Delaware court considers constitutionality of death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s1600/Delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Welcome to Delaware" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s320/Delaware.jpg" title="Welcome to Delaware" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ongoing debate over Delaware's death penalty has made its way to the state's highest court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For nearly a year, the discourse has drawn protests and emotional pleas at Legislative Hall, but the issue, now sitting squarely before the Delaware Supreme Court, drew a much more pensive tone in a Dover courtroom on Wednesday, as the court heard arguments over whether the way people are sentenced to death in Delaware is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quandary before the court arose after the U.S. Supreme Court found in January that Florida's death penalty law was unconstitutional because it gave judges - not juries - the final say to impose a death sentence. Delaware and Alabama are the only other states that allow judges to override a jury's recommendation of life. Delaware judges, however, have not been using that power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In front of a packed courtroom Wednesday, a prosecutor argued to the Supreme Court that the state's death penalty process avoids the pitfalls that made Florida's statute infirm, especially since juries make the initial decision about whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty in Delaware. A public defender countered that the state violates the Sixth Amendment when juries are routinely told that their sentencing decision is merely a recommendation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The most basic tenant of the [Florida] decision is that fact finding subjecting the defendant to the death penalty must be made by the jury," said Assistant Public Defender Santino Ceccotti "That does not occur in this state."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware is 1 of 32 states with capital punishment. The last execution in the state was in 2012, when Shannon Johnson, 28, was killed by lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All pending capital murder trials and executions for the 14 men on death row are currently on hold while the state considers the constitutionality issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The process for sentencing someone to death in Delaware requires multiple steps. Once a person is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must unanimously agree that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a least once of 22 statutory aggravating factors exists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That decision does not need to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by those findings. The judge then has the final authority in sentencing someone to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Sean Lugg argued that Florida's death penalty process looks similar to an older version of Delaware's statute that existed before the General Assembly in 2002 changed it in response to another court ruling. The more recent ruling was a way to get Florida in line with the prior decision, Lugg said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti countered that legislative change is still needed for Delaware's law to pass constitutional muster. Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. repeatedly questioned how, if the court were to find the statute unconstitutional, would the legislature write a new statute with a judge still involved in any aspect of the sentencing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti responded, saying that to be in line with the Florida decision, the fact finding can not be in the hands of judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida and Alabama are also still grappling with the U.S. Supreme Court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the death penalty statute lawmakers in Florida hurriedly passed after the January decision is now acceptable. Like Delaware, Florida's new law requires juries to unanimously determine at least one aggravating factor before defendants are sentenced to death. Alabama has been far less willing to act, but the U.S. Supreme Court has told the Alabama appeals court multiple times recently to reconsider its statute.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state court's future decision will be significant for Delaware. A bill to abolish the death penalty failed in the state House of Representatives earlier this year, but instead of filing a motion for reconsideration of the bill, the bill's sponsors said in March they would suspend legislative action until the Delaware Supreme Court rules.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abraham J. Bonowitz, Delaware's death penalty abolition coordinator for Amnesty International, said at a silent vigil with about 15 people outside the Supreme Court building Wednesday that the court's decision could help toward the goal of abolishing the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All of us here are praying that the Delaware Supreme Court finds ... that the death penalty is unconstitutional," he said. "And then it will be on the legislature to fix it, rather than end it. We should be able to stop a fix as it's always easier to stop bad legislation than to pass progressive legislation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: delawareonline.com, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware. The ...

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Death penalty arguments to be heard by Delaware Supreme Court

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s1600/Delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s320/Delaware.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Delaware Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty today, bringing an issue that has been debated for months closer to conclusion - and potentially opening up a whole new deliberation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Rauf v. State of Delaware</i> will be argued at 9:30, with the Department of Justice and Public Defender's Office representing opposing sides. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Justice contends the state's capital punishment statute is not in violation of the U.S. Constitution, while the Public Defender's Office believes it contradicts the right to jury trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional because it allows the judge to sentence death. Delaware's death penalty law has similarities to Florida's, with a judge having some sway over whether to sentence a person to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if the court rules that portion of the law is unconstitutional, it may not strike down the death penalty as a whole. If the justices hold, however, the language in question is invalid and cannot be separated from the greater death penalty provision, capital punishment in the state would be at least temporarily eliminated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Responsibility would fall to the General Assembly to craft a new law, and there may be enough opponents of capital punishment in the two Democratic-controlled chambers to block an attempt to overhaul the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santino Ceccotti and Elizabeth McFarlan are the lead attorneys for the Public Defender and Justice Department, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Delaware State News, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Delaware justices hear arguments on death penalty law</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware's Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court agreed in January to answer questions from Delaware's Superior Court to determine whether the state's death penalty law meets constitutional muster. Meanwhile, all death penalty trials in Delaware are on hold.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questions were raised about the constitutionality of Delaware's law after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing statute. That statute required a judge, not a jury, to find the factual existence of an "aggravating circumstance" making a defendant eligible for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware's law is similar to Florida's, but prosecutors argue that it nevertheless is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In advance of Wednesday's hearing, the court accepted written briefs from the attorney general's office and public defender's office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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The Delaware Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty today, bringing an issue that has been ...

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