By Enola Gueta
DOVER, DE – Nine months following a controversial bill introduced in the Delaware House aimed to reinstate the death penalty for people convicted of murdering law enforcement and public safety officers in the state of Delaware, a House bill last week aiming to abolish any use of the death penalty in the state passed.
The new bill, HB 70, proposes a system of “life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for those convicted of first-degree murder,” according to a Coast TV report.” The bill’s sponsors are Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker, Rep. Sean Lynn and Sen. Kyle Evans Gay.
House Bill 70 not only comes in on the heels of the October attempt to expand the state’s death penalty but also the culmination of much legal action taken against the state for its capital punishment procedure, according to Coast TV, noting in the 1970s, the state was taken to court on the grounds its procedure violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Delaware’s most recent policy, established in 2002, “requires unanimous jury agreement on aggravating circumstances for a death sentence,” yet in 2016, the state supreme court invalidated the state’s procedure in 2016, meaning there hasn’t been anyone else sentenced to death since its ruling, the news report notes.
Among the greatest controversies of the death penalty are its claims that it disproportionately affects communities of color, emphasized by Rep. Walker and Sen. Gay, who respectively have called it “cruel and unjust” and “biased,” said Coast TV.
This is against a backdrop of reports provided by the National Death Penalty Information Center stating, around the U.S., 2,400 prisoners were convicted under the death penalty and are awaiting the possibility of execution.
According to the Coast TV report, HB 70 focuses on a system of prevention rather than punishment, reflecting discussions all across the country on the purpose of capital punishment. It is now awaiting Senate consideration.
