Del. Prosecutors Oppose Death Row Appeal - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

Del. Prosecutors Oppose Death Row Appeal

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Prosecutors are urging a federal judge to reject an appeal by a Delaware death row inmate. State lawyers on Monday filed their answer to a habeas corpus petition filed in February by Adam Norcross challenging his conviction for the 1996 murder of Kenneth Warren of Kenton.

Norcross and an accomplice, Ralph Swan, both were sentenced to death for the murder of Warren, who was shot four times in a home invasion robbery. Norcross argues among other things that he was coerced into giving a confession, that his lawyers were ineffective, and that prosecutors acted improperly at his trial.

Prosecutors say Norcross made many of those same arguments in unsuccessful state appeals, and that he failed to exhaust other claims at the state level before raising them in his federal petition.

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