Senate votes to repeal the death penalty in Delaware

DOVER — The Delaware Senate, on Thursday voted to remove the death penalty from state law.

House Bill 70, introduced in January 2023, would eliminate the sections of Delaware Code that set the court procedures for imposing the death penalty as a punishment for first-degree murder.

“This is a death penalty statutory repeal and what the bill does is it eliminates the death penalty in Delaware by removing all statutory references to the death penalty,” said Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, D-Talleyville, on Thursday from the floor of the Senate.

“The penalty for a person who was convicted of first-degree murder for an offense that was committed after the person’s 18th birthday will be life imprisonment without probation, parole or any other sentence reduction,” she added.

Delaware’s current death penalty law is unenforceable.

In 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court struck down Delaware’s death sentencing statute and directed those remaining on death row to be resentenced to life without parole.

Passage of House Bill 70 marks another chapter in Delaware’s turbulent history with the death penalty.

Delaware first abolished the 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-Gov. 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, according to Sen. Gay.

“I am following the data with this bill,” said Sen. Gay. “A 2015 poll indicated that 64% of Delawareans support life in prison compared to just 30% who believe the death penalty is most appropriate for a punishment for murder.”

House Bill 70 passed the Delaware House of Representatives on June 18 with a vote of 33-8.

“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 House Bill 70, in a statement released after Thursday’s vote.

“The death penalty has disproportionately affected communities of color, with Blacks and Hispanics making up over 50% 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.”

Even though the current statute is unenforceable, House Bill 70 spawned an emotional debate on the practice Thursday. The entire Republican caucus, along with Democrat Sen. Darius Brown, Wilmington, voted against House Bill 70.

“There’s something really personal to me,” said Georgetown Republican Sen. Brian Pettyjohn. “If you walk by my desk, you’re going to see two pictures and they’ve been here since the first day that I was elected to the General Assembly. Chad Spicer, his mom and his daughter, who just graduated high school.”

Georgetown Police Department Patrolman Chad Spicer was shot and killed in the line of duty on Sept. 1, 2009.

“I had to sit at his funeral. I was on Town Council at that time, just elected. His killer was sentenced to death. That was overturned,” said Sen. Pettyjohn. “Everyday, Chad’s murderer gets to live his life to know what his family is doing.”

“I’d like to see the statute changed to make our death penalty constitutional.”

The discussion is likely not over with House Bill 301, the first leg of a constitutional amendment that would prohibit the death penalty from being restored, is currently pending in the House of Representatives.

House Bill 70 now heads to Gov. John Carney’s desk for final approval.