It’s a horrific story, the case of the Louisiana stepfather who raped his eight-year-old stepdaughter and was sentenced to death for the crime before the Supreme Court overturned his sentence on Wednesday. The child needed emergency surgery, and is certain to need psychological care.
Yet, despite the conservative furor, into which even Baby Barry has waded in agreement, I can’t help wondering if the Supremes didn’t do the right thing. The child was not killed and may yet be helped to heal. The stepfather certainly deserves a long prison term and presumably will get it, even after a retrial. But that isn’t likely to be all. The outraged, like Ms Malkin, who performed the service of posting the legal documents at the link above, may not know what state and federal prisoners commonly do to convicted child molesters, many of them having been molested as children themselves. Emergency surgery will very likely be needed. Death might even be preferable.















