Man gets death for raping his stepdaughter

GRETNA, La. -- A man convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter received the death penalty Tuesday in what could be the state's first death sentence for a crime other than murder.

The man, whose identity was being withheld to protect the victim, was convicted of aggravated rape Monday and jurors sentenced him to death after nearly two hours of deliberations.

Under a 1995 Louisiana law, the death penalty can be sought for aggravated rape if the victim is under the age of 12. The other penalty is a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to sentence someone to death who had not committed a murder. Since then, no one in the state has been sentenced to death for a crime other than murder, said Nick Trenticosta, a New Orleans lawyer.

The girl was attacked on March 2, 1998. At first she told police that she was raped by a young man as she sorted Girl Scout cookies in the open garage of her suburban New Orleans home, but told her mother more than a year later the defendant raped her.

Defense attorney Graham Da Ponte argued in court that the evidence against the defendant wasn't enough and suggested that the victim was pressured to change her story.