Professor Berman has this post regarding Louisiana's Supreme Court recent affirmance of the death penalty for defendants convicted of child rape (Louisiana v. Kennedy, No. 05-KA-1981 (La. May 22, 2007)). There's lots of good debate about the constitutionality of the death penalty for sex crimes, but there's another aspect worth considering.

During the 1980s the numerous child daycare sex abuse cases captivated the public. These cases were aided, in large measure, by junk science -- notably the repressed memory movement and police interviewing techniques that influenced children to falsely report abuse. We've learned a lot about the fallibility of childhood memories since then and the notion of repressed memories has been roundly debunked .

Given this perilous past, which was aided by the quite understandable conviction by most adults to protect children and severely punish those who commit the worst crimes against them, perhaps some pause is in order with the current trend to invoke the death penalty for sex crimes against children. Irrespective of constitutional arguments, history is replete with emotionally charged movements seeking to invoke the power of law in the realm sex.

Update: Corey Yung has this post related to this topic.