"A longtime critic of the death penalty, Sen. Barack Obama said he opposed the Supreme Court's decision today that child rapists may not be executed in cases where they do not kill their victims.

"I have said repeatedly I think the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances, for the most egregious of crimes," said the Illinois senator, speaking to reporters at a hometown press conference. But he added, "I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that does not violate our Constitution."

In today's 5 to 4 decision, with the more liberal members forming the majority, the court struck down a 1995 Louisiana law that allowed the death penalty to be used against anyone who rapes a child under the age of 12. The decision overturned the death penalty for Patrick Kennedy, a 43-year-old who was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter in 1998.

Obama is a longtime critic of the death penalty and has championed reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. He has written that executing offenders "does little to deter crime," but has said that some acts are so heinous, "so beyond the pale," that "the ultimate punishment" is warranted.

He also is the father of two young daughters. "Had the Supreme Court said, we want to constrain the ability of states to do this, to make sure it's done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing," said Obama. "But it basically had a blanket prohibition."" (Shailagh Murray, 'The Trail,' The Washington Post, June 25, 2008)