Convicted of rape of a 2-month-old -- what should the penalty be?

The BBQ Pit
1

If you’re the son of the head of the Department of Corrections, how does 4 years sound?

Dad’s probably pissed off though … prosecuters had pleaded for leniency and asked for a 6-month sentence. The judge decided to go for 4 years because the defendant had a prior criminal record.

Standard sentence for rape of a child in Washington State seems to be 7 to 10 years. Unless, of course, you know someone on the inside.

Original story here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/153383_assault20.html

Some of the letters to the editor were insightful:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001818730_frilets19.html

I had no idea poaching geoducks could get you 14 years. I’ll stick to less serious crimes like child rape. :rolleyes:

(Apologies for the lateness of this report. This came down almost 2 weeks ago. I just found out, and while I rarely start Pit threads, this makes my stomach roll too much to let it be missed here. Further apologies for the crummy sources; I haven’t yet got much further than the Seattle Times in my reading on this topic. There might possibly be more than meets the eye, I don’t know.)

(And just to start the bloodthirsty ball rolling, I believe rape of a child – and by child I mean prepubescent, and by rape I mean forcible insertion – should be an automatic death penalty, very few questions asked beyond “did he do it?” The subject in question confessed in an attempted plea bargain, btw.)

2

I used to live a block away from this guy. Highlights include three convictions, two with 6 year old girls, most recent offense in 2001, and admitting to abusing up to twenty females, eleven between the ages of 6 months and 13 years old.

3

Life in prison without parole and chemical castration. I’m against the death penalty, but just barely in this case.

4

Death. Painless and quick, but death.

5

I don’t believe in the death penalty, and there is no way a civilised society could do the kind of punishment this guy deserves. That said, there is no way this individual should ever walk among human beings again. There are some times though, I really hope there is a hell.

6

A two month old baby?

Man, I didn’t think people got that depraved.

7

Here’s another, more detailed article:
http://news.onemissingperson.org/WA-FEB-10-2003-Will-accused-molester-get-special-treatment.html

Apparently the rape was “oral and manual.” Still very terrible, but, I partially based my opinion of the deserved punishment on the assumption of physical damage to the infant. I believe in that anal or vaginal rape of an infant, death sometimes results, or peritonitis, or other lasting physical consequences. I hope this child will somehow grow up without this horrible memory, if it’s possible.

I still think 4 years – or 7 to 10 – is way too light, of course.

8

and Algorithm, that is a scary link*. Why do these people walk among us?
*especially the part about “he is under supervision of the Department of Corrections.” What, 24/7?

9

Not only a two month old, but his own daughter. Stories like this bring the phrase “somebody needs to reboot the world” to mind.

I’m inclined to agree with Diogenes on what a just penalty would be. Though if I were the mother of that child it would probably be me that was being sentenced and not him, because I’m pretty sure I would have killed him.

What an awful situation.

10

Death. Slowly. Painfully.

11

Honestly? What should the punishment be?

Nothing.

How can you presume to punish somebody who has deviated so far from what it means to be human?

Is this person really human? Can we consider him as such?

At some point you are just so sick and twisted you no longer qualify as a human being, and can’t be dealt with in terms that suggest you still are.

You deal with this guy the way you do with a wild animal turned dangerous. Absolutely and without a second thought.

If this guy was a moral actor he wouldn’t have been capable of what he did. Since he’s not, terms like punishment are wasted.

12

Chemical castration is too kind. Strap the fucker down on a table and slice his nuts off with a rusty, dull knife. No anesthesia.

13

I vote for savage beatings.

14

That does it, I’m buying a gun. Too many sickos. Michael Moore’s gonna hate me for living in fear, but this place is just getting too fucked up.

Christ. 2 months old…

15

For heaven’s sake, just kill him. We don’t need to torture him, we don’t need to waste money and prison space on him.

A two-month old. His own child. And that is not even enough to make us remove this from our midst.

Before the child’s first words. Before she can turn over herself, or raise her head, or smile at a voice. Two months old.

Two God damned MONTHS.

16

Why kill him yourself and glunk up your soul with bad karma when a week in Genpop will take care of him far more brutally than anything we Dopers can come up with? But make sure you have a friend “on the inside” to give the heads-up to about this particular individual’s rap sheet…

17

Slice slice. Cut off his little bits and pieces.

This is beyond horrible. My god.

When does that idea pop into someone’s head? How can it seem like a good idea?

18

He should be castrated with 15 tuna.

19

I worked on an adult forensic psych unit for almost four years with people like this (and other criminals, but we had lots of molesters), and Mr. Kitty currently works with teenage sexual offenders. I could never go back to working with that population because they simply disgust me… four YEARS of my life was wasted trying to get even ONE of those perverts to admit what they’d done was wrong, but none of them ever saw it that way. I’m sure this psycho thinks the same thing. Thank the gods he didn’t decide/was caught before he attempted to try actual penetration- if the child “screams in terror” because of 10 minutes of manual/oral sexual contact (and if you believe that’s the only time he tried it, you’re incredibly naive), imagine what penetration would have done.

Just let him into the prison. No special treatment, no secluded cell or special cell block. I guarantee he’ll get exactly what he deserves.

20

Seeing as I support the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments, I would like to propose a Constitiutional ammendment which redefines cruel as “Any punishment which allows a victim to feel as if justice has not been served” and unusual to mean “any punishment which does not involve extreme physical, psycological, emotional, or spiritual pain.”

With that said, and hoping for a 2/3rds majority among the States, this guy needs to have Johnny Knoxville have at him. “Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville, and you’re a jackass” (insert electrical probes into anus and left ear.)