KOC continues to monitor developments in the death penalty across the U.S. Earlier this week, Delaware’s highest court struck down its death penalty based on a January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court case that invalidated Florida’s capital sentencing scheme. The basis for the two decisions was the same—that the 6th Amendment requires that any factual findings supporting a death sentence must be reached by a jury not a judge. These states had the possibility of a “judicial override” which meant that even if the jury rejected a death sentence and voted for life, a judge could override them and impose death. (Under Florida’s old law, the jury rendered an “advisory” decision to which the judge had to give great weight but could still override and impose death.) While the Delaware Attorney General can appeal the decision to the federal courts–eventually to…

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