State of Play: No Death Penalty for Child Rapists

Jul 31, 202015.7K Shares716.3K Views

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning barred the death penalty for someone convicted of raping a child. In a 5-4 decision striking down a Louisiana law, the high court ruled that the death penalty is not a "proportional punishment for the rape of a child." Major media outlets put the story up immediately, most of them using copy from the Associated Press.

Interestingly, there’s a wide variance in the headline language, and not all took the AP’s recommendation: "Court Rejects Death Penalty for Raping Children."

High Court Spares Lives Of Child Rapists(CBS)

No Death for Child Rapists(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Court Bars Death for Child Rapists(The Wall Street Journal)

Child rapists can’t be executed, Supreme Court rules(CNN)

Supreme Court strikes down La. rape penalty(New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape(The New York Times)