There is a story on the Fox News website today about the issue of expanding the death penalty for nondeath child abuse. To read it, click here.

What do you think?

In my limited experience with these cases, I am going on a limb by saying that aside from the obvious "why keep the victim alive" argument, mere threats will even change. The threat to keep the child quiet often is "don't tell or I'll go to jail/prison" and now the threat will be "don't tell or they'll send me to the death chamber." I think that would present a heavier burden for children and make them more reluctant to outcry.

There are probably few parents out there who haven't thought of killing their child's rapist, and on the surface it sounds great to say DP for child molestors. But I think it will do more to hurt kids than help them.

We do not need to open this can of worms. Have any prosecutors endorsed the idea yet? Those that have spoken have identified some very real problems with chilling the prosecution process. Isn't it better to have the culprits identified and off the streets instead of unknown and perpetrating? In most case, even as revenge, the punishment exceeds the injury inflicted. Finally, do we really think that the SCOTUS's evolving standards of decency permit this?



JAS

I don't know whether the Supremes will consider child victim cases to be sufficiently more heinous than adults victim to justify death, but it does seem to be the conventional wisdom that child abusers who are sent to prison seem suffer more from other inmates. I wouldn't be surprised to find that some child abusers would choose death over life in prison. Plus, while you can commit murder inside the pen, it's hard to find a child in there to perp on.

Sending child sex pervs to the pen will probably get you more of an eye for an eye than execution will. And I too, am concerned about making the price for leaving the child alive the same as the price for leaving the child dead.