• South Carolina and Oklahoma Governors Sign Bills Expanding Death Penalty South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry have signed into law leg­is­la­tion that allows proseuc­tors to seek the death penal­ty for repeat child moles­ters. The new South Carolina law allows a death sen­tence if the accused has been twice con­vict­ed of rap­ing a child younger than 11-years-old. It also sets a 25-year manda­to­ry min­i­mum prison sen­tence for some sex offend­ers, man­dates that peo­ple con­vict­ed of crim­i­nal sex­u­al con­duct in the first degree wear an elec­tron­ic mon­i­tor­ing device, and requires reg­is­tered sex offend­ers to update their address every six months. The Oklahoma mea­sure makes the death penal­ty an option for any­one con­vict­ed of a sec­ond or sub­se­quent con­vic­tion for rape, sodomy, or lewd molesta­tion involv­ing a child under 14. Oklahoma, South Carolina, Montana, Louisiana, and Florida are the only states to allow the death penal­ty for cer­tain sex crimes. No one con­vict­ed of a sex offense has been exe­cut­ed since the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment 30 years ago. David Bruck, a law pro­fes­sor at Washington and Lee University, said the mea­sures might actu­al­ly put child rape vic­tims’ lives at risk. He notes, ​“The last mes­sage you want to give an offend­er who has the life of a child in his hands is you might as well kill the child because he’d already got the death penal­ty. This is a very stu­pid mes­sage.” (Associated Press, June 8, 2006 and June 9, 2006). See Recent Legislative Activity. The con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the law is not clear because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the death penal­ty for rape of an adult is barred by the Eighth Amendment. (Coker v. Georgia (1977)).
  • Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating vetoed leg­is­la­tion authored to ban the exe­cu­tion of those who have men­tal retar­da­tion. The bill, which was sent to the Governor in late May, passed with bipar­ti­san sup­port in the State House and Senate. The U.S. Supreme Court is cur­rent­ly con­sid­er­ing Atkins v. Virginia, No. 00 – 8452, which will deter­mine whether exe­cut­ing those with men­tal retar­da­tion vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. On June 20, the Supreme Court ruled that it is a vio­la­tion of the ban on cru­el unusu­al pun­ish­ment to exe­cute death row inmates who have men­tal retar­da­tion. (The Oklahoman, May 26, 2002)