Idaho governor signs into law child sex abuse death penalty bill, despite U.S. Supreme Court ruling
Widely supported in the Idaho Legislature, the bill is likely to face a constitutional challenge, lawmakers acknowledge. But they are hopeful law will prevail.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill to make people who sexually abuse young children in Idaho eligible for the death penalty.
House Bill 380 will allow the death penalty in a new criminal charge the bill creates: aggravated lewd conduct with children age 12 and younger.
The bill also would add mandatory minimum prison sentences for cases of aggravated lewd conduct with minors that don’t meet the bill’s proposed criteria for death penalty eligibility. The new crime would only apply to abuse of children age 16 and below.
Little signed the bill Wednesday morning, according to the governor’s office legislation tracker. He told the Idaho Capital Sun in a written statement that he signed the bill “because heinous sex crimes against children destroy lives, and the perpetrators deserve the ultimate punishment.”
The Idaho Legislature widely passed the bill, with only five votes against in the Senate and none in the House.
The bill was cosponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, House Assistant Majority Leader Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, and over a half dozen other Idaho lawmakers.
Skaug has told lawmakers Idaho has some of the nation’s most lenient child rape laws.
The bill takes effect July 1.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 blocked death penalties for child rape in Kennedy v. Louisiana.
Florida passed a child rape death penantly law two years ago. Last year, Tennessee passed a child rape death penalty law.
Bracing for a legal challenge to the bill, Skaug told lawmakers he expects the U.S. Supreme Court would rule differently.
“You can say, ‘Well, that’s unconstitutional, Bruce. Why would you bring that?’ Well, it was — according to a 5-4 decision in 2008. I don’t think that would be the case today,” Skaug, an attorney, told lawmakers in a House committee hearing. “That’s my professional opinion. That’s the opinion of many other attorneys.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, or ACLU, strongly opposes the bill.
“Choosing to make this bill law not only demonstrates an arrogant disregard for legal precedent from our country’s highest court, but it would also have devastating consequences that victims, their families, and wrongfully convicted people would be unable to reverse,” ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Rebecca De León told the Idaho Capital Sun in a prepared statement. “This law will vastly increase death penalty prosecutions in Idaho, burdening an already flawed criminal legal system prone to wrongful convictions, inadequate public defense, and racial disparities.”
Skaug has said the death penalty would be rarely sought under his bill. Nine people are on death row in Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.
Idaho law only allows the death penalty in first-degree murder cases with aggravating circumstances.
Little also recently signed a bill into law that will make the Gem State the only state to use firing squads as its main execution method. Skaug also cosponsored that bill.
How the bill works: Three aggravating factors required to seek death penalty
This year’s child sex abuse death penalty bill is Skaug and Tanner’s second attempt at such a bill. Last year, another bill they brought widely passed the House but never received a Senate committee hearing.
Their new bill that passed will establish the new crime, and mandatory minimums criminal sentences. For instance, the bill’s proposed mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated lewd conduct with minors under age 16 would carry at least 25 years in prison.
Under the bill, lewd conduct with a minor would include but is not limited to “genital-genital contact, oral-genital contact, anal-genital contact, oral-anal contact, manual-anal contact, or manual-genital contact” when such acts are meant to arouse, appeal to or gratify “lust or passions or sexual desires.”
The bill outlines more than a dozen aggravating factors under which prosecutors can seek the death penalty. Only three are required to seek the death penalty, which would only be available in cases of aggravated lewd conduct against minors age 12 and younger.
Public testimony has been largely supportive of the bill.
But in a Senate committee hearing on the bill, David Martinez of the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers testified against the bill, saying at least three of the bill’s aggravating factors were already present in almost every lewd conduct case he has handled or supervised.
He also argued the bill doesn’t focus on “the worst of the worst,” could potentially expose victims of decades of reliving trauma, and fails to account for Idaho’s shortage of qualified death penalty defense attorneys.
Holly Rebholtz, representing the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said she disagreed, saying the new aggravated lewd conduct crime wouldn’t be charged very often.
“I don’t think these crimes are going to come into play very often. But when they do, they are the most serious crimes we see. And again, the prosecutors believe that the most serious crimes against children deserve a serious punishment,” she testified.
How lucky his fellow prisoners are; they get to listen to a motivational speaker for the next 16 years.
Anchorage motivational speaker sentenced to 25 years in prison for charges related to sex abuse of minor
A motivational speaker from Anchorage accused in 2020 of sexually abusing a minor and producing child sex abuse materials has been sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison on state and federal charges.
Donteh Mone Devoe, now 46, traveled around the state for several years as a motivational speaker and talked with young people — including students in the Anchorage School District — about overcoming his past of crime and incarceration. He was sentenced in 2009 to spend a decade in prison for selling drugs.
Federal prosecutors said Anchorage police received a tip in January 2020 that Devoe had an ongoing sexual relationship with a minor. Officers found sexually explicit messages involving the minor on his phone and iCloud account from late 2019.
Documents filed in the federal case show the teen moved from Oregon to Alaska and was living with Devoe when he began sexually abusing her. He convinced her that the abuse was legal because she was 16.
Donteh Devoe was arrested Feb. 13, 2020 for sexual abuse of a minor. (Photo provided by APD)
Devoe was arrested on state charges of sexual abuse of a minor and possession of child sex abuse materials in February 2020.
He pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one consolidated count of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced the next month to serve 25 years in custody and 10 years of felony probation, according to the Alaska Department of Law.
Devoe was indicted in June 2020 on federal charges including production or receipt of child sex abuse materials and coercion and enticement of a minor. The federal charges stemmed from the state investigation.
Devoe in November 2024 pleaded guilty to a federal charge of production of child sex abuse materials.
He was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in prison and 15 years on supervised release.
The prison time will be served concurrently with the state sentence, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, meaning he’ll serve the two sentences at the same time rather than one after the other.
A state database showed that Devoe was in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Complex as of Thursday. His release date is currently scheduled for 2041.
Burkburnett man gets 30 years, lifetime restraining order for super aggravated child sex crime
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A man is sentenced to decades behind bars without the possibility of parole and a lifetime restraining order after pleading guilty to a super aggravated sexual offense against a child.
Gabriel Andrew Estrada, 40, of Burkburnett, pleaded guilty to one count of continuous sexual abuse of a victim under age 14 and two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact on Friday, March 21, 2025, in the 30th District Court, with Judge Jeff McKnight presiding.
Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the continuous sexual abuse of a child charge and 20 years in prison for each of the two indecency charges.
While all three sentences were set to run concurrently, continuous sexual abuse of a child is considered a super aggravated offense under Texas law, meaning Estrada will not be eligible for parole and will be required to serve the entirety of his sentence.
Four charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by exposure against Estrada were dismissed. Since Estrada was convicted of a super aggravated offense, Texas law does not allow for him to be found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a lesser first-degree felony offense.
In addition, a restraining order was filed against Estrada, forbidding him from ever making contact with the victim for the duration of the victim’s life.
According to court documents, an 11-year-old girl made an outcry of sexual abuse by Estrada to her parents in February 2024. The victim said Estrada touched her and forced her to touch him.
After Estrada was arrested on Feb. 28, 2024, Burkburnett police said he admitted to 14 separate incidents of sexual assault against the victim, going as far back as June 2021, when the victim was 9 years old.
On Thursday, March 27, 2025, Estrada was brought back into the 30th District Court, where the victim and members of her family gave impact statements in open court.
“I’m glad I no longer have to deal with you anymore,” the victim said during her impact statement. “You may have ruined my childhood, but you never broke me. Gabriel, you failed.”
The victim’s brother then gave an impact statement, telling Estrada that he hopes he spends the rest of his life in jail.
The victim’s mother gave the final impact statement, looking Estrada directly in the eyes and asking him why he couldn’t make eye contact with her. She called Estrada a “coward,” adding that she wouldn’t let him steal anything else from her child.
No comments:
Post a Comment