Court upholds death penalty child rape ban

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court says it won't reconsider its decision that imposing the death penalty on a child rapist is unconstitutional.

The high court came to that conclusion Thursday regarding its 5-4 decision announced last June after the state of Louisiana and the U.S. Justice Department had asked the court to reconsider. They said the justices weren't told that Congress had made child rape a capital offense under military law in 2006, The Washington Post said.

The court said Thursday that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voted to reopen the case but Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia, who were also in dissent of the June decision, voted against reopening the case, saying the final outcome would be the same. The five justices who were in the majority in June voted against reconsideration.

The June decision overturned the death penalty for Patrick Kennedy, 43, who was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana in 1998.

The Justice Department said it had erred in not advising the court of the 2006 law. Justices said the decision would be amended to add the existence of the military law but it offered no changes in the majority reasoning.