It has been 51 years since the court last agreed to rehear a major constitutional case, and it may yet decline to do so in this situation. But the court has asked lawyers for new briefs from both parties — and from the Bush administration — in the case of a Louisiana man sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The case has spilled from the judicial system into the presidential campaign, with both Barack Obama and John McCain denouncing the decision.
The reason the court is considering revisiting its 5-4 decision is that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s opinion for the majority understated the number of jurisdictions that imposed the death penalty for child rape, arguing that only six states did so and implying that the federal government was among the jurisdictions that had refused to join them. In fact, Congress had authorized the execution of child rapists as part of the military justice system.
As reported in the LA Times.