Louisiana stands as exemplary in punishing those who prey on the most vulnerable members of society.
On Wednesday, Glenn Sullivan Sr, 54 of Springfield, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree rape.
In addition to a 50-year prison sentence, Sullivan will be physically castrated no later than one week before his release.
According to a Louisiana state law from 2008, men convicted of specific types of rape may be chemically or physically castrated. Sullivan opted for the latter.
Assistant District Attorney Brad Cascio told WBRZ-TV, “I want to say I’ve had three people ordered to be chemically castrated but, to my knowledge, this is the first physical castration to be ordered,” indicating the rarity of the procedure.
Such verdicts could soon be more common in the state. Democrat Sen. Regina Barrow introduced a bill that would allow judges to order castration in cases of aggravated sexual offenses against minors under 13.
The Louisiana Senate approved the bill by a vote of 29 to 9. It will now go to the House for a vote.
According to WVUE, on Tuesday Barrow remarked, “It’s something that I know the impact it leaves on an individual when this crime is committed.”
Should chemical castration be mandatory for every person convicted of child molestation?
Democrat Sen. Ed Price expressed his reluctance to support the bill, saying, “Castration is permanent, whether it’s female or male. How do we get by someone who may get exonerated after, and then this has happened to them?”
While Price’s criticisms are certainly warranted, as every justice system unfortunately has its share of wrongful convictions, there are still plenty of offenders who commit the crime and are justly punished for it at the discretion of a judge.
Is Louisiana heading down a draconian path all by its lonesome as other states sway in the opposite direction?
Not quite.
In 2019, NBC reported that Alabama became the seventh state allowing or requiring castration for certain sex offenders.
And is this path actually draconian? California and New England liberals might caterwaul about punishments like this. But for the rest of the country (except for the blue island metropolises), sex offenders are among the lowest of criminals, and those who harm children are among the most contemptible of the lowest.
While Price’s concern about post-castration exoneration is legitimate, it can be applied to any punishment. A man who wrongfully spent 20 years behind bars can’t get those years back. Punishment, once handed out, can’t be taken back. That’s why English common law is so careful to err on the side of the guilty going free, instead of the innocent being punished.
Price’s objections also get at a key difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives tend toward protecting civilization, while liberals tend toward protecting the oppressed. And balancing those two objectives is part of having a healthy society. But when it comes to choosing between protecting little children versus protecting those who have been through, and been found guilty by, one of the most deliberative justice systems in history, I’ll side with protecting little children every time.
And by the way, we can also protect against wrongful punishments like castration with well-written laws and good judges.
By writing legislation such that the harshest punishments can only be used in the most heinous cases, where guilt has been established with absolute certainty, we can avoid the vast majority of misapplications of punishments like castration. People brought up on flimsy evidence should never face punishment like this. But in cases where the evidence is clear and the guilt is incontrovertible, those found guilty of child molestation should face the worst of the worst punishments.
Those who rob children of their dignity, innocence and sense of security, while also burdening them with lifetimes of potential physical and psychological problems, deserve what they get.
A 2019 study by the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London found childhood neglect, physical and sexual abuse are associated with premature mid-adulthood mortality.
If victims must pay for a lifetime because of the crime, so should the offender.
