In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.
There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.
Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States, both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.
The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman.
So we are back to the supreme court making laws, how refreshing to know that all phases of our government have completely run a muck with America haters trying to destroy this great nation.
Hey supreme court, how about your do YOUR job, and let congress make the laws.
A team of European scientists have discovered 45 new exoplanets using the HARPS instrument on the 3.4-m telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The planets are all less then 30 times the mass of Earth and all orbit very close to their stars (it is easier to detect small planets if they orbit very close to their star, so these are the ones found first).
It was only in 2005 that the first earth-sized exoplanet was discovered and only in April 2007 that the first Earth-sized exoplanet was discovered in the habitable zone (distance from star that allows for liquid water to be stable).
Now the team has found one sun-like star that has three super Earths orbiting it-- the smallest of which is only 4 times the mass of Earth. The host star, HD 40307, is located 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. "We have made very precise measurements of the velocity of the star HD 40307 over the last five years, which clearly reveal the presence of three planets," says planet hunter Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory.
Oh, tease us some more. Like we can jump in the Enterprise to go check it out once we find them. =P
The chip maker is slated to introduce a new single-chip graphics card — the ATI Radeon HD 4850 — based on the new chip on June 25. Then, in August, AMD is expected to release a graphics card, code-named R700, that will include two of the new chips.
"We're [at] a turning point in the way we design our graphics chips," said Matt Skinner, a spokesman for AMD. "As they get bigger and bigger, they use more power, and we're coming up on power constraints as well as how many transistors you can fit on a certain dye size.
Really, such a Duh! moment.
I read this and thought, why the hell didn't they do this before? We have SLI cards and mobo's why not slap two or even four chips on a card to begin with, it's quite a simple solution.
However, I have to say given ATI's long and proud history of having the worst drivers in the game will still take me back to Nvidia for a while to come.
You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas. It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline. All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth. What an amazing fraud; what a scam.
The future of our civilization lies in the balance.
That’s the battle cry of the High Priest of Global Warming Al Gore and his fellow, agenda driven disciples as they predict a calamitous outcome from anthropogenic global warming. According to Mr. Gore the polar ice caps will collapse and melt and sea levels will rise 20 feet inundating the coastal cities making 100 million of us refugees. Vice President Gore tells us numerous Pacific islands will be totally submerged and uninhabitable. He tells us global warming will disrupt the circulation of the ocean waters, dramatically changing climates, throwing the world food supply into chaos. He tells us global warming will turn hurricanes into super storms, produce droughts, wipe out the polar bears and result in bleaching of coral reefs. He tells us tropical diseases will spread to mid latitudes and heat waves will kill tens of thousands. He preaches to us that we must change our lives and eliminate fossil fuels or face the dire consequences. The future of our civilization is in the balance.
Of course the Church of Gore and it's disciples will stamp out this glimmer of sanity like they have done to others.
Five percent of taxpayers failed to obtain health coverage last year, and more than half of those — about 97,000 — were forced to forfeit their personal exemption — worth $219 — after it was determined they could have afforded health care.
Two percent of taxpayers — about 62,000 — were found not to earn enough for health care, avoiding fines. Under the landmark law, taxpayers must show they are insured or face penalties. The numbers were based on a review of 86 percent of expected tax filers for 2007.
The state's first-in-the-nation universal health insurance law required everyone in the state to be insured by July 2007, except for those who secured a waiver proving they couldn't afford insurance.
Gov. Deval Patrick said the fact that 95 percent of filers were insured shows the 2006 law is making progress.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_us/
massachusetts_health_care
** *Sniff, sniff* - Is that the stinch of socialism I smell? Why yes, yes it is! Welcome to America one and all where socialism continues to pop up, rearing it's disgustingly, ugly head. Sneaking it's way into our society through the means of brainless, corupt lawmakers who have "forgotten" (they don't care actually) that our founding fathers set up a REPUBLIC government for us - NOT a socialist one (and no - NOT a democracy either)! No one should be forced to have health insurance (or anything else) - even when they CAN afford it. That's a personal choice that every person has a right to make with OUT the government coming in and forcing them to do otherwise.
Why hasn't this law been challenged by the people! Then again, maybe it has. If so, then why hasn't the suppreme court ordered the this law to be abolished!**