Post by Logan on Jun 16, 2016 14:50:57 GMT -6
The ongoing debate over Delaware's death penalty has made its way to the state's highest court.
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.
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.
Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in.
Read more: www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/06/15/arguments-wednesday-over-delawares-death-penalty-law/85885106/
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.
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.
Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in.
Read more: www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/06/15/arguments-wednesday-over-delawares-death-penalty-law/85885106/