Over the course of the last two years I’ve been telling my students about an important case making its way up to the United States Supreme Court. The State of Louisiana has been seeking to execute those who are convicted of the aggravated rape of children. As of this writing the Supremes are approaching a decision in that case – one that would not have been difficult but for the legacy of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Our Founding Fathers would never have imagined the constitutionality of executing rapists to be a serious question. Indeed my own state, North Carolina, considered rape – along with murder, burglary, and arson – to be punishable by death for the better part of the 20th Century.  None of this would be controversial until some time after the Court – led by Chief Justice Earl Warren – announced that it had somehow inherited a new standard for declaring statutes in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment. That standard is now known as the “evolving standard of decency.” The case of Coker v. Georgia (1977) may well represent its most indecent application. I argue that the case was wrong on at least two counts. First, in its application of the concept of “evolving standards of decency,” the Court rightly noted that after the re-instatement of the death penalty in America (see Furman v. Georgia, 1972) most states had elected not to classify rape as a capital

offense.  But, strangely, the Court also cited as evidence of an “evolving standard of decency” that citizens of Georgia had in recent years declined to impose the sentence of death in over 90% of the cases when given the option.This should have signaled to the Court that the people of Georgia had been cautiously reserving the ultimate penalty of death for the most aggravated of cases. Read On

Michael James Girbino of Chesterland, Ohio, spells his word during the quarter-finals of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington May 29, 2008. REUTERS/Molly Riley (UNITED STATES) FOR newspaper people, the National Spelling Bee is close to the heart. Word people take real pleasure in seeing the next generation come along.They will enjoy, as so many of us do - the joys that can arise when the words jump off the page and flow through our eyes into understanding or imagination. A friendship with words, written and spoken, is a gift that lasts a lifetime. The Charleston newspapers are proud to sponsor, with the generous support of West Virginia American Water, a spelling bee program that now involves 22 counties. Good spellers have rich lives