Prosecutors in Delaware Want to Execute Black Teen
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide in its fall term whether the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes, but the issue could come to a head in Delaware before then. New Castle County Superior Court Judge Peggy Ableman heard pretrial arguments earlier this month in the case of Laquan T. Robinson, 22, who is charged with the shooting deaths of two Wilmington residents in 1999. Delaware prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Robinson, who was 17 at the time of all three killings, but defense attorneys have asked Ableman to preclude the death penalty. "It is both cruel and unusual," said defense attorney Kevin O'Connell, noting that most states prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles, and the ones that do allow it rarely use it. Prosecutors argue that until the U.S. Supreme Court says otherwise, Delaware's death penalty law, which allows capital punishment for killers as young as 16, stands.
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