While it may seem that women were getting a "back seat" in terms of punishment for rape, actually the main people who lobbied for ending the death penalty for rape were feminists. The argument was that imposing the death penalty for rape placed too much value on women's "chastity" and presupposed that women who experienced rape were somehow worthless afterward or that women are so sexually vulnerable that it's worse to rape a woman than it is to do pretty much anything to a man - including, say, cutting all his limbs off, which didn't merit the death penalty.
Also, the death penalty for rape made it harder to achieve convictions, especially of respectable, professional white males who couldn't possibly have done something so awful it merits the death penalty.
And, because it was almost exclusively reserved for black men, was used as a form of racist terrorism more than it was used to actually protect women from violence. This movement was, I think, a bit before "take back the night" marches and feminist movements against date rape.
Punishing child rape, and not rape of adults, with death was therefore never actually a matter of devaluing violence against women so much as a matter of overreacting to violence against children. People are more comfortable seeing children as people whose chastity needs to be protected and who are sexually vulnerable.
All the same, on a practical level, I'm seriously opposed to death penalty for child rapists, not just because I'm against the death penalty, but because most child rapists are the children's family members. One of the most sure-fire ways to get a kid not to report what's happening to them is telling them that if they do, they'll be killing daddy. Or Uncle Fred. Or whoever. Even if daddy or Uncle Fred puts their lives in danger, they will almost certainly not report. And even non-perpetrators in the family, who already often try to keep rape out of view of authorities because they don't want their sons and spouses to go to jail, will become even worse about it. Heck, I know that if my spouse raped my child and they faced the death penalty, I would take my kid as far away from my spouse as possible, but also do everything in my power to keep that kid quiet. I think I'd be more willing to see justice done if it was a matter of jail time.
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Also, the death penalty for rape made it harder to achieve convictions, especially of respectable, professional white males who couldn't possibly have done something so awful it merits the death penalty.
And, because it was almost exclusively reserved for black men, was used as a form of racist terrorism more than it was used to actually protect women from violence. This movement was, I think, a bit before "take back the night" marches and feminist movements against date rape.
Punishing child rape, and not rape of adults, with death was therefore never actually a matter of devaluing violence against women so much as a matter of overreacting to violence against children. People are more comfortable seeing children as people whose chastity needs to be protected and who are sexually vulnerable.
All the same, on a practical level, I'm seriously opposed to death penalty for child rapists, not just because I'm against the death penalty, but because most child rapists are the children's family members. One of the most sure-fire ways to get a kid not to report what's happening to them is telling them that if they do, they'll be killing daddy. Or Uncle Fred. Or whoever. Even if daddy or Uncle Fred puts their lives in danger, they will almost certainly not report. And even non-perpetrators in the family, who already often try to keep rape out of view of authorities because they don't want their sons and spouses to go to jail, will become even worse about it. Heck, I know that if my spouse raped my child and they faced the death penalty, I would take my kid as far away from my spouse as possible, but also do everything in my power to keep that kid quiet. I think I'd be more willing to see justice done if it was a matter of jail time.