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9/11-15/08 
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News Item:Execute Child RapistsI would really love to see this happen all over the country….Child rapists could face executionA measure allowing the death penalty passes committee. It faces a likely fight in the full Senate.
By Jessica Fender
The Denver Post
Colorado could put child rapists to death under a bill that won a Senate committee's approval Monday and would put the state on par with just five others that allow the execution of such sex offenders.
Prosecutors could try for the death penalty in cases in which rape victims are 12 or younger, where DNA evidence is present and where the perpetrator has been previously convicted of a sex offense against a child.
The harsher sentences might run afoul of the Constitution — the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue this year — and could discourage victims from reporting abuse by relatives, according to critics, who include victims' rights advocates.
But some of the most terrible offenders simply deserve death, said sponsor Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton. He referred to a Louisiana man who raped his 8-year-old stepdaughter and became the first such offender in the nation to receive a death sentence.
"The crimes we're looking at are particularly heinous," Ward said.
Colorado public defenders, who oppose the bill, originally estimated that it would make about 260 people a year eligible for the death penalty. It was unclear what an amendment, which limits the bill to repeat offenders, would do to that estimate.
In Louisiana, the one state that has sentenced child rapists to death, prosecutors have made capital cases of only two out of 180 eligible cases.
Constitutional challenges immediately followed the first of those two sentences, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by June whether death is cruel and unusual punishment for felons who have not taken a life.
Senate Judiciary Committee members voted 5-2 to send Senate Bill 195 to the chamber's appropriations committee, which will weigh its as-yet-unknown price tag.
Current punishment
Critics of the bill say that current sentences, which in many cases amount to life in prison, are harsh enough.
Colorado sends child rapists and other serious sex offenders to prison for between four years and life, with the duration largely left to a judge's discretion.
Of the 1,200 people now incarcerated for the most serious sex crimes, only eight have received parole in the past decade, said Doug Wilson, Colorado's chief public defender.
Colorado joins Alabama, Missouri and Mississippi in seeking death for child rapists this year.
Montana, Oklahoma and South Carolina have passed similar laws since 2006, and Louisiana and Texas both approved such legislation in the mid-1990s, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.
Get-tough attitude
As high-profile cases such as the rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida — namesake of the popular Jessica's Law — draw attention to crimes against children, many politicians have grown eager to get tough on offenders, Dieter said.
The climate, he said, is tilting toward harsher penalties such as lifetime monitoring and housing restrictions for sex offenders.
"It's hard to vote against being tough on such offenders," Dieter said. "And whether the death penalty makes sense or not is sometimes obscured."
The number of inmates on Colorado's death row — one — ranks among the lowest in the nation of prisoners sentenced to death. The state last executed an inmate more than a decade ago.
Ward said that although his bill garnered bipartisan support in committee, it will likely face a fight this year.
Ward said, "I think it's an important discussion for us to have."News Item:By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer
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.
___
Associated Press writer Christopher Wills in Springfield, Ill., contributed to this report.
LINKSThe National Center For Victims of Crime (www.ncvc.org)Bureau of Justice Statistics (www.ojp.usdoj.gov)Office of Justice Programs (www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org)Innocence Project (www.innocenceproject.org)American Bar Association (www.abanet.org)The Justice Project (www.thejusticeproject.org)Crimelynx (www.crimelynx.com)FOR MORE LINKS SCROLLDOWN OR CLICK: Brenda'sLinksFELONY VOTING RIGHTS:
"Permanent disenfranchisement of former felons, a practice that falls outside of international or even U.S. norms, is an unreasonable restriction that creates subcategories of citizenship in the United States. Ex-felons are expected to contribute to society as gainfully employed citizens, pay taxes and raise families, but their disenfranchisement gives them no say in how those tax dollars are spent, who sits on their children’s school board, or who represents their interests in government.
States that permanently disenfranchise felons—Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa, Arizona and Alabama -— should amend their laws and practices to restore full citizenship rights to ex-offenders. In addition, in states where voting rights of ex-felons can be restored upon release, authorities should disseminate clear and precise materials in a variety of media informing ex-felons of their restored rights."MORE LINKS
National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA)
99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 510, Alexandria, VA 22314
Office: (703) 549-9222 Fax: (703) 836-3195
Email: ncpca@ndaa-apri.org
Website: www.ndaa.org/apri/programs/ncpca/
NCPCA, through its staff of 20 attorneys, offers resources, training, publications and technical assistance to investigators and prosecutors of child abuse throughout the United States.National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC)
2000 M Street N.W., Suite 480, Washington, DC 20036
Office: (202) 467-8700 Fax: (202) 467-8701 Toll free: 1-800-FYI-CALL (1-800-394-2255)
TDD: 1-800-211-7996 Email: webmaster@ncvc.org or gethelp@ncvc.org
Webstie: www.ncvc.org
NCVC offers crime victims, victim service providers, criminal justice officials, attorneys, and concerned individuals, practical information on the closest, most appropriate local service for victims of crime. Through its national database of over 30,000 grassroots organizations, NCVC refers callers to an array of critical services including crisis intervention, research information, assistance with the criminal justice process, counseling and support groups.
The National Crime Victim Bar Association Referral Line, a service offered by NCVC, provides victims referrals to local attorneys specializing in victim-related litigation. The referral line can be reached at (202) 467-8753 between 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM (EST) Monday through Friday. Or email requests to victimbar@ncvc.org.
National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA)
The Augustus Institute, Public Policy Center, 3125 Mt. Vernon Ave Alexandria, VA 22305 Office: (703) 684-0373 Fax: (703) 684-6037
Email: info@ncianet.org
Website: www.igc.org/ncia/
NCIA is a private non-profit agency providing training, technical assistance, research and direct services to criminal justice, social services, and mental health organizations and clients across the county. NCIA works on assessment and planning to reduce institutional overcrowding, alternative sentencing, community integration of juvenile and adult offenders, mental health and developmentally disabled clients. NCIA provides pre-trial analysis, early release, community custody, intense supervision and electronic monitoring programs. The Augustus Institute is the clinical arm of NCIA, which provides outpatient treatment for sex offenders.National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA)
1730 Park Road N.W., Washington, DC 20010
Office: (202) 232-6682 Fax: (202) 462-2255 Hotline: 1-800-TRY-NOVA (1-800-879-6682)
Email: nova@try-nova.org
Website: www.try-nova.org
NOVA is a private, non-profit network of victim and witness assistance programs and practitioners, criminal justice agencies and professionals, mental health professionals, researchers, former victims, survivors, and others committed to the integration and implementation of victim rights and services. NOVA provides direct service to victims and communities that need assistance. One may call NOVA's hotline 24 hours a day for information, referrals in one's local area or emotional support. NOVA is the oldest national group of its kind in the worldwide victim's movement.The Sentencing Project (SP)514 - 10th Street, N.W., Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20004
Office: (202) 628-0871 Fax: (202) 628-1091
Email: staff@sentencingproject.org
Website: www.sentencingproject.org
SP is an independent source of criminal justice policy analysis, data and program information for the public and policy makers. The SP website is designed to provide resources and information for the news media and a public concerned with criminal justice and sentencing issues.
BLOGSCrimProf Blog - A criminal justice blog maintained by Professor Mark Godsey of the Ohio Innocence ProjectCrime Lab Project Blog - A blog on crime labs and forensic science.Best Defense - A blog maintained by Jami Floyd, the anchor of Court TV's Best Defense
The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, and both should be checks upon that.
