The Daily Populous Saturday August 3rd, 2024 morning edition
Authored by wafb.com and submitted by Silent-Resort-3076

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - As of Thursday, August 1, for the first time in the country’s history, child rapists can now be ordered by a judge to have their testicles removed if the victim is under the age of 13 and if the offender is older than 17 years old. The law already allowed judges to issue an order of chemical castration.

“At the end of the day I hope that kids know that they can feel safer because there will be some real tough penalty actions that will occur when somebody violates their innocence,” said the bill’s author Sen. Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge).

The law also includes the crime of pornography involving juveniles as an underlying offense and it’s also not just limited to male offenders.

“Unfortunately, females are molesting children as well and that’s a very sad thing to see and to hear. As a matter of fact, one of the cases I was reading not too long ago, I read a case where that was actually happening with guards with children at a particular facility,” Sen. Barrow explained.

However, there are some circumstances where the convicted offender might not qualify for the procedure, but that would be up to the judge and a doctor at the State Department of Corrections.

Attorney Jill Craft says she understands what the law is intended to do but says she anticipates it to be challenged in the courts, arguing it falls under cruel and unusual punishment.

“The problem with something like this is multifaceted. It kinda harkens back to if you steal from me, I’m gonna cut off your hand. Okay, well how come we don’t do that in the United States, well because it’s cruel and unusual punishment,” said Craft.

Craft explains how in most incidents of forcible rape, the act is done not so much out of some sick sexual desire, but something much more sinister.

“It’s not the notion of having sex with somebody for some sort of pleasure. It is the notion of domination and control. I understand what they were trying to accomplish, it’s just this is not the way,” Craft continued.

Sen. Barrow says she ultimately hopes at the very least this new law will work as a deterrent for potential child rapists. And according to Craft, aside from Louisiana, the only other places on the globe that allow surgical castration are Madagascar, the Czech Republic, and one state in Nigeria.

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ResidentHourBomb on August 2nd, 2024 at 14:15 UTC »

But the same state says the child that was raped has to carry the baby to term if she gets pregnant.

jxj24 on August 2nd, 2024 at 13:04 UTC »

Even if this were a good idea, I absolutely, certainly do not trust the state of Louisiana to implement it responsibly.

JussiesTunaSub on August 2nd, 2024 at 12:47 UTC »

So they can choose castration over another 3-5 years on their sentence. Giving them the choice seems to skirt the 8th Amendment.

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/01/nx-s1-5020686/louisiana-new-surgical-castration-law