Share: 

Smyk, Schwartzkopf vote in favor of death penalty

Retired state troopers say CO Lt. Steven Floyd shows need for capital punishment
May 26, 2017

Story Location:
411 Legislative Avenue
Dover, DE
United States

When the call came for a House vote on the bill reinstating the death penalty in Delaware, main sponsor Rep. Steve Smyk said he wasn’t nervous.

“It was easier than I thought. I thought it might just barely pass,” said the Milton and Lewes area Republican May 16. “But, I believed I had the votes when I walked onto the floor that day.”

In August 2016, the state Supreme Court ruled Delaware’s capital punishment law is unenforceable because the law allows a judge and not a unanimous jury to rule if a crime’s aggravating circumstance justified a death sentence.

House Bill 125, entitled the Extreme Protection Act, would require a jury to determine unanimously at least one statutory aggravating circumstance exists and to impose the death penalty. The bill passed through the House by a 24-16 vote May 9.

All nine Sussex County legislators voted in favor of the bill, but Smyk, a retired state trooper, said the bipartisan support from across the state – there were 10 Democrats – shows it’s not just his district that wants the death penalty reinstated in Delaware.

“That’s the majority of the state,” he said.

Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, of Rehoboth was one of the Democrats who supported the bill.

“I’ve said all along I wouldn’t be driving the bus, but I’d be on it,” he said.

Schwartzkopf, also a retired state trooper, said most of his beliefs on the issue come from his years of experience as a police officer. He said people act tough when they’re running around outside, but then they’ll plead guilty and get life because they’re afraid of dying. Once they’re in the system with a life sentence, he said, nothing prevents them from doing something else if the death penalty is not an option.

“I firmly believe that if the death penalty was a punishment, the homicide of Steven Floyd would not have happened,” said Schwartzkopf speaking of the correction officer who was murdered during a prisoner uprising in February at Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna. “We’ll never know, but even if someone is found guilty, they’re just going to get life in jail again.”

Smyk agrees with Schwarztkopf’s sentiment.

“If [Floyd] was not an example of why Delaware needs the death penalty, I don’t know what is,” he said.

The bill has been assigned to the Senate Judicial & Community Affairs Committee, which, as of May 17, does not have a meeting scheduled. The five-member committee is chaired by Senate Majority Leader Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, and also includes Sen. Bruce Ennis, D-Smyrna, Sen. Robert Marshall, D-Wilmington West, Senate Minority Whip Sen. Gregory Lavelle, R-Sharpley, and Sen. Dave Lawson, R-Marydel. The bill is one of 15 waiting to be heard by the committee.

In the time since the bill passed the House, Smyk said he has not been out shaking trees in the Senate looking for votes.

“I want to allow legislators to vote their districts,” he said. “My district is very much in favor of the bill.”

Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes, said he has previously voted against the death penalty and he will stay consistent with his past votes. He said he does not support reinstating the death penalty because, he says, the state should not be in the business of ending life. Lopez said he fully supports measures to protect law enforcement, but capital punishment has not been shown to deter crime, and he has heard no new evidence to change his mind.

 

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter