Delaware House Rushes to Restore Death Penalty
Forget about a Post-Game/Pre-Game today.
The only important story is that the Delaware House of Representatives, led by ex-cop Pete Schwartzkopf, will vote on restoring Delaware’s death penalty today. It will almost certainly pass.
You will recall that it was Schwartzkopf who delayed a vote on death penalty repeal for months before his police pals convinced enough representatives to vote against it.
Which is why nobody should be surprised that he’s rushing through the so-called ‘Extreme Crimes Prevention Act’, aka restoration of the death penalty. The bill in question, HB 125 (Smyk, yet another ex-cop), was passed out of committee yesterday, and is on today’s agenda.
The reason why the General Assembly has to ‘restore’ the death penalty is because the Delaware Supreme Court struck down provisions of Delaware’s death penalty statute. The Delaware court decision came on the heels of a United States Supreme Court decision that held that provisions of Florida’s death penalty statute were unconstitutional. Since Delaware law had the same provisions, the state court determined that Delaware’s law would meet the same fate.
HB 125 restores the death penalty while eliminating those provisions that the courts held as unconstitutional.
As long as Pete Schwartzkopf is Speaker of the House, this law and order agenda will continue to take precedence over traditional Democratic priorities.
The Senate could go either way. The Blevins loss takes away a repeal vote, and we don’t yet know whether Sen. Walsh will follow in Sen. Peterson’s footsteps. Sen. Ennis is a yes for restoration. Who knows? It could end up a 10-10 tie with Bethany Hall-Long casting the deciding vote. Some leadership from Jellyfish John would be great, but here’s what Delaware’s Official Invertebrate has said so far:
In a debate during the campaign last year, Carney said he believed the court’s decision should stand and said he would “probably” veto a bill to reinstate capital punishment. He has said he would “not rule out” the death penalty in cases where a law enforcement officer is killed, but the current legislation is broader than that.
Carney has not publicly said, however, that he would veto the bill.
Leadership in inaction.
Anyway, let your legislators know that you will hold them accountable for their votes.
Just when you think that Delaware’s legislators can’t get any worse, you discover that you’re wrong. By ‘you’, I mean ‘me’. Or is it ‘I’?
Serious question: is it normal for this many former LEOs/security guards/etc. to hold state legislative offices, or is Delaware out on the shoulder of the bell curve here?
It’s normal in Delaware. Because cops qualify for full pensions so quickly, they can start a second career as a legislator as soon as they qualify. In fact, several have started second AND third careers. At least two former cops became legislators AND Chiefs of Security at Del-Tech: John Van Sant and Larry Mitchell (never let it be said that Lonnie and Bob don’t take care of their own). Pistol Pete Schwartzkopf himself got a gig as Head of Security for the Delaware State Fair.
While I don’t know about other states, I know that law enforcement is disproportionately represented in the General Assembly. I do know that, in states that have full-time legislatures, attorneys have a far higher proportion of those seats than they do in Delaware.
http://www.wdel.com/news/video-rep-kowalko-house-leadership-takes-advantage-of-trooper-s/article_62822978-309c-11e7-90a3-a7efaa746830.html
Rep. Kowalko
House Bill 125 has been pulled from the House agenda today. It will be on Tuesday’s agenda.
Right on the heels of the shooting death of a Trooper and a CO
When emotional are still high …..
sure. It’s gonna pass
And anyone voting against it will face the ire of DSP and anyone pro-law enforcement and first responder
Yeah…… go ahead make their day
I don’t understand how this penalty would have changed the behavior of the shooter who took the life of the Delaware State Trooper. The shooter’s father tried to attract the attention of authorities before the shooting. Anyone with a severe emotional disturbance is not likely to acknowledge the consequences of their actions. The only way this penalty would have deterred would have been if the shooter thought about it and also reasonably concluded he would be caught. So if the new law won’t deter murder of police/correctional officers, what is the point? Capitol punishment is fatally flawed for all the reasons that have been verified by research. It is deemed inappropriately savage by the standards of advanced cultures of the world. It contaminates the moral consciousness of the general population, making us more prey to savagery, not less. I could go on. It is disappointing to see the herd behavior regarding this bill. We should insist our lawmakers do better.
Conservatives call themselves pro life but froth at the mouth like rabid dogs over the death penalty, guns, war and sadistic punitive policies
@Blackflyer:
It’s not about law making any sense as a crime deterrent. It’s all about vengeance, pure and simple.
Consider this: If the death penalty were truly a deterrent, why do we have killings in jurisdictions where capital punishment is imposed?
Men (and women) preparing to pull the trigger are not calculating, depending on who I hit and where, do I get 10 to 20, or life, or a lethal injection.
As noted the motive here is vengeance, nobody really believes the death penalty acts as a deterrent, regardless of the usual kill ’em all statements from politicians.
What kind of a society are we when our legislature is taken over by savages bent on vengeance? A cruel one. Unconstitutional.
Bbzr, mediawatch, mouse: Thanks for the “help”. Of course it is about deterrence. Just not in the minds of the legislators who are bent on the idea of a vengeful state. I am not. I’d like to see reason applied to our troubles, in prison and on the street, because vengence is savage. I don’t want scarce tax dollars going there when resources are especially strapped. We simply cannot afford to indulge our limbic or reptilian brain systems on the issue of the death penalty. We must use reason, a more difficult, but better system of decision-making. In fact, use of the limbic or reptilian parts of the brain on this decision is purely irresponsible.
Delaware Rethugs are bent on violence. The death penalty has NEVER stopped someone from killing another. Its not about one citizen taking the life of another, its about cops being killed…its the only reason. Of course the right wing wants to bring the death penalty back to Delaware so they can join the few countries in the world who actually still do this state sanctioned murder. The Innocence Project have found hundreds ON death row who were not guilty. Its time to take names of these right winger legislators and find a person to run against them with common sense and google ability.
It’s not just Delaware Rethugs. The ex-cops Schwartzkopf, Ennis and Mitchell are strong supporters of the bill, along with some other D sponsors. It’s Speaker Schwartzkopf who has put this on the fast track. If we had a Speaker who represented the Caucus instead of the cops, and if we had a governor who would take a firm stand against the death penalty, then the bill would not have a chance of passing. But we do and it does.
Only suicide bombers should be eligible for the death penalty.
Solid logic and precise grammar. I’m elated.
“Libs” don’t “favor” abortion. They agree that it’s only the business of the woman. We have to accept that there are things people have the right to do even if we don’t like it. We’re very American in that way.
Do you know under which circumstances we partial birth and late-term abortions are performed? I bet you don’t.