Background
Patrick Kennedy was charged by the State of Louisiana with the rape of his 8 year old stepdaughter. The story both him and his daughter told was that she was pulled from the garage to the yard where some neighborhood boys raped her. Kennedy was said to be busy getting his son ready for school. He was convicted and sentenced to death.
Summary of the Majority Decision
A national consensus that did not currently exist was needed in order to apply the death penalty to this case.To try to achieve this national concensus the court looked to similar previous cases where the application of the death penalty was outlawed. Murder which was punished with the death penalty was not on the same level of rape although both were harmful.
Summary of the Dissenting Opinion
It was argued that the measures taken to come to a national consensus were flawed. It was said that the eighth amendment does protect the rights of the Patrick but doesn’t authorize “ the overlooking of the federal and state laws which were in teh best interest of the crime victims and society.