COLUMBIA -- The state Senate voted 38-3 Tuesday to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those convicted twice of raping children under 11 years old.

"They don't deserve to be on the face of the earth," Sen. Jake Knotts of West Columbia, a former police officer, told the Senate. "In a lot of cases, death isn't good enough for them."

The vote came after a panel of senators heard State Attorney General Henry McMaster tell them the legislation was appropriate and could be defended in any appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I think this law would pass constitutional muster without any trouble," he said.

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Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens, a supporter of the legislation, told senators he couldn't promise the Supreme Court would uphold the law.

"What we have to do is vote our convictions," he said.

Passage of the bill was helped by a compromise to restrict the crimes that could be eligible for the death penalty. The legislation now requires that the assaults be sexual or anal intercourse or involve penetration by an object.

Some senators had worried that improper acts of touching, which can be used to prosecute someone for criminal sexual conduct with a minor, could be used to seek the death penalty and result in the law being overturned.

The bill must pass a third reading before being sent to the House.

The death-penalty proposal by Sen. Kevin Bryant of Anderson is being debated two weeks after a Hartsville man was charged with abducting two teenage girls to an underground shelter and assaulting them.

If the legislation is adopted, South Carolina would join Louisiana as the only other state to allow the death penalty for sexual attacks on children, McMaster and others said.

The attorney general said 14 states and the federal government allow the death penalty for an offense other than murder.

He said while the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Georgia death-penalty case in 1986 involving an adult rape, things have changed.

Other states now allow the death penalty for offenses ranging from kidnapping to air piracy, he said. Louisiana's Supreme Court upheld that state's death penalty for child rapists, he said.

And the problem of sexually violent predators has created an attitude throughout society that something more drastic has to be done with these "monsters," he told senators.

McMaster predicted more states would enact legislation similar to South Carolina's by the time any appeal reached the Supreme Court.

Others who talked to the panel were not so sure the legislation would pass any review by the Supreme Court.

University of South Carolina Law School professor Ken James told senators he disagreed with seeking the death penalty for such crimes and felt the Supreme Court would overturn it because only Louisiana has a similar penalty for child rape.

"I think it falls far short of a national consensus," he said.

Columbia defense lawyer I.S. Leevy Johnson told senators the legislation was "ill-advised."

He said the Supreme Court would look to see how many other states and cases were similar to South Carolina's and would only find one conviction in Louisiana.

"Louisiana is not a state we should be emulating," he said.

Solicitor Donnie Myers, Lexington County's chief prosecutor, told the senators he had little faith in the Supreme Court upholding any death-penalty statute that could benefit victims.

He said the first case chosen to prosecute in the state will have to be carefully reviewed beforehand because it will be appealed.

He and others said the law could also have unintended consequences, such as more trials because those facing their first conviction will want to fight a charge in the event they might be convicted again.

Sen. Jim Ritchie of Spartanburg asked McMaster whether the law could provide more incentive for rapists to kill their victims to remove witnesses.

McMaster said while that was a possibility, it should not block legislators from passing the tougher penalty.

Bryant's proposal is actually an amendment to legislation known as "Jessica's Law," named after a 9-year-old Florida girl allegedly kidnapped and killed last year by a convicted sex offender.

The Jessica's Law legislation would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty if a murder is involved and the defendant was deemed a sexually violent predator.

The bill also would set a minimum prison sentence of 25 years without parole if the victim is younger than 11, require more frequent registrations by those deemed sexual predators and require electronic monitoring once they were released from prison.

Those currently convicted under the statute face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

According to the State Law Enforcement Division, 125 South Carolina children from infancy through 9 years old were reported as victims of forcible rape in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available.