Split the court right down party lines, and IMHO is a travesty. It's OK for a bank security guard to kill someone to protect the bank's money, but we can't kill scum that rape a child. Summary from www.scotusblog.com:

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/death-p...or-child-rape/

Death penalty barred for child rape
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 10:11 am | Lyle Denniston | Print This Post

Barring the death penalty for any crime that does not take the life of the victim, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. If the victim does not die or death was not intended, capital punishment for that crime violates the Eighth Amendment, the Court ruled in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The case was Patrick Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343). The broad declaration that death sentences should be reserved “for crimes that take the life of the victim” will apply, the Court said, to crimes against individuals — thus leaving intact, for example, a death sentence for treason.

The decision split the Court 5-4. The decision nullified a Louisiana law that provided capital punishment for raping a child under age 12. The law was since amended to apply to raping a child under age 13.