By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports  

The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee advanced a bill on Wednesday that could make lewd conduct with a child younger than age 12 punishable by execution, despite the United States Supreme Court deeming a similar law unconstitutional.  

Committee chairman Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, is sponsoring the legislation. The committee heard an amended version of a bill that it held in January, and voted to move the new version forward to the second reading calendar, meaning it will not go through another public hearing in the House. No one came to testify at a public hearing for the previous version in January, but legislators discussed the bill’s constitutionality. 

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy v Louisiana that sentencing a person to death for any crime other than homicide, or crimes against the state such as terrorism, is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment. In that case, at the time, Louisiana permitted use of the death penalty in sentencing for the rape of a child younger than 12.   

The only crime punishable by death under current Idaho law is first-degree murder, and a death penalty conviction must include aggravating circumstances.  

Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, asked Skaug if the bill was unconstitutional under current law.  

“Per the Supreme Court, yes,” Skaug said.  

However, Skaug said he believes there could be a different finding under the current U.S. Supreme Court, as most of the justices have changed since 2008, including all those who signed onto the majority opinion in Kennedy v Louisiana. 

The bill moved forward to the second-reading calendar on a party-line vote. If passed by the House, it must also pass the Senate to reach the governor’s desk. 

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