Rep. Nancy Mace Introduces Bill to Authorize Death Penalty for Child Rapists

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has introduced the 'Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act,' a federal bill that would make capital punishment an available penalty for certain child sexual‑abuse crimes. In a statement and post on X on Feb. 27, she said the measure would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to authorize the death penalty for aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact offenses against children, and would also amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to permit the death penalty for the rape of a child. Mace framed the proposal as a zero‑tolerance response to child predators, declaring, "Rape a child and you don't get a second chance, you get the death penalty," and linked it to her efforts to expose Jeffrey Epstein’s network. The bill would not mandate death sentences but would put them on the table in qualifying federal and military prosecutions, raising inevitable constitutional and practical questions given prior Supreme Court rulings that have limited the death penalty where no murder occurred. The move also serves as a law‑and‑order marker in Mace’s current Republican gubernatorial primary campaign in South Carolina and will test how far Congress is willing to go in expanding capital punishment for non‑homicide crimes involving children.