Killing disclosure: The unspoken effect of the death penalty for child rapists in Louisiana

Louisiana elected officials are once again pushing to resurrect the use of the death penalty for child rape, framing it as protection while setting the stage for a constitutional showdown. 

These efforts are not subtle. They are a direct attempt to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which held that imposing the death penalty for a non-homicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Supporters frame these proposals as being tough on crime and protective of children. In reality, they threaten to unravel years of hard fought progress Louisiana has made to improve reporting, accountability, and access to justice for child sexual abuse survivors.

As someone who works closely with survivors and within Louisiana’s legal system, I want to be clear: the death penalty will not protect children. It will silence them.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy was not abstract nor academic. It was grounded in the recognition that capital punishment for child rape carries profound risks, including discouraging reporting and increasing the likelihood of lethal violence against victims. The court explicitly acknowledged child sexual abuse is most often committed by someone the child knows and trusts, not a stranger.

That reality has not changed.

What has changed is Louisiana’s legal framework for accountability.

Today, Louisiana already authorizes a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for the rape of a child under the age of 13. In addition, Louisiana law allows for both surgical and chemical castration of certain sex offenders as part of sentencing or release conditions for sexual offenses committed against children under the age of 13.

The idea that Louisiana lacks tools to punish and incapacitate child rapists is simply false.

At the same time, Louisiana has spent years working to remove barriers that historically prevented survivors from coming forward. Lawmakers, advocates and survivors have pushed changes eliminating time limits on civil claims for child sexual abuse. 

These reforms acknowledged a basic truth supported by decades of research: Children often cannot disclose abuse immediately. Trauma, fear, family pressure and lack of language delays disclosures, sometimes for decades.

This civil justice reform was about one thing — creating a safe space for survivors to tell the truth when they are ready, without fear that the system itself will re-traumatize them or destroy their families.

Efforts to reintroduce the death penalty for child rape would directly undermine that progress.

When disclosure carries the possibility that a parent, stepparent, relative or trusted caregiver could be executed, children are far less likely to speak. Non-offending parents are less likely to report. Families are more likely to close ranks, and institutions are more likely to handle abuse quietly rather than involve law enforcement.

This is not speculation but a predictable and well documented outcome. Children already struggle with guilt and misplaced responsibility for what happened to them. A legal framework that ties disclosure to a potential death sentence asks a child to carry an unbearable moral burden.

There is also a critical public safety concern that elected officials ignore at their peril. When the punishment for rape is equal to the punishment for murder, offenders have less incentive to leave victims alive. This was one of the central concerns raised in Kennedy, and it remains valid today. Laws that increase the risk of lethal violence against children cannot credibly be called protective.

Proponents of imposing the death penalty for child rape argue the goal is to challenge the Kennedy decision and invite the Supreme Court to reconsider. But even if that is the stated objective, the real world impact will be felt long before any case reaches Washington. 

The message sent to children, families, and communities will be immediate and chilling: Do not tell. Do not report. Do not risk everything.

Louisiana has made meaningful progress in recent years by centering survivor safety, expanding access to justice and strengthening accountability without sacrificing reporting. We should be building on that work, not dismantling it.

If elected officials are truly committed to protecting children, the focus should be on prevention, early intervention, trauma-informed investigations and survivor support. That means investing in sexual assault and child advocacy centers, forensic interviewers, prosecutors trained in child abuse cases and long-term services for survivors. 

It means holding institutions accountable when they conceal abuse. It means ensuring that when a child does speak, the system responds with care rather than catastrophe.

The push to revive the death penalty for child rape may satisfy a desire for symbolic punishment, but symbolism does not keep children safe. Systems keep children safe.

Louisiana’s children need laws that help them disclose abuse, not laws that teach them to stay silent. Undoing years of survivor centered reform in pursuit of an unconstitutional (at least for now) and dangerous policy would be a step backward our state cannot afford.

Source: lailluminator.com, Morgan Lamandre, February 2, 2026

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

— Oscar Wilde