Delaware state pros­e­cu­tors announced that they will not seek the death penal­ty for Thomas Capano, a for­mer mil­lion­aire influ­en­tial in state pol­i­tics who was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing Anne Marie Fahey. Capano will instead face a sen­tence of life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. ​“Every crim­i­nal case has a nat­ur­al end. We have reached that point in this case. I am sat­is­fied that jus­tice is served by hav­ing Thomas Capano spend every day of the rest of his life in prison,” said Deleware Attorney General Carl C. Danberg.

Last month, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld Capano’s 1999 mur­der con­vic­tion, but over­turned his death sen­tence because the jury was one vote short of unan­i­mous when decid­ing if the mur­der was the result of sub­stan­tial plan­ning. The Delaware court held that the death sen­tence based on a non-unan­i­mous find­ing vio­lat­ed the U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in Ring v. Arizona in 2002. Danberg said a new death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing hear­ing would be dif­fi­cult because two key wit­ness­es, Capano’s broth­ers, who tes­ti­fied in 1999 did so in exchange for plea agree­ments with pros­e­cu­tors. This time, Danberg said that pros­e­cu­tors would have no lever­age over the two men.

Fahey’s fam­i­ly said they sup­port­ed the state’s deci­sion to seek a life with­out parole sen­tence. ​“When Anne Marie was mur­dered, we main­tained that the most impor­tant thing for us was that her mur­der­er would be con­vict­ed and sent to prison. We are sat­is­fied,” they said.

(The News Journal, February 6, 2006). See Victims and Life Without Parole.

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