Jurors sentenced a man accused of raping his step-daughter in Louisiana to death based on a state law that was adopted in 1995. The law states that the death penalty can be sought for aggravated rape if the victim is under the age of 12. The other penalty available to the jurors was a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. (Associated Press, August 27, 2003) Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, no one in the United States has been executed except for a crime involving murder.
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