In Coker v. Georgia, a convicted murderer escaped from prison and in the course of committing an armed robbery and other offenses, raped an adult woman. The State of Georgia sentenced the rapist to death. Justice Powell, acknowledging that the woman had been raped, expressed the view that "the victim [did not] sustain serious or lasting injury"[28] and voted to set the death penalty aside. In that same case, Powell also wrote that "for the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over and normally is not beyond repair."[29]

Talk about doing the right thing for the wrong reason.