“And that is why I am here, burdened with this unhappy task.” – actor Kenneth More as Lord Chamberlain in the film “The Slipper and the Rose”

I usually get a good bit of satisfaction in writing these articles every week.

I did not enjoy writing this week’s column, however. There is no way to talk around how unpleasant the subject matter is.

Last week a bill passed out of the Alabama House of Representatives that would make rape, sodomy or sexual torture of a minor under age 12 a criminal offense that could carry a punishment of the death penalty.

Alabama is no stranger to applying the death penalty in crimes of a sexual nature. Even so, the last person executed for a rape conviction came in December of 1959, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Every execution since then has involved some form of a murder conviction.

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty as a punishment for rape convictions was too severe. That same year Alabama passed a reorganization of the state’s criminal code, which removed the death penalty as a criminal sentence for rape.

The Supreme Court upheld prohibiting the death penalty for rape convictions in a 2008 ruling based on a gruesome case of child rape in Louisiana.

So why is there now an effort to pass this law after two Supreme Court rulings saying it cannot be done?

One reason is a section of the court’s 2008 ruling stated there appeared to be a national consensus that the death penalty should not be used as a punishment for rape.

This has led to a movement across the country for state legislatures to pass laws just like the one Alabama is now debating in order to show there is no national consensus against using the death penalty in rape cases.

Another reason is the 2008 court was very much divided on the issue. Only five justices formed the majority for prohibiting a death penalty sentence while four justices dissented.

The current makeup of the Supreme Court is thought to be more socially conservative, so it might be more inclined to rule in favor of allowing the death penalty.

A third reason is there is thought to be momentum for a bill like this to pass after last year’s highly publicized arrests of several people for allegedly operating a child sex trafficking ring in Bibb County, the details of which sound nothing short of horrific.

The alleged evil acts in Bibb County have not changed my position against the death penalty, but when hearing the grisly details of something like that, I get why my stance is usually the road less traveled.

We may disagree, but here are my main two reasons for opposing this bill.

First, one of the main arguments in support of the death penalty is the concept of reciprocal justice, or the idea of an eye for an eye. Under that view, a murder unfairly ends a life, so the murderer should lose his or her life as compensation.

Executing rapists moves us a step beyond that principle since a life has not been lost.

While I 100 percent agree that a sexual assault of any kind often places a huge and long-lasting emotional – and sometimes physical – burden on the victim and his or her loved ones, the punishment of ending the perpetrator’s existence still exceeds the crime.

Second, our society tends to think of an adult who sexually abuses a child as the absolute worst kind of person, maybe even worse than a murderer. Many of us cannot wrap our minds around how someone could consciously sexually abuse a child, though we might be able to dream up a scenario that would drive us to kill. Perhaps this is where the distinction lies.

The sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you are forced to think about pedophilia is natural, but it has little to do with making a just and fair decision.

True justice utilizes reason and facts with as little emotion involved as possible. This is why we have jury trials in highly controlled environments with established rules and boundaries. The goal is to eliminate prejudice and preconceived opinions as much as possible.

I think we can agree child abusers deserve some of the harshest legal penalties possible. Nevertheless, I cannot support the idea that, “Some folks just need killing,” because we are disgusted by them. It does not sincerely serve the interest of justice nor does it make us more righteous in the eyes of God.