Ohio Republican Wants To Execute Sex Offenders

By Jean Ann Esselink on August 20, 2013

Republicans are fond of pointing to the Constitution as the final authority, – except of course when it comes to abortion rights. I have been told that is because most Republicans feel the “right to privacy” on which the Roe V Wade decision was based, is a bogus “right” that strict constructionists don’t think the Constitution includes. To a Tea Party Republican, if it’s not an “enumerated” right, then it doesn’t exist.
Now, it appears at least one Republican thinks the limits on states imposing the death penalty, established by the  Supreme Court in a case knows as Kennedy V Louisiana, were also wrongly imposed. He wants to execute more prisoners.

In Kennedy V Louisiana, the high court said very clearly that ”the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim’s life was not taken.” The court culled out an exception for treason, and terrorism, and other crimes against the state, but as “it relates to crimes against individuals” the accused has to have killed his victim to be subject to the death penalty.
This week, an Ohio state representative has submitted a bill that flies in the face of that decision, and of modernity for that matter. Rep. John Becker wants to make sex crimes a death penalty offense. Should the bill become law, and who knows with Ohio, it is sure to put the death penalty back before the Supreme Court.
 Since the election of President Obama, the Tea Party has been trying to take America back in time, whether it is Rick Perry in Texas trying to take control of every uterus in Texas, or Ken Cuccinelli wanting to restore sodomy laws, or almost every candidate on the presidential debate stage, who salivated at the mention of disbanding the EPA. Now here’s one more, John Becker, the pro-lifer who wants us to kill more prisoners.
Rep. Becker, (left) says his bill is a response to the kidnapping of three young women by Ariel Castro, who will be spending the rest of his life in prison for the crime. Although prosecutors didn’t seem to need any help getting Castro to plead guilty to 937 counts, Becker feels they should have the specter of death in their toolkit. “Prosecutors would be able to use the death penalty threat as a tool for plea bargain negotiations,” Becker said. “Nobody in this country has ever been executed for a sex crime, but that could change.”
I sometimes think we have taken a step through Alice’s looking glass. Darkly. Very very darkly.