DOVER, Del. — Advocates seeking to permanently end the death penalty in Delaware will gather at Legislative Hall on Tuesday, May 13, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., to urge lawmakers to support House Bill 35, a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban capital punishment in the state once and for all.
Delaware’s death penalty was struck down by the State Supreme Court in 2016 for being unconstitutional. In 2024, the General Assembly formally repealed the death penalty from state law, but HB 35 seeks to cement the ban in the Delaware Constitution.
The event, led by the Delaware Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, will include a press conference at 11:45 a.m., followed by a rally and scheduled meetings with legislators. Organizers say the bill represents a historic opportunity to enshrine the death penalty ban in the state constitution, offering a layer of protection against future reinstatement efforts.
“Delaware has a long and dysfunctional history of allowing reactionary politics of the moment to dictate our use of the death penalty as a punishment,” Chief Defender of Office of Defense Services Kevin O’Connell said. “HB 35 ensures that we will dismantle the machinery of death in Delaware, once and for all.”
Before the Delaware Supreme Court's 2016 ruling, the executed 16 people between 1992 and 2012 under a statute later deemed invalid. Derrick Powell, the man convicted and sentenced to death for killing Georgetown Patrolman Chad Spicer in 2009, was re-sentenced to life in prison after the Supreme Court decision.
Constitutional amendments in Delaware must pass with a two-thirds vote in two consecutive legislative sessions.
It's worth noting that there have been efforts to reintroduce capital punishment in specific circumstances. In 2023, Republicans wanted to reinstate the death penalty for anyone convicted of the murder of a person of law enforcement or a public safety officer. That bill was inspired by the murder of Delmar Cpl. Keith Heacook in 2021. The man convicted of killing him, Randon Wilkerson, is now serving life in prison.
A similar effort was proposed in 2020, which wanted to allowing executions in cases involving the killing of law enforcement officers or paramedics, mass murder resulting in three or more deaths in a public space, repeat murder convictions, especially heinous or torturous killings involving weapons of mass destruction or poison, and hate crimes.
More than two dozen local and national organizations have joined the Delaware Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, including ACLU-Delaware, Amnesty International, Delaware NAACP, the Delaware Center for Justice, and several Unitarian Universalist congregations. The coalition, which includes community organizations, legal advocacy groups, and faith leaders, continues to grow.
Participants can register for Tuesday’s lobby day and rally here.