Death penalty repeal on the table in Del. house

The House will vote on a major bill that would repeal the death penalty in Delaware on Thursday.

According to supporters, it’s not about the criminals the penalty is meant to punish.

They argue it’s unfair to the those who are wrongly convicted and waiting on death row.

Representative Sean Lynn is the chief sponsor in the House of Senate Bill 40. He says a study by Cornell Review studied the death penalty in Delaware for five years and found it was applied unequally to people of color.

“That trend which was noted in Cornell with regards to Delaware follows a nation wide trend where the death penalty depends more upon the color of your skin than the crime you actually committed.” He says, “This is one of the last remaining civil rights hurdles that we need to not only overcome but abolish.”

Representative Lynn says if the bill does not pass in the house Thursday, then it can be brought back in the future.

The death penalty has been abolished in 19 states and Washington D.C.