For some reason I thought the death penalty in Delaware had been suspended. I don't mean from way back in the 70s, but for some thing that happened in the 90s. I was all living happy in my pretend world and
people were being executed right under my nose and I had no idear.
Beyond the terribleness that Delaware still has a death penalty, after the most cursory googling I disovered that we had a freaking gallows until
2003. It had just been hanging around because the stupid legislature thought it was a good idea to give convicts the choice of mode of execution. They did that way back in olden dayes of
1986. And even then. The last person to be hanged (sentenced anyway) happened in
1996.
Delaware is fucking weird you guys.
Rapist and Murderer Sentenced to Death
Quote:
A Delaware judge has set a Dec. 4 execution date for a man convicted of raping and killing a University of Delaware student.
The judge resentenced James E. Cooke on Monday following the state Supreme Court’s rejection of an appeal in July.
The execution date is a formality, however, as a new round of appeals gets under way.
The 43-year-old Cooke was convicted of the 2005 murder of 20-year-old Lindsey Bonistall of White Plains, New York.
The Delaware Supreme Court overturned Cooke’s first conviction in 2007 because his public defenders, without Cooke’s consent and despite his repeated claims of innocence, argued he was guilty but mentally ill.
Cooke was retried, convicted and sentenced to death again in 2012.
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