The Wilmington News Journal reports, "Delaware jury's votes in capital cases don't always sway judges." It's by Sean O'Sullivan.
While at least two times in the past 20 years Delaware judges have imposed a death penalty when a jury has voted 7-5 in favor of putting a convicted killer to death, a review of recent death-penalty cases with close votes shows that Superior Court judges are far more likely to impose a sentence of life in prison without chance of parole.
On Wednesday, a Sussex County jury voted 7-5 in favor of putting Derrick Powell to death for the slaying of Georgetown Patrolman Chad Spicer in September 2009 following a police chase. Superior Court Judge T. Henley Graves is required to give that recommendation "appropriate weight," but is not bound by it, and many of his fellow judges have decided that such a vote is not a mandate to impose capital punishment.
As recently as last year, a New Castle County Superior Court judge imposed a life sentence on a man convicted in a double homicide although a jury voted 7-5 for his death.
And back in 1992, a Superior Court judge ignored a 10-2 ruling in favor of the death penalty to give a defendant life in prison after he was convicted of the robbery and murder of a 44-year-old woman on her way home from a store.
The variation in rulings by Delaware judges in death-penalty cases can perhaps best be explained by the fact that the rules governing how a judge is supposed to evaluate whether to impose a death sentence are vague, which legal experts said is by design. The law allows the judge to consider each case -- and each defendant -- on his or her own merits.
"There can be no exact formula for whether to impose life or death," said retired Superior Court Judge Bill Lee, adding it has to be left up to the judge.
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