A conversation about racial tensions with police and inequalities in the justice system honed in on the death penalty Thursday night at a town hall meeting in Dover.
It was the second of four sessions being held around the state by the Complexities of Color Coalition and the NAACP, and came just days after the state Supreme Court heard arguments in the high-profile death penalty appeal of Jermaine Wright.
State Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat who's the primary sponsor of the state's stalled death penalty repeal bill, said at the forum that Delaware is third in the nation for executions per capita, with 16 since the 1970s.
And disproportionately, he said, the most likely death row defendant is a black man convicted of killing a white person. What's more, he said, about one in ten inmates put to death nationwide is innocent.
"Decades of evidence show that here in Delaware, and elsewhere, capital punishment depends more on the color of someone's skin than the crime he was convicted of," Lynn said. "Laws and practices based on racial bias have been wiped from our society, and the death penalty should be treated the same."
Panelists from Delaware's black church community and legal and activist groups said it was high time.
"It creates more discomfort, hatred and habits than it benefits us in," said Rev. Michael Rogers, the pastor of Central Baptist Church in Dover and president of the Dover-area Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. "And what's the benefit in -- just because this person took a life, you turn around and take a life? You're just as bad as they are."
Mary Batten is a Delaware State University senior and president of the college Democrats there. She said the idea that the death penalty deters violence against police isn't true. And the same goes for police violence against black people, she said:
"In an environment where the police are supposed to protect you and serve you and make you feel safe, you feel threatened," she said. "And for those officers that are not out to threaten, it's harder for them to do their job."
She said the death penalty isn't the only issue at the heart of movements like Black Lives Matter, but that it is overdue for action.
Rep. Lynn said he’s gearing up to get his repeal bill to the House floor next spring. It stalled in the House Judiciary committee after passing the state Senate in April.
Complexities of Color's next town hall meeting is Nov. 17 in New Castle County. That panel will include state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine.
