A drive in South Carolina seeks to impose the death penalty for second convictions of raping children under age of 11.
Although Florida teacher Debra LaFave recently avoided jail time after being charged with sexual assault involving a 14-year-old boy, more states are imposing harsher sentences for child molesters.
Some say that the death penalty would encourage the offenders to kill child victims because they would face the death penalty anyway. Other critics say the punishment does not fit the crime.
The last execution for a sex crime was for a 1964 Missouri rape. The U.S. Supreme Court declared Missouri's law unconstitutional in 1977 because it was disproportionate to the crime.
If South Carolina and Oklahoma pass these laws, the Supreme Court could be asked again to decide whether they are legal.
ABC
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