Schaffer Law Library Blog

According to a NY times article: In last week’s Kennedy v Louisiana decision, the Supreme Court stated, among other things, that “a child rapist could face the ultimate penalty in only six states — not in any of the 30 other states that have the death penalty, and not under the jurisdiction of the federal government either.”  A recent blog post corrected that fact stating that “Section 552(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, 119 Stat. 3136, 3264 (2006), provides that ‘[u]ntil the President otherwise provides pursuant to’UCMJ article 56, ‘the punishment which a court-martial may direct for an offense under’ the amended UCMJ article 120 ‘may not exceed the following limits: . . . For an offense under subsection (a) (rape) or subsection (b) (rape of a child), death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.’