US: With the US congressional election just a month away, politicians examining ways to stop violent sexual offenders from striking again are increasingly calling for laws that would allow states to execute repeat child molesters.
Lieut Governor David Dewhurst of Texas is the latest to join the effort, proposing a plan that would require a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 25 years for first-time offenders and the possibility of death for a second conviction.
If enacted, the measure "will protect the children of Texas, and let people know to get out of our state if this is your sickness", Mr Dewhurst's campaign spokesman Enrique Marquez said.
In recent months, similar ideas have been pushed by lawmakers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and even Minnesota, which doesn't have the death penalty. Most are modelled after Florida's Jessica's Law, a child-protection measure named for nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was raped and killed by a registered sex offender in 2005.
This year Oklahoma and South Carolina passed laws allowing the death penalty for the rape of a child. Execution is also an option for offenders who commit certain sex crimes against children in Montana and Louisiana.
Critics say that if child sex crimes are a capital offence, victims might be reluctant to report abuse because the offenders often are family members.
"If you've got a father or brother or uncle molesting a young person, a lot of people aren't going to turn them in if it means they'll be sent to jail or put to death," said Michael Mears, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.
Another concern is that the measures might give assailants an incentive to kill the victim.
"If the penalty for murder and molestation is the same, why not go ahead and kill the only witness to the event?" Mr Mears said.
David Bruck, a law professor who directs the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, has the same concern.
"To the extent that this is meant to be a way of protecting children, it may well have the opposite effect," he said.