate panel OKs death penalty for child rapists

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