USA – State Sen. Kyle Evans Gay (DE)
June 29, 2024 :
06/27/2024 – Delaware. Senate approves abolition of death penalty
On Thursday 27, the Senate approved the elimination of the death penalty from the penal code.
The bill HB 70, already passed by the House, establishes that the maximum sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison without parole.
The new law follows a 2016 Delaware Supreme Court decision that declared the death penalty unconstitutional because it gave judges, rather than jurors, the power to identify aggravating circumstances necessary to impose a death sentence.
Since that decision, Delaware had not changed its law, and therefore no new death sentences could be issued. The alternative for Parliament was to update the law to adapt it to the Supreme Court ruling, not to take any initiative (as for example, in an almost identical situation, the state of New York did, which since 2004 has not been able to issue new death sentences, but it did not even abolish capital punishment, or, as happened today, decide for its abolition.
Senator Kyle Evans Gay, the bill’s lead sponsor and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “Our courts, past legislatures, and former governors have all come to the same conclusion: the death penalty is unjust, unconstitutional, and ineffective. It is past time to move beyond this barbaric and wrongful practice and focus our resources and attention on addressing the root causes of crime with policies that have been proven to make Delawareans safer.”
The bill passed 14-7, with no Republican support and one Democratic senator defection.
The bill has been forwarded to Governor John Carney, who has not yet announced whether he will sign it. (see also NtC 06/18/2024)
https://www.delawarepublic.org/politics-government/2024-06-27/legislators-approve-removing-the-death-penalty-from-delaware-law
(Fonte: Delaware Public Media, 27/06/2024)
