For the third time in six years, the Supreme Court on Wednesday placed a category of defendants outside the reach of the death penalty, this time ruling that execution is unconstitutional for those whose crimes did not result in the death of the victim.
By a 5-4 vote, the Court reversed the death penalty for Patrick Kennedy, a Louisiana man sentenced for raping and seriously injuring, but not killing, his 8-year-old stepdaughter. He would have been the first person executed for non-homicide child rape since 1964.
