Thread: Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case

Originally Posted by TERA

Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case

Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:07 PM EDT

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama says the option should be available to use the death penalty in child rape and other cases.

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CHICAGO — Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision outlawing executions of people who rape children, a crime he said states have the right to consider for capital punishment.

"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said at a news conference. "I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution."

The court's 5-4 decision Wednesday struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12, saying it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling spares the only people in the U.S. under sentence of death for that crime — two Louisiana men convicted of raping girls 5 and 8. It also invalidates laws on the books in five other states that allowed executions for child rape that does not result in the death of the victim.

Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, also criticized the court's decision, calling it "an assault on law enforcement's efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime."

"That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing," McCain said in a statement.

Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said that had the court "said we want to constrain the abilities of states to do this to make sure that it's done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing. But it basically had a blanket prohibition and I disagree with that decision."

Obama has two daughters, ages 7 and 9.

He has long supported the death penalty while criticizing the way it is sometimes applied.

As an Illinois legislator, he helped rewrite the state's death penalty system to guard against innocent people being sentenced to die. The new safeguards included requiring police to videotape interrogations and giving the state Supreme Court more power to overturn unjust decisions.

He also opposed legislation making it easier to impose the death penalty for murders committed as part of gang activity. Obama argued the language was too vague and could be abused by authorities.

But Obama has never rejected the death penalty entirely. He supported death sentences for killing volunteers in community policing programs and for particularly cruel murders of elderly people.

"While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes — mass murder, the rape and murder of a child — so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment," he wrote in his book "The Audacity of Hope."

In 1988, a question about rape and capital punishment tripped up Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.
Dukakis was asked during a nationally televised debate with Republican George H. W. Bush whether he'd still oppose the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered.

His unemotional, dispassionate answer was ridiculed, and gave Republicans more material to paint him as an emotionless liberal.

At the news conference Wednesday, Obama answered questions on a number of topics, including a compromise eavesdropping bill the Senate was preparing to consider. He said he supports the bill, which would establish new rules to govern when the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI or others can tap American phone and computer lines.

The bill also effectively gives legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on calls and e-mails for years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, without the approval of a special, secret court.

Obama, who opposed an earlier version of the bill, said he supports the compromise partly because it would prohibit presidents from superseding surveillance rules in the future.
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This is classic liberal-speak where they like to be on both sides of a subject.

* On the one hand he seems to be saying to allow this as an option

* On the other he has not advocated the death penalty much and knows that it is never quickly executed (pun) and the person remains on death row for years with endless appeals. He knows that governors of a state can halt an execution and that he will not face that decision as he is not a governor.

If you examine his talks in front of different groups note that he says what they want to hear. If you instead look to past ACTIONS...that tends to show that he is extremely liberal.

Bill Clinton while in his various offices was always on both side of many subjects. I would cringe when he'd say that he voted one way...but felt like he should have voted the other way. Make up your mind already, haha.

Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision outlawing executions of people who rape children...

If he truly believes this (his comments promise no action) then he should work on changing the law. And appoint death penalty Judges.

Instead his death penalty work has been to provide more ways not to carry out the sentence.

So:

1) He wants the death penalty as this placates many people.

2) He then does not want the sentence carried out. Instead it will be even more delayed with even more options to delay and prevent it from being administered.

This way he satisfies the pro and con sides of this issue?

Well at least the child rapist will be off the streets.