Hear me out. This is exciting.
As you may be aware, a hold has been placed on all death penalty cases in Delaware by the Delaware Supreme Court.
The reason? The U. S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional part of a Florida statute that grants exclusively to judges the right to determine a sentence of death in capital cases.
Guess what? Delaware has the exact same provision in its statute. The irony is that it didn’t used to be that way. No, AG Jane Brady, Sen. Tom Sharp, Sen. Jim Vaughn and others demagogued the sheep in Dover into taking the power away from juries and giving it to judges. Why? ‘Coddling criminals’, blah blah blah. How great would it be if they ended up sowing the seeds for death penalty repeal?
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see how Delaware’s statute can be constitutional if Florida’s is not.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Only the Delaware General Assembly can change the statute. Even if the bill is not a super-majority bill (lawyers, help me out), this means a majority of members of both the House and Senate have to approve it and it has to be signed by the Governor. Here’s the delicious catch: A majority of the Delaware State Senate has voted for death penalty repeal. By not voting affirmatively to transfer sentencing authority from the judge to the jury, those same senators who support death penalty repeal will have effectively repealed the death penalty in Delaware. At least until/unless the U. S. Supreme Court revisits its decision.
Can somebody prove me wrong? I await the response of experts. Me? I’m psyched!