ANTHONY JELKS (photo courtesy of Baton Rouge Police Department)
With the blessing of Attorney General Liz Murrill, the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office is considering seeking the death penalty against a man who allegedly raped a four-year-old child, infecting that child with a sexually transmitted disease. 25-year-old Anthony Jelks is charged with first-degree rape and is behind bars without bond. District Attorney Hillar Moore says the biggest obstacle in pursuing the death penalty against Jelks is a 2008 Supreme Court decision that ruled that executing someone for a crime in which the victim did not die amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“I’m not sure really what the difference is, but that is their decision. It was a 5-4 decision several years ago,” Moore explained.
Moore says while many states which had statutes on their books allowing for the death penalty in cases of child rape or other crimes in which the victim survived, Louisiana took a different approach.
“Our state kept the statute intact that still allows for the penalty provision to be death, despite the Supreme Court decision,” Moore said.
Louisiana also allows for chemical castration; and as of last year, the state also allows for surgical castration in certain sexual assault cases. Moore says his office is also considering one of these punishments if the death penalty is off the table.
“It is something that we need to look at, consider not only as an office as a prosecutor, but as a community state, what is the appropriate penalty for someone that rapes a four-year-old? Assuming that he is convicted of this, he is presumed innocent, like anyone else,” Moore said.
Moore says the child contracted chlamydia. It is not a permanent infection, and Moore says the child will make a full recovery. The last time someone was executed in the United States for a rape in which the victim lived to tell about it was 1964.
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