• Passed a bill in July 2002, exempt­ing the men­tal­ly retard­ed from the death penal­ty in which retar­da­tion, described as ​“sig­nif­i­cant­ly sub­av­er­age gen­er­al intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing,” will be deter­mined before the tri­al. For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing this leg­is­la­tion, Click Here.
  • On January 24, 2001, (SJR 3) a Joint Resolution, spon­sored by Sen. Simpson, was sub­mit­ted by the Delaware State Senate and the House of Representatives to estab­lish an inde­pen­dent, non-par­ti­san Commission on the Death Penalty to study all aspects of the state’s death penal­ty. The Commission will hold pub­lic hear­ings and allow wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy on issues rel­e­vant to the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty in Delaware, and then report its find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions regard­ing the death penal­ty, includ­ing reme­dies for any defi­cien­cies found by the Commission, to the Governor, the mem­bers of the 141st General Assembly, and the Delaware Supreme Court, by January 8, 2002.