The legislation allows capital punishment for sexual crimes against children under 12, directly challenging a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision on non-murder offenses.
The Alabama Senate passed House Bill 41 Thursday, legislation which would allow for the death penalty in cases of rape, sodomy or sexual torture of a child under the age of 12.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, stands in direct opposition to a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision which found the death penalty to be an "unusual" punishment for non-murder offenses under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
However, in recent years several other states -- including Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Oklahoma and Arkansas -- have passed various laws allowing for the death penalty in cases of rape or sexual abuse of a child in defiance of the the 2008 ruling. Simpson and others now argue that Alabama should do the same.
Senator April Weaver, R-Brierfield -- the sponsor of HB41's companion legislation in the Senate -- said that her and Simpson introduced the bills in response to a recent high-profile case in Bibb County where eight individuals were charged with committing sex crimes against children in...
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