The U.S. Supreme Court made America more dangerous for children Wednesday when it outlawed the execution of child rapists, Alabama Attorney General Troy King said.

"Anybody in this country who cares about children should be outraged that we have a Supreme Court that would issue a decision like this," King said in an interview.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's death penalty law for people who rape children. The majority said the law violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"They are creating a situation where this country is a less safe place to grow up," King said.

King had joined Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in filing a brief with the Supreme Court in support of Louisiana's law. They argued that the death sentence for child rapists was justified because "of the unique and irreparable harms of child rape" - a line of reasoning also supported by the court's minority.

For at least a decade the Alabama Legislature has considered bills to give the death sentence to someone convicted more than once of raping a child 12 or younger. Democrat Don Siegelman pushed the legislation when he was lieutenant governor and governor. Then King, a Republican, took up the issue when he became attorney general. But the bills, patterned after a law in Texas, never passed in Alabama.

King said Wednesday there is no need to keep pushing the legislation because the Supreme Court demonstrated Wednesday that it will approve the death penalty only in cases of murder.

Rep. Marcel Black, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said his committee has not taken up the bill in the last few years because of concerns it didn't comport with recent Supreme Court decisions on the death penalty.

Black, D-Tuscumbia, said he too was concerned that passing the bill would plunge Alabama into a costly legal battle.

"That was one I could see - if it ever was applied - being in court for years," said Black, who is an attorney.

Death penalty opponent Esther Brown of Lanett said the logic behind the death penalty for child rapists is flawed and could create more danger for children.

"If you are going to get the death penalty anyway, you have nothing to lose if you kill the child," said Brown, executive secretary of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Brown said many child rapes involve relatives, like the case from Louisiana, and family members might be reluctant to testify against a relative if they knew the person could receive a death sentence.

Three states other than Louisiana and Texas had death penalty laws for child rapists. The Supreme Court's majority cited the 45 states without laws, saying "there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape."

King said the majority's decision appeared based more on public trends than on application of the law.

"They have become conscience police," he said.