New Castle County Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy...

New Castle County Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy followed a jury's unanimous recommendation that 36-year-old James E. Cooke Jr. should be executed for killing Lindsey M. Bonistall. (see March 21, 2007)
Bonistall, who was white, was a 20-year-old college student. Cooke, who is black, had used a marker to write "KKK," "White Power" and other phrases on the walls of the apartment where Bonistall lived. Cooke made a 911 call before his arrest in which he suggested Bonistall's death was part of a drug war involving white supremacists.
Acknowledging that evidence, including DNA from semen in Bonistall's body and found under her fingernails, pointed to Cooke's guilt, defense attorneys had asked that Cooke be found guilty but mentally ill.