Patrick O'Neal Kennedy (born December 13, 1964),[4] a man from Harvey, Louisiana in Greater New Orleans,[5] was sentenced to death after being convicted of raping and sodomizing his eight-year-old stepdaughter.

"[6] Kennedy maintained that the battery was committed by two neighborhood boys, and refused to plead guilty when a deal was offered to spare him from a death sentence.

In Atkins the Supreme Court had written that "it is not so much the number of these States that is significant, but the consistency of the direction of change" for a finding of national consensus against the execution of the intellectually disabled.

[1] The second part of the "evolving standards of decency test" is subjective:[14] "[T]he Constitution contemplates that in the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment."

3368Noting the precedents Coker v. Georgia and Enmund v. Florida the Court concluded that the death penalty is a disproportionate punishment for non-homicide crimes, including "child rape": The court concludes that there is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder, on the one hand, and non-homicide crimes against individuals, even including child rape, on the other.

The latter crimes may be devastating in their harm, as here, but in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public, they cannot compare to murder in their severity and irrevocability.The Court says that "evolving standards of decency...counsel us to be most hesitant before interpreting the Eighth Amendment to allow the extension of the death penalty".

[1] They define "decency" to imply a presumption against expanding the death penalty:[14] It is an established principle that decency, in its essence, presumes respect for the individual and thus moderation or restraint in the application of capital punishment.In response to criticism that intervention by the Court interferes with a developing national consensus in favor of the death penalty for the rape of a child the Court says:[15] These concerns overlook the meaning and full substance of the established proposition that the Eighth Amendment is defined by "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."

Alito argued that Kennedy's rationale for defining national consensus was flawed, because the previous Coker decision had "stunted legislative consideration of the question whether the death penalty for the targeted offense of raping a young child is consistent with prevailing standards of decency."

In this Alito followed former Chief Justice Warren Burger, who had dissented from Coker because it, in his view, prevented a full debate over the uses of the recently reinstated death penalty.

It does not authorize this Court to strike down federal or state criminal laws on the ground that they are not in the best interests of crime victims or the broader society.

Barack Obama said at a news conference in Chicago:[21] I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes ...

I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.John McCain responded to the ruling by calling it:[21] An assault on law enforcement's efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime.

[22] During his 2012 campaign for a Texas Senate seat, Ted Cruz was criticized for not including the military case law in his brief to the Supreme Court.

[23] In 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis supported moves to have the death penalty for defendants convicted of child rape, which could ultimately challenge the precedent of Kennedy v.

[24][25] In May 2023, DeSantis signed a bill that allows the possibility of the death penalty for the rape of a child under 12 years of age, though it will be judicially unenforceable unless Kennedy is overturned.