It has been reported that legislators in the State of Idaho unanimously passed a bill this week that would allow the death penalty for adults who sexually abuse a child under the age of 12. ACSOL does not believe that the sexual abuse of a child is acceptable or should go unpunished. That is not the issue.
Instead, the issue is whether killing a human being will help a child heal or prevent another child from being abused. The answer to that question is clearly no.
It must be noted that, according to media reports, no member of the Idaho legislature spoke out against this bill. No one questioned whether the bill would achieve its stated purpose of protecting children.
Legislators instead discussed the fact that legislators in the State of Florida passed a similar bill two years ago and that five other states are now considering child rape death penalty bills. The fact that terrible decisions have been made by legislators in other states does not make a decision in Idaho a sound decision.
The legislators in Idaho acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in 2008 that blocked a similar death penalty law in the State of Louisiana. One of the legislators in Idaho suggested that their bill would help the U.S. Supreme Court re-evaluate the issue.
It must also be noted that Idaho legislators recently passed a bill, signed into law by the Governor, that makes firing squads the main execution method in that state. Perhaps the method of execution does not matter, but perhaps it should matter given the factors that will be considered in future death penalty cases.
Those factors include being in a position of trust and kidnapping as well as physical contact with a child’s genitals. That could include a parent who flees from an abusive spouse with an infant and changes that infant’s diaper.
The bill in Idaho has not yet become law and perhaps it will not. Regardless of its ultimate outcome, we shame the Idaho legislators who have passed this bill. If this bill does become law, it is sure to be copied by legislators in other states and perhaps the federal government.
this is getting out of hand! murders in prison for life.
Well, this has got to be the most barbaric way to cut expenses maintaining Idaho’s sex offense registry. If this actually becomes law I will personally boycott potatoes.
I would post the email I sent to the bill’s author, but the shear amount of profanities I included ( tastefully and strategically) would likely get it omitted from here.
Please take a look at the paper written by Professor Eric Janus titled “A Crooked Picture: Re-Framing the Problem of Child Sexual Abuse”
Idaho Famous Potatoes should now be Freaking Punitive Law State. Idaho the northern version of Florida.
Archiie,
People need to hear your story. Thank you for sharing it. Unhealed trauma brings more trauma.
Make no mistake. When you see bills like this, you can be sure Idaho doesn’t want to do anything for victims. They just want to satisfy their unholy bloodlust and call it justice.
Some unhealed victims end up as perpetrators of harm. That is an unfortunate fact and those that should have helped you, failed you by not recognizing this. Instead, they only care to the extent that, when these victims commit offenses, it gives them the opportunity to bring down the hammer of “justice” some more.
There is a path to healing, however. I found it at the end of my desperate journey. It comes through a personal relationship with Christ. He can bring healing in places no therapist can reach. I know because I went through a lot of fruitless therapy before my encounter with Jesus. In that moment, traded my wasted life for a new one living by faith in him, and I literally felt the weight of my emotional sickness lift off of me immediately.
Because of my personal experience, I’m convinced that there is evil in the world and it wields power through the people in whom they use as puppets for their purposes. That evil cannot withstand the power of Jesus, however, and deliverance is waiting for those who desire it. If Idaho were serious about saving children from sexual harm, they would be out there personally sharing this message and not the one they are currently trumpeting.
I don’t believe that anybody who’s accused of a sex crime can get a fair trial anywhere in America. That’s why anybody with a lick of common sense should vehemently oppose this bill.
Perhaps the Supreme Court will reevaluate it if it works its way through the appellate process…but if it gets there, I doubt it’ll change their findings from the State of Louisiana opinion.
Of course no one’s going to speak out against this anywhere through the legislative process, that would kill any political credibility and commit political suicide potentially the next time there is an election and they want to be re-elected to office.
This shows how irrational people are when it comes to sex related crimes. Actual murderers usually get life in prison, yet death is automatically on the table depending on the sex crime? The APA is to blame for most of the asinine logic this country has because it chooses to keep silent in fear of losing its credibility for speaking out the truth. If defies logic to say a sexual crime ruins people for life, but no other violent crime, which shows the publics perception does just as much damage as a sexual crime itself. This country gets more irrational every day……
It is frustrating that such laws even are considered. I talked at length with my buddy Roger about the punitive nature of the registry. He assured me that Janice and the ACSOL team will NOT take these matters setting down. We all can help no action or funds are to small. Join us in the fight, WE are in this TOGETHER…