‘A firewall’: Delaware lawmakers approve first leg of amendment removing death penalty from state constitution

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Delaware is one step closer to permanently abolishing the death penalty in the state’s constitution.

The General Assembly passed the first leg of a constitutional amendment to revamp Delaware’s governing document to prohibit the use of death as a form of punishment.

“The death penalty does not bring back victims,” argued bill sponsor state Sen. Kyra Hoffner, D-Leipsic, during that chamber’s vote last week. “It does not heal the communities and does not make us feel safer. It represents not a strength of our justice system, but its most profound weakness.”

The state House and Senate passed the legislation along mostly party lines.

The prime sponsor of the legislation, state Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, did not speak in favor of the bill on the floor and did not respond to requests to discuss it for this story.

Opponents said capital punishment should remain an option for defendants convicted of heinous crimes.

Delaware death penalty sentences were ruled unconstitutional in 2016 after the Delaware Supreme Court ruled the statute wrongly allowed judges rather than juries to determine whether the facts warrant imposing a death sentence. The court also ruled separately that the decision should be retroactive to the remaining death row prisoners.

State Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, said his constituents were still scarred by the 2009 murder of local police officer Chad Spicer. Defendant Derrick Powell, who had been sentenced to death for the killing, was resentenced to life in prison.

“Our community, by and large, wanted that person put to death because of what they took from our town, what they took from his family, one of which is upstairs right now,” Pettyjohn said. “So when you speak about being on the right side, the right side is for accountability. The right side is to ensure that that individual does not commit another murder again.”

Legislation signed into law last year by then-Gov. John Carney eliminated the death penalty and instructed that any adult convicted of first–degree murder was to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. But future General Assemblies could pass legislation reviving the practice. A constitutional amendment would prohibit its use.

Chief Public Defender Kevin O’Connell, who opposes the death penalty, said a firewall is needed because the state has a long history of ending and then reviving the death penalty, dating back to 1958. He also said Delaware’s historical use of capital punishment has been racially discriminatory.

“For a long time in Delaware and in other states, it was Black people who are most deserving of the death penalty, and Black people who kill white people are most deserving of the death penalty,” he said. “It’s not so much about whether or not some people may deserve to die. It’s whether or not we deserve to kill and whether or not we can set up a system that is truly fair in determining who those people are.”

A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber in two consecutive General Assemblies. It does not require the governor’s signature. The next time it could come up for a vote is after a new General Assembly is elected in November 2026.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.