Opinion ID: 1851620
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: excessive punishment argument

Text: The defendants' primary argument is that death is a disproportionate penalty for the crime of rape. The defendants' contention is based on Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1977) decided by the Supreme Court in a plurality opinion. [1] The Coker court rejected capital punishment as a penalty for the rape of an adult woman saying: Although rape deserves serious punishment, the death penalty, which is unique in its severity and irrevocability, is an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such and as opposed to the murderer, does not take human life. Coker, supra at 585, 97 S.Ct. at 2862. The plurality took great pains in referring only to the rape of adult women throughout their opinion [2] , leaving open the question of the rape of a child. The defendants argue that the Coker findings cannot be limited to the rape of an adult. They contend the following words used by the Court would apply with equal force to the crime of statutory rape when no life is taken: Rape is without doubt deserving of serious punishment; but in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public, it does not compare with murder, which does involve the unjustified taking of human life. Although it may be accompanied by another crime, rape by definition does not include the death or even the serious injury to another person. The murderer kills; the rapist, if no more than that, does not. Life is over for the victim of the murderer; for the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over and normally is not beyond repair. We have the abiding conviction that the death penalty, which is unique in its severity and irrevocability,... is an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such, does not take human life. Coker, supra at 598, 97 S.Ct. at 2869. [3] The Coker plurality further discusses rape as a serious crime, finding it highly reprehensible, both in a moral sense and in its almost total contempt for the personal integrity and autonomy of the female victim. Short of homicide, it is the ultimate violation of self. Id., at 597, 97 S.Ct. at 2869. These scathing descriptions of rape refer to the rape of an adult female. While the rape of an adult female is in itself reprehensible, the legislature has concluded that rape becomes much more detestable when the victim is a child. La. R.S. 14:42(C) was amended by Acts 1995, No. 397, § 1 to allow for the death penalty when the victim of rape is under the age of twelve. [4] Rape of a child less than twelve years of age is like no other crime. Since children cannot protect themselves, the State is given the responsibility to protect them. Children are a class of people that need special protection; they are particularly vulnerable since they are not mature enough nor capable of defending themselves. A maturing society, through its legislature has recognized the degradation and devastation of child rape, and the permeation of harm resulting to victims of rape in this age category. The damage a child suffers as a result of rape is devastating to the child as well as to the community. As noted previously, in determining whether a penalty is excessive, the Supreme Court has declared that we should take into account the evolving standards of decency, and in making this determination, the courts should not look to their own subjective conceptions, but should look instead to the conceptions of modern American society as reflected by objective evidence. Coker, supra at 592, 97 S.Ct. at 2866. As evidence of society's attitudes, we look to the judgment of the state legislators [5] , who are representatives of society. Louisiana's legislature determined a standard of decency by amending La. R.S. 14:42(C) to permit the death penalty in cases of aggravated rape when the victim is less than twelve, and deference must be given to that decision. The legislature alone determines what are punishable as crimes and the proscribed penalties. State v. Dorthey, 623 So.2d 1276 (1993); State v. Baxley, 94-2982 (La.5/22/95); 656 So.2d 973. The legislature is not required to select the least severe penalty for the crime as long as the selected penalty is not cruelly inhumane or disproportionate to the offense. Gregg, supra at 175, 96 S.Ct. at 2926. Furthermore, legislative enactments are presumed constitutional under both the Federal and the State Constitutions. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976); State v. Griffin, 495 So.2d 1306 (La. 1986). The party challenging the constitutionality of a statute bears a heavy burden in proving the statute to be unconstitutional. Gregg, supra at 175, 96 S.Ct. at 2926; State v. Griffin, supra at 1308. This is true in part because the constitutional test is intertwined with an assessment of contemporary standards, and the decisions of the legislature are indicative of such standards. [6] In a democratic society legislatures, not courts, are constituted to respond to the will and consequently the moral values of the people. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 383, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 2800-2801, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972) (Burger, C.J., dissenting). The courts must exercise caution in asserting their views over those of the people as announced through their elected representatives. One of the most conservative and acceptable methods of determining the excessiveness of a penalty is to examine the statutes of the other states. Gregg, supra at 179, 96 S.Ct. at 2928. The Coker court summarized the last 50 years of the history of the death penalty, recognizing that just prior to the Furman decision in 1971, just 16 states plus the Federal Government authorized the death penalty for rape. Coker, supra at 593, 97 S.Ct. at 2866-2867. Following Furman's invalidation of most death penalty statutes, 35 states immediately reinstituted death penalty statutes; however, only 3 of the states which had previously included rape as a capital offense reinstated rape of an adult woman as a crime deserving of the death penalty, and none of the states that had not previously recognized the death penalty for rape included it among capital felonies. Id., at 594, 97 S.Ct. at 2867. The three states reinstituting the death penalty for rape were Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Id. North Carolina's and Louisiana's laws were subsequently invalidated since they mandated the death penalty for those offenders found guilty. [7] Id. When Louisiana and North Carolina revised their statutes following the invalidation, they only permitted the death penalty for murder and not rape. Id. Georgia's law permitting the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman was invalidated by Coker. The Coker court used this data as an indication of society's failure to endorse the death penalty. However, this was with reference to adult women. Louisiana is the only state that presently has a law in effect that provides for the death penalty for the rape of a child less than twelve. This fact, however, cannot be deemed determinative. The Coker court pointed out in its discussion of the history of the death penalty that three states, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee authorized the death penalty in rape cases when the victim was a child and the offender was an adult. Coker, supra at 595, 97 S.Ct. at 2867-2868. The Tennessee statute was invalidated in 1977 because the death sentence was mandatory. [8] Id. And as previously noted, Florida's and Mississippi's death penalty statutes were invalidated in 1981 and 1989 respectively. The Florida Supreme Court found the Coker analysis controlling in its invalidation of their statute, but the Mississippi Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty for the rape of a child without ever passing on the constitutionality of the law. [9] Even though these states's statutes were subsequently invalidated, the simple fact that they enacted such statutes since the Furman decision may suggest the beginning of a trend and public opinion favoring such penaltiesan evolution of a standard to deal with this heinous crime.