The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday barred the use of the death penalty in a non-homicide case.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices said the death penalty is restricted to homicide cases and crimes against the state. Two men who were sentenced to death for the rape of a child cannot be put to death, the court said.

"There is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons, even including child rape, on the other," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority

The men, from Louisiana, will receive life sentences without parole.

Get the Story:
High Court Rejects Death For Child Rape (The Washington Post 6/26)
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Justices Bar Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child (The New York Times 6/26)
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Supreme Court Decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana:
Syllabus | Opinion [Kennedy] | Dissent [Alito]