USA - Delaware. Attorney General Matt Denn will not appeal State v. Rauf declaring Delaware's capital sentencing scheme unconstitutional.

Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn has announced that it will not appeal the state supreme court's decision in State v. Rauf declaring Delaware's capital sentencing scheme unconstitutional. State prosecutors say they will fight the retroactive application of the decision to the thirteen death row prisoners currently facing execution. In a statement released by his office, the Democratic attorney general said he decided not to appeal the Aug. 2 ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 148-page opinion, a majority of Delaware Supreme Court justices said the law violates the U.S. Constitution because it allows a judge to sentence a person to death independently of a jury's recommendation. The ruling also found fault with parts of the law that allow a judge to find the existence of 1 or more aggravating circumstances weighing in favor of the death penalty, and because it does not require jurors to be unanimous in deciding whether any aggravating circumstances exist. The justices said the law is also flawed because it allows the judge, not the jury, to make the crucial final determination on whether aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating factors, thus mandating a death sentence. That determination, the court said, must be made unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt by the jury. Denn concluded that even if the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the split opinion on federal constitutional grounds, Delaware's Supreme Court would ultimately invalidate the death penalty law based on the state constitution. "Litigating and appealing these issues - a process that would likely take years before issues of both federal and state constitutional law were resolved - would likely not only bring about the same result, but would also deny the families of victims sentencing finality." At the same time, Denn reiterated that he would support an amendment to the existing law requiring a unanimous jury verdict in order to impose a death sentence. His agency also said it would argue that the Supreme Court decision does not retroactively apply to current death row inmates. A bill to abolish capital punishment cleared the state Senate by a single vote last year but was defeated in the House earlier this year.