DOVER – The Senate on Thursday sent legislation to Governor John Carney that would remove the death penalty from state law, eight years after the First State’s capital punishment statute was ruled unconstitutional by the Delaware Supreme Court.
First introduced in January 2023, House Bill 70 would eliminate the sections of Delaware Code that set the court procedures for imposing the death penalty as a punishment for first-degree murder, reverting the maximum sentence allowable by law to life in prison without eligibility for probation, parole or a sentence reduction.
“Our courts, previous General Assemblies and former governors have all come to the same conclusion that the death penalty is unjust, unconstitutional and ineffective,” said Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, the Senate prime sponsor of HB 70 and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s long past time that we move past this flawed and barbaric practice, and instead focus our resources and attention on addressing the root causes of crime with policies that have actually been shown to make Delawareans safer.”
Passage of HB 70 by the General Assembly this year marks the latest turn in Delaware’s long and infamous history with the death penalty.
Delaware first abolished the death penalty in 1958 before the General Assembly voted to restore the practice three years later. The Delaware Supreme Court then found the state’s capital punishment law to be unconstitutional in 1973, only for the General Assembly to pass a new death penalty law the following year.
Legislation to abolish the death penalty a third time passed the Delaware Senate in 2015, but failed in the House, despite having the support of then-Governor Jack Markell. The following year, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death penalty law was again in violation of the U.S. Constitution by allowing a judge, rather than a jury, to determine if the prosecution had proven all the facts necessary to impose a death sentence. Later that same year, the Delaware Supreme Court invalidated the death sentences of the remaining 13 inmates on death row.
Despite having not exercised the death penalty since 2012, Delaware still has the fourth highest number of executions per capita over the last 50 years, behind only Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.
The First State also holds the dubious distinction of holding the last execution by hanging in the United States in 1996, a decade after lethal injection became the state’s standard method of execution.
Meanwhile, since 1972, nearly 200 people sentenced to death nationwide have later been exonerated, including Isaiah McCoy whose capital murder conviction was reversed by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2015 leading to his acquittal two years later.
“The death penalty is cruel and unjust. Over the last few years, my colleagues and I have worked tirelessly to create a more fair and logical criminal justice system in Delaware,” said Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker, the House prime sponsor of HB 70.
“The death penalty has disproportionately affected communities of color, with Blacks and Hispanics making up over 50 percent of inmates on death row. Having served as the spokeswoman for Delaware Repeal, the entity working to abolish the death penalty in the First State, I do not believe we should be in the business of state-sanctioned murder,” she said. “Today, we are closer to a more perfect union. I would like to extend a special thank you to Rep. Sean Lynn, Sen. Karen Peterson and all of the advocates who have fought for decades to end the death penalty. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Senate for passing this bill with overwhelming support.”
House Bill 301, the first leg of a Constitutional amendment that would prohibit the death penalty from being restored, is currently pending on the House Ready List.
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