By Tim Fox on 06-26-08

The other story here is that Attorney General McGrath failed to make an appearance in the U.S. Supreme Court case to defend Montana’s child rapist death penalty law.  Practically every other state with a similar law filed a brief with the Supreme Court to defend their state’s law.  Even states that were contemplating similar laws argued before the Supreme Court to defend their right to decide how their state would punish child rapists. 

Montana ranks 2nd in the nation in the number of per capita sexual offenders, and the Montana Legislature has rightfully sought to protect Montanans from child rapists by providing for the death penalty for repeat offenders.  One can hardly imagine crimes more deserving of the death penalty than repeated rapes of children under 12 who cannot defend themselves.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruling is another example of top-down infringement on Montana’s right to determine how it will protect its citizens, punish criminals, and provide closure and relief for victims of violent crimes.

Like the Heller D.C. gun ban case just decided today by the U.S. Supreme Court, this is another case that merited involvement from Montana’s Attorney General at the earliest opportunity, but now it’s too late and Montanans will not be heard by the Supreme Court on this extremely important subject.  As your next Attorney General, I pledge to fight for Montanan’s, their rights, and their laws at every opportunity.