As far as I am concerned, this is not a question for the courts to decide. It is one that is instead appropriate for the American people to decide.

The U.S. Supreme Court Friday added another dramatic death-penalty case to its docket, agreeing to decide whether a Louisiana man can be put to death for raping his young daughter.

The case joins an appeal set for argument Monday where the Supreme Court will decide whether lethal-injection procedures used in many criminal executions violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The lethal injection appeal, in Baze v. Rees, spurred what has become a de facto nationwide halt on death penalty executions until the appeal is decided.

In contrast, the Louisiana rape case for now may affect the fate of just one man -- Patrick Kennedy. His attorneys say he is the only person set to be put to death for rape in the last 40 years.

Nevertheless, the appeal gives the Supreme Court the chance to revisit whether the death penalty can be used for crimes that don't involve someone's death. In recent years, five states have enacted laws allowing the death penalty for child rape and nine additional states and the federal government have seldom-used laws that allow death penalty convictions in certain instances that don't involve murder.

There is certainly nothing in the Constitution that requires the death penalty to be limited to cases of murder. Indeed, any attempt by the courts to so limit the imposition of capital punishment to those involving a fatality would be a gross act of judicial arrogance that would be the best of all possible cases for the impeachment for judges for official misconduct while in office. After all, the Eighth Amendment specifically only bars "cruel and unusual punishment". And since the Fifth Amendment clearly contemplates and authorizes the use of the death penalty in its provisions related to capital crimes, putting persons in jeopardy of life and requiring due process for the deprivation of life, any ban on executions for non-homicides would be on tenuous constitutional grounds.

Besides – can you think of a more fitting punishment for raping a child ?

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