The Gum Tree for 2008 June 25

Justice Kennedy:

[Rape and other Crimes] "may be as devastating in their harm, as here, but 'in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public,' they cannot be compared to murder in their 'severity and irrevocability,'"

I beg to differ. Firstly, how can the rape of a child be "as devastating in [its] harm" as murder, and yet not comparable in the magnitude of it's injury? Isn't there more depravity in torture (especially of the sexual sort) than there is in simple clean murder; especially torture of a person who hasn't built up strong psychological defense mechanisms, who is most vulnerable to 'irrevocable' psychological damage? If only Bork sat in Kennedy's chair. P.S. I'm glad Obama isn't opposed to the death penalty for Child Rapists. But that's today; we'll have to see what he says tomorrow. This court is out-of-control. Think of it: 9 people who can willy nilly strike down any law they see fit based on how they feel that particular day. This isn't the rule-of-law, it's the rule of will and tyranny. Tomorrow they rule on the constitutioality of a person's right to own a gun.