Delaware Supreme Court strikes down death penalty

By a narrow 3-2 vote, the Delaware Supreme Court has struck down the state’s death penalty statute.

Justices Randy Holland and Collins Seitz, along with Chief Justice Leo Strine, voted to overturn the statute, saying the state’s death penalty law violated the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Justice Karen Valihura agreed with the majority in part but dissented in part, and Justice James Vaughn dissented.

Delaware’s death penalty law came under review as part of an appeal of a New Castle murder case. Defendant Benjamin Rauf has been charged with first-degree murder, the only crime eligible for the death penalty. Rauf is accused of robbing and killing a Temple University student; the state was seeking the death penalty against him.

Rauf’s appeals attorney, Santino Ceccotti, argued the state’s death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it did not require a unanimous jury to impose a death sentence. In his arguments at a June hearing, Ceccotti cited a Florida case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar statute in that state. The U.S. Supreme Court said Florida’s death penalty law was unconstitutional because the Sixth Amendment holds that a jury, not a judge, must find each fact to impose a death sentence.

In Delaware, a jury recommends the sentence, but it is not required to be unanimous, and the judge has the final say.

“The jury must make the finding unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the Delaware death penalty statute does not require juror unanimity, it is unconstitutional,” the majority said.

The 148-page opinion gives an extensive history of the death penalty in America and the case law governing capital punishment laws across the county.

“At the beginning of our republic and throughout most of its history, defendants did not go to the gallows unless juries said they should. And the role of the jury was seen as especially important when a defendant’s life was in the balance, because it made sure that a defendant would suffer the ultimate punishment only if 12 members of the community deliberated together and unanimously concluded that should be so,” the majority wrote.

Valihura said while she agreed with the majority that the Sixth Amendment says the judge cannot independently find aggravating circumstances to impose the death penalty, she disagreed that a jury must be unanimous before it can sentence a defendant to die. She said the U.S. Supreme Court’s prior rulings on the death penalty, including the Florida law, are ambiguous, and whether Delaware should have the death penalty should be left to the citizens of Delaware.

Vaughn said he was not persuaded by the arguments against the Delaware law. He said in Delaware, the jury must unanimously find the existence of at least one specific aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt before the defendant is eligible for the death penalty. Vaughn said prior U.S. Supreme Court rulings were ambiguous, and he was satisfied that the state’s law complies with the Sixth Amendment.

In striking down the death penalty law, the court majority said the decision to reinstate the death penalty lies with the General Assembly.

Rep. Steve Smyk, R-Milton, said the court ruling recognized valid weaknesses in Delaware’s death penalty statute. However, he said, the political environment for repeal has made any reformation of the statute unworkable.   

“The Supreme Court decision should not be read as an indictment of how capital punishment has been applied in Delaware.  Rather, it cites aspects of our law that need to be changed to meet the High Court's interpretation of Constitutional standards,” Smyk said.

He said it is uncertain whether the upcoming General Assembly will have the political will to fix the state’s death penalty statute.

Delaware native Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, which opposes the death penalty said, “I'm pleased that the Supreme Court has recognized the constitutional problems with Delaware's death penalty.  The state is wasting a lot of money, time and resources on a punishment with costs that greatly exceed the benefits.  I'm proud that my home state won't accept an unconstitutional death penalty and would be even prouder to see Delaware abandon capital punishment forever.”