Sean Lynn to Keep Pushing for Death Penalty Repeal

WDEL reports that Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover) plans to suspend the House rules and bring Senate Bill 40, the repeal of Capital Punishment in Delaware, to the House floor come January. SB 40 passed the Senate last year 11-9, and this time we actually got a hearing and consideration of the bill in the House Judiciary Committee, which was an improvement upon the prior session.

However, the bill was considered by the Committee and not advanced (it is not clear if Death Penalty Repeal, SB 40– Passed the Senate but failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee. The vote was 6-5 to not release the bill to the floor. The five supporters of the bill were also sponsors of the bill, and they were Reps. Sean Lynn, D-Dover; Melanie George Smith, D-Bear; Charles Potter, D-Wilmington; Gerald Brady, D-Wilmington; and James Johnson, D-New Castle. The votes against were Reps. Larry Mitchell, D-Wilmington; Trey Paradee, D-Cheswold; Jeff Spiegelman, R-Clayton; David Wilson, R-Bridgeville; Bobby Outten, R-Harrington; and Stephen Smyk, R-Milton.

The bill could have been petitioned out of the committee during the last session by having a member of the House make a motion on the House floor to lift the bill from committee. The motion needs to be seconded, and then the full House would vote on whether to bring the bill to floor. To be successful, the motion would need a simple majority of yes votes, or 21 votes. Now, you might assume that if you get to those 21 votes you would also have enough votes to pass the bill, but don’t be so sure.

But for now, that seems to be Rep. Lynn’s plan.

“It’s exceedingly frustrating that it’s stuck in committee–it’s frustrating that it is denied a full and final hearing on the merits,” said Lynn. “That really, the bill is not being dealt with substantively, but is being kind of hampered procedurally,” Lynn told Delaware 105.9. Lynn added that he thinks the bill, in its present form, would pass the full House, but he is worried amendments could be added to Senate Bill 40 that would cause his colleagues to vote it down.

“That may be used as a technique to essentially kill the bill or create such a procedural quagmire that for all intents and purposes, the bill is killed, so yeah, I’m absolutely fearful of that.”

So we shall see. I tend to think the bill will not pass the House, but I could be wrong. Either way, Rep. Sean Lynn, recognized by the Progressive Dems and the ADA as a progressive hero in this past session, has been a pleasant surprise in his first session.