NCJ Number
226411
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 5-24
Date Published
January 2009
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article explores momentous changes in Delaware’s death penalty statute in 1991.
Abstract
Findings show that on average about four times as many people have been sentenced to death since the 1991 law changes than were sentenced before the law change. Official statistics also reveal that no other State has experienced such dramatic changes after 1991, with some States’ death sentencing rates showing a slight decrease. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data on State death sentences from 1976 to 2004 show on average that about four times as many people were sentenced to death each year after the 1991 law change than were sentenced before the law change. In terms of other States’ averages over these periods, only Louisiana showed a substantial change since 1992 with two times as many death sentences. Delaware prosecutors secured death sentences in less than 1 in 10 capital cases before 1991, but since the law change they did so in nearly 50 percent of all capital cases. Delaware ranks number 13 out of the 29 States that have conducted executions. Death sentences in the State are imposed in Black defendant and White victim cases twice as often than in any other capital case. The highest death sentencing rate in Black-defendant White victim cases previously observed was 10.1 percent; the Delaware death sentencing rate is almost twice as high. Data were collected from a recent analysis of BJS data conducted by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) on State executions since 1976. Figure, notes, and references