During oral arguments Wednesday, Delaware’s chief justice pressed a public defender on his argument that the state’s death-penalty statute is unconstitutional because it allows judges to override juries’ findings of fact in the sentencing phase.
The statute, Section 4209 of the Delaware Code, had come under scrutiny after the U.S. Supreme Court’s January decision in Hurst v. Florida struck down a capital-sentencing scheme in Florida, which gave judges the final say in whether to impose a sentence of death.
