Calling the death penal­ty ​“an instru­ment of imper­fect jus­tice,” Governor Jack Markell (pic­tured) of Delaware announced on May 7 that he will sign the death penal­ty repeal bill under con­sid­er­a­tion in the state leg­is­la­ture if the bill reach­es his desk. The Delaware Senate passed repeal in April by a vote of 11 – 9. The House Judiciary Committee is expect­ed to hold a hear­ing soon. Markell had not pre­vi­ous­ly tak­en a stance on abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. Upon announc­ing his deci­sion, he said, ​“This is not an easy issue. My think­ing has changed and I just want­ed to give it very care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion.” The Governor cit­ed recent exon­er­a­tions and flawed tes­ti­mo­ny in cap­i­tal cas­es as rea­sons why he believes repeal should pass. ​“I know this is a real­ly dif­fi­cult issue for mem­bers of the General Assembly,” the gov­er­nor said. ​“I hope that after con­sid­er­ing the argu­ments as I have, they will reach the same con­clu­sion that I have.” Recent stud­ies of Delaware’s death penal­ty have revealed sig­nif­i­cant racial dis­par­i­ties in cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing in the state. More than three-quar­ters of Delaware’s death-row inmates are black or Latino. No state with more than one death-sen­tenced defen­dant has a high­er per­cent­age of racial minori­ties on its death row.

(J. Offredo, ​“Gov. Markell: I will sign Delaware death penal­ty repeal,” Delaware News Journal, May 7, 2015.) See Recent Legislative Activity and New Voices.

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