Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 48

8 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

man who kidnaped, beat, raped, and murdered a 21-year-
old  pregnant  newlywed,  Karol  Hurst,  also  murdering  her 
unborn  child,  and  then,  on  the  same  day,  murdered  a 
sheriff ’s deputy acting in the line of duty.  Hall v. Florida, 
572  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2014)  (slip  op.,  at  1).  And  in  Atkins 
itself,  the  Court  granted  relief  to  a  man  who  carjacked
Eric Michael Nesbitt, forced him to withdraw money from
a  bank,  drove  him  to  a  secluded  area,  and  then  shot  him 
multiple  times  before  leaving  him  to  bleed  to  death.    At-
kins v. Commonwealth, 257 Va. 160, 166–167, 510 S. E. 2d 
445, 449–450 (1999). 

The  Court  has  also  misinterpreted  the  Eighth  Amend-
ment to grant relief in egregious cases involving rape.  In 
Kennedy  v.  Louisiana,  554  U. S.  407  (2008),  the  Court 
granted  relief  to  a  man  who  had  been  sentenced  to  death 
for  raping  his  8-year-old  stepdaughter.    The  rape  was  so
violent  that  it  “separated  her  cervix  from  the  back  of  her 
vagina,  causing  her  rectum  to  protrude  into  the  vaginal 
structure,”  and  tore  her  “entire  perineum  . . .  from  the
posterior  fourchette  to  the  anus.”    Id.,  at  414.  The  evi-
dence indicated that  the petitioner spent at least an hour 
and  half  attempting  to  destroy  the  evidence  of  his  crime 
before  seeking  emergency  assistance,  even  as  his  step-
daughter  bled  profusely  from  her  injuries.  Id.,  at  415. 
And  in  Coker  v.  Georgia,  433  U. S.  584  (1977)  (plurality 
opinion), the Court granted relief to a petitioner who had
escaped  from  prison,  broken  into  the  home  of  a  young 
married couple and their newborn, forced the wife to bind 
her  husband,  gagged  her  husband  with  her  underwear,
raped  her  (even  after  being  told  that  she  was  recovering
from  a  recent  childbirth),  and  then  kidnaped  her  after 
threatening  her  husband,  Coker  v.  State,  234  Ga.  555, 
556–557, 216 S. E. 2d 782, 786–787 (1975).  In each case, 
the  Court  crafted  an  Eighth  Amendment  right  to  be  free 
from execution for the  crime of rape—whether it be of an
adult, Coker, 433 U. S., at 592, or a child, Kennedy, supra,