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Sentencing in Delaware

By Steve Hall

The Wilmington News Journal reports, "Delaware jury's votes in capital cases don't always sway judges."  It's by Sean O'Sullivan. While at least two times in the past 20 years Delaware judges have imposed a death penalty when a jury has voted 7-5 in favor of putting a convicted killer to death, a review of recent death-penalty cases with close votes shows that Superior Court judges are far more likely to impose a sentence of life in prison without chance of parole. On Wednesday, a Sussex County jury voted 7-5 in favor of putting Derrick Powell to death for the slaying of Georgetown Patrolman Chad Spicer in September 2009 following a police chase. Superior Court Judge T. Henley Graves is required to give that recommendation "appropriate weight," but is not bound by it, and many of his fellow judges have decided that such a vote is not a mandate to impose capital punishment...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 25, 2011 (boomark / email).