JOIN US THIS SUNDAY, APRIL 30TH FOR A SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTION FORUM.
DELAWARE NEEDS YOUR VOICE.
In 2016, the DE Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty
unconstitutional.
One month later, the state settled a lawsuit, agreeing to improve mental health care for inmates and significantly reduce how much time they spend in solitary confinement.
There was an inmate uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
7 days later, House Bill 125, was introduced to reinstate capital punishment revoking Delaware's status as the 19th and most recent state to abolish the death penalty.
Delaware's Chief Public Defender, Brendan O'Neill, said that the Vaughn uprising does not change that capital punishment is expensive, error-prone and racially discriminatory.
"We'll make the same arguments we've been making for a long time," he said. "Despite supporter claims, there's no evidence that the death penalty works."
Even when compared to Southern states, Delaware's death penalty is implemented unjustly with the rate for black defendants with white victims extremely high; it is 75% higher than the closest contenders, Georgia and Nevada, more than twice as high as that of South Carolina and Virginia, and three times higher than that of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
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