Lawmakers in Idaho advanced a bill that would make anyone convicted of a heinous sexual act against a child under 12 eligible for the death penalty.
House Bill 515 was passed 57-11 on Feb. 13 and will not be reviewed by a senate committee.
“There is a deep, dark, dark side in our culture, and it’s our job to protect the children,” said state Representative Bruce Skaug, who co-sponsored the bill, per KMVT. “There are times when things are so wicked that retribution is appropriate.”
Currently, only first-degree murder convictions can be sentenced to death in Idaho. There are some concerns that the proposal is unconstitutional as the United Supreme Court barred death penalties for child rape as part of Kennedy v. Louisiana in 2008.
According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institue:Louisiana charged petitioner with the aggravated rape of his then-8-year-old stepdaughter. He was convicted and sentenced to death under a state statute authorizing capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12…
Reasoning that children are a class in need of special protection, the state court held child rape to be unique in terms of the harm it inflicts upon the victim and society and concluded that, short of first-degree murder, there is no crime more deserving of death…
The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibited Louisiana from imposing the death penalty.
“Well there’s constitutional and there’s constitutional. Depends on the court of the day,” said Skaug of the concerns, suggesting the current Supreme Court Justices would rule differently should the law be challenged, per Idaho Reports.
“It would be very rare that this case would happen. It’d be very rare that a prosecutor would take this kind of case and ask for the death penalty, but it will happen,” he added. “And I say to you that when you see that case, you read about it in the newspaper, you’re gonna say, ‘This is the one case that this needs to happen.’”
Idaho Representative Jack Nelsen was the only Republican in the state House that voted against H.B. 515.
“My concern is judicious use of taxpayer money. Florida already passed this. It’s obviously in the courts,” he said during an interview with the Idaho Capital Sun. “I see no reason to spend hard-earned Idaho taxpayer’s dollars on a bill that’s a little bit of time and patience, we’ll know what the outcome is.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho opposes H.B. 515, describing it as “blatantly and admittedly unconstitutional.”
“House Bill 515 and any iterations of (it) have already been litigated in our country’s highest court, and found to be unconstitutional,” said spokesperson Rebecca De León in a statement. “Our lawmakers should exercise a healthy respect for laws, law enforcement, and judicial review. This bill spits on the checks and balances our country was founded on.”
For Skaug, the bill is worth pursuing despite legal concerns.
“The victims forever live in fear of the release of their perpetrators, and many of these perpetrators are repeat criminals of this type of crime. I believe this is worth the fight,” he told the Sun.
