Of course, I oppose this for reasons I've explained numerous times on this forum. I agree child molesters need to be given long prison sentences and maybe even put away for life depending on a number of factors. But rapists of adult women should not receive similar sentences. By arguing for the death penalty for both, you're basically saying that a crime against a woman is as heinous as a crime against a child, and I simply don't believe this. The reason why rape was punished severely, historically, is that it damaged the household of the rape victim. That is now irrelevant, since women are not expected to be married as virgins and further, marriages have less monetary value to families anyway.
All women have left is 'it makes me feel bad,' and I'm not buying that song and dance. In addition, I find it hypocritical that women expect special treatment in this respect, yet they are supposed to be equal in others. If they are equal to men in all intellectual and emotional respects, then I wish to treat them as such. I'm not interested in hearing about how they are in a sense the sort of emotionally frail creatures we thought they were back when we had primitive, bigoted, and chauvinistic views. Let them be men, I say. If they don't like it, they can always return to the old ways.
In conclusion, rape is to me nothing more than simple assault at this point in our development. It happens to be less physically damaging than assault, in most cases, and hence it should be a relatively minor offense, unless it is exacerbated by other abusive behaviors. Not only would I not put rapists to death, but I would consider the crime equivalent to misdemeanor assault in a large percentage of cases.