A fed­er­al judge in Delaware extend­ed a stay on all exe­cu­tions in the state on May 15, 2008, pend­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing sched­uled for June. One exe­cu­tion in Delaware was stayed by the same judge, District Court Judge Sue L. Robinson (pic­tured), in May 2006, pend­ing a deter­mi­na­tion of the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s use of lethal injec­tion. In 2007, the impact of the even­tu­al rul­ing in that case was extend­ed to all of the state’s death row inmates. The stay of exe­cu­tion was prompt­ed by a class action law­suit by all of Delaware’s 19 death row inmates con­tend­ing that lethal injec­tion vio­lates a con­sti­tu­tion­al ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. Judge Robinson refused to resolve the suit on sum­ma­ry judg­ment, stat­ing, ​“This is a fact-specific…life and death case.” She added that she would not decide the case ​“on a stack of papers” and want­ed to hear from experts before mak­ing her rul­ing.

Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth McFarlan object­ed to this sec­ond stay, cit­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s April rul­ing that Kentucky’s use of lethal injec­tion did not vio­late the Constitution. Michael Wiseman of the Philadelphia Federal Community Defender’s office attor­ney dis­agreed with McFarlan’s con­tention that Kentucky and Delaware’s pro­ce­dures are ​“almost iden­ti­cal.” In com­par­ing the two states’ poli­cies, he cit­ed a num­ber of dif­fer­ences that could lead to unnec­es­sary and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pain and suf­fer­ing and added that Delaware has a his­to­ry of not fol­low­ing exe­cu­tion poli­cies as writ­ten. The Delaware rul­ing was first put on hold when the U.S. Supreme Court accept­ed the Kentucky case for review. The new pre-tri­al hear­ing is set for June 23 and the evi­den­tiary hear­ing is expect­ed to last about four days.
(S. O’Sullivan, ​“Judge con­tin­ues death penal­ty stay for Del.,” May 15, 2008). See Lethal Injection.

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