Lawmakers aim to strengthen a law involving sentencing for child rapists after a Signal Mountain man avoided the death penalty last week when he pleaded guilty to that crime, among others.
Prosecutors initially wanted to seek the death penalty for Stephen Rapaport, who was accused of 52 child sex crimes, but the 2024 law permitting capital punishment for aggravated rape of a child is missing a key element, according to Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp.
“We learned about this case last January, and I immediately said, when I heard the facts, we’re going to seek death,” Wamp said. “If anybody deserves death — our legislature had authorized death, we’re gonna seek death, whatever we have to do.”
Rapaport sexually abused a baby as young as 3 to 4 months old on video, according to prosecutors at his guilty plea hearing Friday. Footage also showed Rapaport fondling and raping two other minors, one around 4 years old.