Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:04 am
The reason I believe rape is worse than murder, by default, is that murder is an act that can be borne out of simple fear and frustration; a bank robber in the heat of the moment, etc. It is not an act intended solely to exert power over another. Can it be? Yes, but once the act of murder starts to get worse, it becomes an act of torture.
If rape is not worse, it is at least as bad. It's just the fact that our own federal court trivialized the issue that bothers me. I'm too lazy to get the link right now, but the cases I have in mind are Kennedy v. Louisiana and Coker v. Georgia--see if you agree with them. The whole thing partly upsets me because these philosopher-kings were overstepping their boundaries, but I also think, so long as they were doing that, they may as well have made the right decision. Oh well. History teaches us that they almost never do.
Both the crime of intentional murder and the crime of torture (again, I include rape here) are sufficiently severe to warrant the harshest punishment available under law, and probably a harsher one at that.