House lawmakers’ first chance to repeal Delaware’s death penalty fell flat Thursday night in a 16 to 23 vote.
The actual vote count is closer – State Rep. Andria Bennett (D-Dover) was absent recovering from surgery and will support the bill. State Rep. Kim Williams (D- Newport, Stanton) only voted against it to reserve the right to bring it back in the coming weeks though rarely used legislative rules.
Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover), the main House champion of the bill, says he’s confident it’ll pass eventually.
“This is going to happen. 20 states have already repealed the death penalty. While we’re deliberating, Kansas and Missouri are deliberating. It’s unfortunately that we won’t be the first state to repeal in 2016, but it’s going to happen either by the courts or by the legislature,” said Lynn.
Not one lawmaker who supports the death penalty spoke out against it publicly.
Instead, Mary Cairns, a family friend of slain University of Delaware student Lindsey Bonistall, read a letter from her parents, urging legislators to keep capital punishment in place.
“Her killer deserves the death penalty for his brutal and heinous crime. Our family will only find peace and closure when Lindsey’s killer has been duly executed by the State of Delaware,” said Cairns.
Much of the more than hour-long discussion was among supporters, saying the death penalty represents a codified tool of racism that disproportionately affects minorities and isn’t 100 percent infallible.
Bryan Stevenson, a Delaware native and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, refuted the talking points of law enforcement groups.
Stevenson says police have a tough job, but that having the death penalty as an option doesn’t deter violence.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t owe police officers all of our best services. But I don’t think we owe the death penalty and I actually don’t think it helps to protect our officers or keep them safe,” said Stevenson.
That debate took place a few hours after Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) unveiled his proposed $4.1 billion budget for next year – an increase of nearly five and a quarter percent.
It’s balanced partially through an overhaul of the state’s employee healthcare benefits, freezing out new workers from more generous plans and hiking premiums for current workers.
Under the new Health Savings Account plan, single people will have to kick in a thousand dollars towards their deductible and two thousand for families.
The plan also includes a one percent pay bump, but Markell says he still expects pushback.
“I think there will be a lot of people saying, ‘Can we improve this or change this,’ and I just think that’s how the process will play out,” said Markell.
It’s almost certain to get pushback from lawmakers and those on the State Employee Benefits Committee, who also have to slash current plan benefits to the tune of another $14 million for the proposal to work.
State budget director Ann Visalli says if left unchecked, the cost of existing benefits will balloon significantly over the next few years.
“By 2020, that cost will exceed $1 billion, so something clearly needed to be done, not only in the short term but also for the long term,” said Visalli.
Other initiatives include fully funding the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission plan for redrawing school district boundaries at $6 million.
And Markell is also putting $3 million toward boosting starting teacher pay.
Lawmakers will host early budget hearings beginning next week.
