Delaware

History of the Death Penalty

The death penal­ty began in Delaware in 1662 with the state’s first hang­ing. The offi­cial method of exe­cu­tion for Delaware was hang­ing until 1986, when lethal injec­tion became the new offi­cial method, with the excep­tion of those already sen­tenced to death by hang­ing. The gal­lows were dis­as­sem­bled in 2003 when there was no longer a chance of an inmate choos­ing death by hang­ing. The leg­isla­tive stance on the death penal­ty has changed over time, with the state repeal­ing and rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty pri­or to the fed­er­al repeal and rein­state­ment. In August 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court declared pro­vi­sions in the state’s death-penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and direct­ed that the pris­on­ers on the state’s death row be resen­tenced to life with­out parole. Several leg­isla­tive attempts to rein­tro­duce the death penal­ty have failed. Prior to its abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, Delaware had one of the high­est per capi­ta exe­cu­tion rates in the U.S.

Timeline

1662 – First known exe­cu­tion in Delaware, an unknown per­son is hung for attempted murder.

1731 – Catherine Bevan burned alive for the mur­der of her husband.

1958 – Delaware becomes the sec­ond state to abol­ish the death penalty.

1961 – The Delaware leg­is­la­ture over­rides the governor’s veto, rein­stat­ing the death penalty.

1972 – The Supreme Court strikes down the death penal­ty in Furman v. Georgia.

1973 – The Delaware Supreme Court finds the state death penal­ty law uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under Furman.

1974 – The Delaware leg­is­la­ture pass­es a new cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law mak­ing the death penal­ty manda­to­ry for first-degree murder.

1976 – The Supreme Court rein­states the death penal­ty in Gregg v. Georgia.

1977 – Delaware rewrites its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute to con­form to Woodson v. North Carolina, a case pro­hibit­ing manda­to­ry death sentences.

1986 – Lethal injec­tion replaces hang­ing, although per­sons sen­tenced before this date can still choose to be hung. The sen­tence is car­ried out in a mobile trailer.

1991 – Public out­cry after a hung jury sen­tenced four defen­dants to life with­out parole leads state leg­is­la­tors to grant the ulti­mate sen­tenc­ing author­i­ty to judges in capital cases.

1992 – First post-Gregg exe­cu­tion in the state, Steven Pennel dies by lethal injection.

1996 – Billy Bailey choos­es to be exe­cut­ed by hang­ing, is the last per­son exe­cut­ed using this method in Delaware.

2002 – In response to the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Ring v. Arizona, Delaware changes its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law to require juries to find whether the defen­dant is eli­gi­ble for the death penalty.

2003 – Delaware gal­lows are taken down.

2012 – Delaware Governor Jack Markell grants clemen­cy to death row inmate Robert Gattis, the first death penal­ty clemen­cy in state history.

2016 — Delaware Supreme Court strikes down the state’s death sen­tenc­ing statute, leav­ing the state with no valid way to impose death sen­tences. (See below for additional details.)

Famous Cases

Billy Bailey was the last inmate to be exe­cut­ed by hang­ing in Delaware and was the third inmate hung in the United States since 1976. Bailey was con­vict­ed in 1980 for the mur­der of an elder­ly cou­ple, Gilbert and Clara Lambertson. He was giv­en the choice between death by lethal injec­tion, the new option for death row inmates, or the hang­ing to which he was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced. He claimed he did not want to be treat­ed ​“like a dog put to sleep,” so he was hung on January 25, 1996. This was the last time the two-sto­ry gal­lows would be used in Delaware, as they were dis­as­sem­bled in 2003.

Robert Jackson was exe­cut­ed on July 29, 2011 for the mur­der of Elizabeth Girardi, who was hacked to death with an ax in 1992 when she came home and saw rob­bers try­ing to flee her house. Jackson was 18 years old at the time of the mur­der and spent 18 years on death row. He appealed the use of new anes­thet­ic, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, but was unsuc­cess­ful in his appeal. This new anes­the­ic is now being wide­ly used due to the nation­al short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal. Jackson claimed he was inno­cent until his exe­cu­tion when he implied that his accom­plice in the rob­bery, Anthony Lachette, was the indi­vid­ual respon­si­ble for the death of Girardi. Lachette was released from prison in 1996 after serv­ing his sen­tence from plead­ing guilty to con­spir­a­cy and burglary.

Isaiah McCoy was exon­er­at­ed on January 19, 2017, when Kent County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young acquit­ted him of all charges in a retri­al ordered by the Delaware Supreme Court. McCoy had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2012, but the Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 2015 as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in which the tri­al pros­e­cu­tor, Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata belit­tled McCoy in front of the jury for choos­ing to rep­re­sent him­self, made intim­i­dat­ing com­ments to McCoy dur­ing a break in pro­ceed­ings, then lied to the judge about hav­ing made those com­ments. Upon his release, McCoy said, ​“I just want to say to all those out there going through the same thing I’m going through ​‘keep faith, keep fight­ing.’ Two years ago, I was on death row. At 25, I was giv­en a death sen­tence – and I am today alive and well and kick­ing and a free man.” 

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

On April 2, 1958, the death penal­ty was out­lawed when Governor Boggs signed a law that pro­hib­it­ed the sen­tence in cap­i­tal cas­es. This was short-lived since the Delaware Legislature passed a bill, over­turn­ing the pre­vi­ous bill, to rein­state the death penal­ty. The death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed on December 18, 1961, over­rid­ing the veto of Governor Carvel.

In the 2015 – 2016 leg­isla­tive ses­sion, Governor Markell announced that he would sign an abo­li­tion bill if it passed the leg­is­la­ture. The bill passed the state sen­ate in April 2015 and was released by the House Judiciary Committee in January 2016 for con­sid­er­a­tion by the full House, where it failed to win approval. The House tabled recon­sid­er­a­tion of its vote pend­ing the out­come of a court case, Rauf v. State, chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures. On August 2, 2016, in Rauf, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the statute vio­lat­ed cap­i­tal defen­dants’ right to a jury tri­al by allow­ing the judge, rather than the jury, to deter­mine whether the pros­e­cu­tion had proven all the facts nec­es­sary to impose a death sen­tence and by per­mit­ting death sen­tences to be imposed with­out a unan­i­mous jury vote that aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stances (rea­sons for death) out­weighed mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances (rea­sons for life) beyond a rea­son­able doubt. On August 15, the Attorney General announced he would not appeal the deci­sion. Subsequently, on December 15, 2016, the court ruled in Powell v. State that its rul­ing in Rauf applied the to the 13 remain­ing pris­on­ers on the state’s death row.

Other Interesting Facts

A Senate bill passed in 1994 requires that all exe­cu­tions take place between 12:01 AM and 3:00 AM.

Delaware has grant­ed only one clemen­cy to a death row inmate since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty. Robert Gattis was grant­ed clemen­cy on January 17, 2012.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Delaware Dept. of Corrections list of inmates cur­rent­ly sen­tenced to death in Delaware
• Public defend­er’s office
• Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty
• Delaware Death Penalty Repeal Project
• Victims’ ser­vices

Delaware Execution Totals Since 1976