South Carolina Attorney General supports death penalty for child rape

State Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general supporting efforts to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana.

In a letter sent to the Department of Justice and the White House General Counsel’s office, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is among 20 attorneys general pushing to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which barred states from imposing the death penalty in cases of child rape where the victim did not die.

The coalition of attorneys general argues that Kennedy was wrongly decided and that the Constitution allows capital punishment for the most horrific crimes against children.

“The Supreme Court got it wrong in 2008,” said Attorney General Wilson. “For too long, child predators have been shielded from the full weight of justice. Anyone who rapes a child commits one of the most monstrous crimes imaginable, and they should face the most severe punishment the law allows. South Carolina will never side with predators. We will always fight to put the safety of children above the interests of criminals, and we are standing with other states to restore this critical authority.”

The multi-state letter emphasized that the Kennedy decision stripped states of a vital tool to punish and deter predators who commit the most extreme sexual assaults against children. It argued that the decision disregarded the profound harm inflicted on victims, equated their lifelong trauma with lesser crimes, and undermined the ability of states to protect their most vulnerable citizens.

The attorneys general stressed that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty for child rape. They urged the Court to recognize that the death penalty can be a constitutionally appropriate punishment in cases of child rape, just as it is for murder.

Attorney General Wilson and his counterparts noted that since Kennedy, states have continued to enact legislation authorizing capital punishment for aggravated child rape, showing that there is no true national consensus against the practice and demonstrating efforts to enact child rape statutes that are distinguishable from the one that was struck down in Kennedy.

Source: southcarolinapublicradio.org, Staff, September 29, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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