23 June 2024 :
June 18, 2024 - Delaware. House passes bill to eliminate death penalty in Delaware.
The vote was 33-to-8. House Bill 70 goes to the Delaware State Senate for consideration.
On June 18, the Delaware House passed House Bill 70, a significant piece of legislation aimed at abolishing the death penalty in the state. Sponsored by Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker, Rep. Sean Lynn and Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, the bill proposes life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for those convicted of 1st-degree murder.
Dorsey Walker claims that the death penalty has disproportionately affected communities of color.
Rep. Sean Lynn pointed to Delaware's troubled history with capital punishment. In the 1970s, the capital sentencing procedure was found by the court to violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Delaware’s current death penalty law, established in 2002, requires unanimous jury agreement on aggravating circumstances for a death sentence.
A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision led to the Delaware Supreme Court invalidating the state's capital sentencing procedures, rendering the death penalty effectively unused since then. Sen. Kyle Evans Gay aims to shift the focus on crime prevention rather than capital punishment.
House Bill 70 now moves to the Senate for consideration.
